Center for Theoretical Biological Physics

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Biological physics is rapidly emerging as a new major new frontier for science in the 21st century. This field involves a cross-fertilization of ideas and methods from biology and biochemistry on the one hand and the physics of comple systems on the other. Its goals are to both develop the conceptual underpinnings of a new and more quantitative biology as well as to expand our notions of complex matter physics by learning from evolution. The center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP), located at UC San Diego and with the participation of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, will act as a focal point for this emerging discipline. The CTBP will utilize the broad expertise of this La Jolla-based community to pioneer new approaches to a whole variety of critical issues, including the evolution and functioning of genetic regulatory networks, the specificity of protein-protein interactions, the dynamic control of cell motility and the synaptic mechanisms underlying learning. A complementary set of activities focused on developing state-of-the-art computational methods in support of biological physics is being funded by an ITR grant. Training at multiple levels, from undergraduate up to senior investigator, will be integrated directly into the CTBP's research efforts; this is particularly necessary for biological physics, as it is inherently cross-disciplinary and inherently requires close and continual contact between theory and experiment. Our success will be measured both by the specific research accomplishments of our members and visitors and by the overall effect will have in fostering the nationwide growth and coherence of this immensely exciting field of physics research. The CTBP is jointly funded by the Division of Physics in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate and the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biological Sciences.