Quantitative Biology: a Graduate Curriculum Linking the Physical and Biomedical S

描述（由申请人提供）：上世纪下半叶产生了关于生命的细胞和分子过程的惊人的信息财富。这些数据的数量和质量正在引领生物医学科学的一种新的思维模式，这种思维模式严重依赖于数学和计算工具以及严格的定量实验方法。越来越多的分析工具和实验方法不是在生命科学中自行开发的，而是从物理科学的研究中采用的。这个美丽的新世界需要一种新型的研究人员，一种能够在实验台和工作站之间轻松移动的研究人员，一种既能自如地使用显微镜，又能自如地进行模拟的研究人员，一种能够自然而然地建立定量模型，并通过设计同样定量的实验来检验模型的研究人员。布兰迪斯大学的定量生物学（QB）项目汇集了来自四个科学系的六个不同的博士项目，以培养能够应对这一跨学科挑战的学生。QB是布兰迪斯大学正式的跨部门研究生项目，刚刚完成了第二个完整学年的运营；该项目目前有21名在校生。四分卫利用

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The second half of the last century produced a staggering wealth of information about the cellular and molecular processes of life. The quantity and quality of this data is ushering in a new mode of thinking in the biomedical sciences that relies heavily on mathematical and computational tools and on rigorous quantitative experimental methods. With increasing frequency, the analytical tools and experimental methods are not home grown within the life sciences, but are adopted from research in the physical sciences. This brave new world requires a new kind of researcher, one who easily moves between the bench and the workstation, one who is equally at ease with running microscopes as with running simulations, and one for whom building quantitative models and testing them by designing equally quantitative experiments comes naturally. The Quantitative Biology (QB) Program at Brandeis University brings together six different Ph.D. programs from four science departments in order to train students who can rise to this interdisciplinary challenge. QB is an official interdepartmental graduate program at Brandeis that has just completed its second full academic year of operation; the program currently has 21 enrolled students. QB leverages the strengths of existing disciplinary Ph.D. programs at Brandeis by bringing together students from these programs in a specialized curriculum that is designed to take advantage of the learning opportunities afforded by training in multi-disciplinary groups. Students admitted to graduate study in the Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology, Chemistry, Molecular & Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, or Physics Ph.D. programs and who choose the QB track will, upon successful completion, receive a Ph.D. degree in their chosen discipline "with an additional specialization in Quantitative Biology". This approach provides the students with modern discipline-bridging training while providing the graduate with a Ph.D. credential that has proven value on the job market because it is in a recognized traditional discipline. Students typically enter the QB program in either the first or second years of their Ph.D. studies and remain affiliated with QB until they graduate. Each student selected for support by the training grant will be supported during years 2 and 3 of their studies. RELEVANCE: The goal of the Quantitative Biology program is to train Ph.D. scientists who are well equipped to bring quantitative experimental, computational, and mathematical methods from Physics and Chemistry to bear on important problems in biomedical research. It is anticipated that the work of these scientists will lead to improvements in public health by advancing basic research in directions that are not readily accessible to scientists who lack interdisciplinary training.