Graduate Training in Computational and Systems Biology

描述(由申请者提供)：目标是继续发展麻省理工学院计算和系统生物学(CSB)的跨学科博士前培训计划，该计划旨在培养学生成为生物、计算和工程领域的生物医学研究的领导者。CSB是麻省理工学院对计算和系统生物学感兴趣的学生的主要培训项目，也是唯一强调该领域跨学科培训和研究的项目。项目教职员工集中在三个方面 创始系-生物工程(BE)、生物学和电气工程与计算机科学(EECS)-其他系的教员参与。培训教师的研究兴趣涵盖与CSB相关的广泛领域，包括计算分子生物学/调控基因组学和进化、分子和细胞生物物理学、癌症和其他疾病的系统生物学、蛋白质组学、微生物生态学、生物成像、蛋白质设计/工程、合成生物学、微流体/生物微机械系统和毒物基因组学。这项建议旨在显著扩大培训教员队伍，包括过去5年新聘用的9名在该领域拥有活跃研究计划的教员。学生直接从本科或硕士院校申请CSB博士项目，并接受计算和系统生物学领域的多学科和跨学科培训。该提案寻求12个名额，以支持博士学位头两年的6名学生，从而延长研究轮换和参与特殊项目活动的时间。该计划的独特之处包括：(A)科学和工程领域的研究领域异常多样化，拥有高度协作的跨学科教师；(B)最近开发的结合了生物学、工程学、统计学和计算的独特核心跨学科课堂主题；(C)密集的咨询和多学科论文委员会，以优化不同学术背景的学生的培训体验；(D)学生和教职员工参加的年度务虚会，重点关注研究、领导力和跨学科研究的挑战。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective is to continue development of MIT's interdisciplinary predoctoral training program in Computational and Systems Biology (CSB), which trains students to become leaders in biomedical research at the interface of biology, computation and engineering. CSB is the primary training program at MIT for students interested in computational and systems biology and is the only program that emphasizes interdisciplinary training and research in the field. Program faculty are concentrated in the three founding departments - Biological Engineering (BE), Biology, and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) - with additional involvement of faculty from other departments. Training faculty research interests span a wide range of CSB- related areas including computational molecular biology/regulatory genomics and evolution, molecular and cellular biophysics, systems biology of cancer and other diseases, proteomics, microbial ecology, bioimaging, protein design/engineering, synthetic biology, microfluidics/Bio-MEMS, and toxicogenomics. This proposal seeks to expand the pool of training faculty significantly, including 9 faculty newly hired in the past 5 years who have active research programs in the field. Students apply directly to the CSB Ph.D. program from their undergraduate or Master's institution and receive multi- and inter-disciplinary training in the field of computational and systems biology. The proposal seeks 12 slots to support 6 students for the first two years of the Ph.D., enabling extended research rotations and participation in special program activities. Unique aspects of the program include: (a) unusually diverse collection of research areas across science and engineering, with highly collaborative interdisciplinary faculty; (b) a unique core of recently developed, interdisciplinary classroom subjects that combine biology, engineering, statistics and computation; (c) intensive advising and multi- disciplinary thesis committees to optimize the training experience for students from diverse academic backgrounds; (d) an annual retreat with participation of students and faculty focusing on research, leadership, and challenges to interdisciplinary research.