1. Lawrence Hunter, Ph.D., Director Computational Bioscience Program UCHSC School of Medicine http://compbio.uchsc.edu Larry.Hunter@uchsc.edu Mathematics and Post-Genomic Biology

2. Biology has changed Biology is on the popular mind more than chemistry & physics these days Students don’t choose to study biology because they “like science but not the math” anymore...

3. Data Poor → Data Rich Not long ago, it could take a lifetime to gather even a small dataset relevant to understanding a living system… Growth of PDB

4. Post-Genomic Instruments High throughput SNP genotyping automation $0.01/SNP and dropping fast Expression array “chips” 15,000+ genes/chip at $500/chip (and falling!) LC/MS/MS proteomics Gigabyte / day of spectra!

5. Biology’s “New Math” Calculus matters, but less than in physics or chemistry… Discrete math has a dramatically more important role, e.g. in sequence analysis and genetics Due to its less “law-like” nature, understanding statistical inference is a critical basic skill for nearly all biology

6. Lots of REAL data available free on the web Students can do REAL scientific projects www.rcsb.org/pdb metacyc.org www.uchsc.edu/sm/chswww.rcsb.org/pdb

7. Great Web Resources

8. New relevance opportunities Based on news stories –Gene discoveries –Crime / DNA identification –Epidemics Related to teen concerns –Genetics and sports / beauty –HIV / AIDS –Drugs, alcohol & tobacco http://www.gmathletes.net/

9. Graphs & Cycles Molecular biology is inherently network-y –Metabolism, Signaling and Regulatory networks –Functional/Semantic links –Evolutionary relationships Other levels, too –Global carbon cycles –Neurons & synapses

10. Genomic Combinations Humans have 40,877 proteins (a total of 18,311,133 amino acids); If the 20 characters are randomly distributed, what is the probability of seeing any particular 4 letter sequence? An 11 letter one?

11. Drugs and Receptors Geometry of interactions Receptor binding and pharmacodynamics Drug trials, safety and data interpretation HIV protease bound to Ritonavir http://www.mc.uky.edu/pharmacology/instruction/pha824mp

12. Teamwork Team science is growing in importance. Teams can work in teaching, too. –Coordination between teachers of math and biology – Student teams doing complementary problems –Researcher / industry partnerships with schools, students and teachers http://www.succcessstories.com

13. You have a critical role! Good jobs are available for people with math and biology skills, at all levels –Health care, especially nursing –Biotech industry –Pharmaceuticals & pharmacists Math/bio is an increasingly important competence for consumers & citizens –Informed patients get better health care –Public debates on epidemics, genetic modifications, etc.