About the Department
Advances in biomedicine depend upon innovative approaches that are capable of recognizing complex associations in increasingly higher-dimensional data. Providing this innovation is the core task of bioinformatics. Previously understood as the computational branch of genetics and genomics, bioinformatics is fast becoming an overarching science of biomedical information processing. The Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics seeks to generate the intellectual and technical infrastructure required to integrate vastly diverse data types into models for the purpose of i) explaining biomedical processes from the molecular to the human scale and ii) predicting future outcomes of process interventions from current observations.
The foundation of our Department’s research programs is mathematics and computer science. Within our own labs and in collaborations across campus, we also engage in the development of experiments that enable and amplify the explanatory and predictive power of our computational models. Our Department is therefore home to theoreticians and experimentalists alike, who share a passion for the scientific exploration of uncharted territory in biomedicine through mathematical formalism and computation. BioHPC, a world-class academic computing facility, is housed within our Department and employs a team of scientists dedicated to enabling computationally-driven research in the environment of a major academic medical center. In Spring 2021, the Department also integrated the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Systems Biology, which focuses on probing, modeling and programming of genetic and molecular circuits in cancer and bacteria.
Our Culture
Our Department strives for teamwork and team-education. Organized around the grant-funded research programs of our faculty, we generate platforms for cross-departmental and cross-institutional research and training. All members of our Department benefit from a climate of openness, peer-to-peer support, a minimally hierarchical structure, and the belief in collective excellence.
All members of our Department have decided to stay in an academic environment for the beauty of making unbounded discoveries. The feeling of observing a data point for the first time or having an epiphany of a concept no one else has ever thought through is priceless. Yet, money matters. This is especially true for our postdoc community, where many individuals have responsibilities outside of the research environment, including families of their own. We therefore seek to provide internationally competitive postdoctoral compensation. As of September 1, 2023, a first year postdoc will earn an annual base salary of $70,000 (see our updated postdoc pay plan). We also believe that striving for excellence belongs to a research culture and must be recognized. Our pay plan thus provides postdocs with an independent, competitive fellowship bonus payment of > $20,000 on top of their annual base salary. With this pay plan, we intend that a fifth-year postdoc, awarded for example with a K99-grant, crosses the threshold into receiving a six-figure salary. Moreover, we provide additional bonus mechanisms for postdocs engaged in teaching opportunities. Together, this shall become a springboard for our trainees into leadership positions in academia or industry.
Department News
Train the Trainers
From 9/23/2024 to 10/5/2024, we are hosting an intensive workshop designed to equip staff in select academic microscopy core facilities to adopt CCSA's technologies for imaging and analyzing cellular signal transduction and transfer the know-how to their user groups. The goal of this program is to open a long-term bi-directional dialogue between technology developers, disseminators, and appliers that will empower the cell biology research community. CCSA is the UTSW-UNC Center for Cell Signaling Analysis funded by NIH RM1GM145399.
Seated: Dr. Bingying Chen.
If affiliation not specified, individuals are UT Southwestern personnel.
International Guests
We hosted a delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee from the Swiss Parliament on 5/9/2024. Our Chair, Dr. Gaudenz Danuser & one of our PostDocs, Dr. Stephan Daetwyler presented latest innovations in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology along with their experiences as Swiss expat researchers (both trained at ETH Zurich). The Committee was highly engaged with our Science and had a very stimulating Q & A session.
Special thanks to Katie Frederick of our UTSW A. W. Harris Faculty Club for providing a superb breakfast!
