The CGB is an experiment that began five years ago when enlightened IU administrators recognized the need to create a home at IUB for global, interdisciplinary work in genomics and bioinformatics.

Here are some passages from the original CGB proposal:

During the past half century the pace of change in the life sciences has been staggering. In this respect, developments in genomics and bioinformatics are entirely typical. Ten years ago, the first glimpses of large-scale projects with compendious goals were visionary. Today both fields play prominent roles in leading-edge investigations in most areas of genetics and biochemistry and they have become the centerpieces of biomedical and bioagricultural developments in industry. It appears as certain as such things can ever be that, within a few years investigations that aspire to global scope will have become the standard for life sciences research of the first rank.

. . .genomics and bioinformatics benefit from interactions between life scientists and colleagues in the physical sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics. The role for physical scientists in developing the technology is obvious. What may be less clear is the enormous potential for new insights in the still embryonic art of interpreting the voluminous and complex results that emerge (the area that granting agencies have dubbed the study of "complexity"). . . In this connection we expect that an initiative at IUB will seek to encourage rich contacts with scientists at the Gill Center and in the Departments of Physics and Computer Science. . .Finally, we simply note here the potential for contacts and coordination with the new School of Informatics.

In our opinion, the best plans envision research centers that can serve several functions: (a) Through collaborations with departmental faculty they can facilitate the application of existing technology to current research problems; (b) By their influence and expertise they can serve as resources, continuously informing the scientific community of the state-of-the-art; and, (c) By independent technical investigations and collaborations with interested faculty, they can strive to advance that art -- and maintain their leadership. As important by-products, centers like these can adapt (or be adapted) comparatively quickly to changing conditions, and, without taxing the limited pool of tenure-track positions, they can enrich the scientific community with young investigators working at the leading edge of still relatively undefined fields. In short, they are models of how we can respond to compelling, fast-changing, and interdisciplinary research challenges.

This proposal describes such a Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics (CGB) for IUB. It envisions a Center directed by faculty, but operated by non-faculty scientists at a variety of levels, supported initially largely by University funds but eventually by funds derived from grants and contracts.

On these web pages you can learn how we in the CGB have attempted to realize these goals. From a personal point of view I'll simply note the satisfaction of observing - at a recent CGB job seminar - an audience that included faculty and students from the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Psychology and from the Schools of Informatics and Medicine.

Peter Cherbas

August, 2005

This website will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it has been designed so that it is still usable and accessible to any browser or web-enabled device.