Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

This BCB branch supports research on biomedical informatics and computational approaches that

  • join biology with the computer sciences, engineering, mathematics, biostatistics and physics; and
  • have potential broad applicability and usage by the biomedical research community.

Areas of emphasis in BCB-supported research include health informatics, development of computational software and tools, statistical approaches, and modeling techniques to study the complexity of biological systems at scales ranging from atomic to populations. This branch also supports modeling of infectious disease spread that adheres to NIGMS mission, as well as mathematical innovations for understanding basic biological and biomedical processes through the BioMath program with the National Science Foundation.

Systems Biology. Three dimensional simulation of vascular tumor growth using a multiscale model. The blood vessels (sprouts) are shown in green and anastomosed (yellow). Credit: Arthur Lander, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Irvine Network visualization by Cytoscape, an open source software platform for visualizing molecular networks and biological pathways. Project Tycho heat map of infectious disease demonstrating impact of vaccination. This is an image of cellular microphysiciology using Monte Carlo Cell (MCell) technology. MCell is a program that uses spatially realistic 3-D cellular models and specialized algorithms to simulate the movements and reactions of molecules within and between cells.

Program Areas

​​ Health Informatics

Bioinformatics, Software and Tools

Biostatistics

Multi-scale Modeling

Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS)

BioMath (NSF/NIGMS)

Additional Information

Division Staff Contacts

For more information about bioinformatics and computational biology programs, contact:

Jean Yuan, Ph.D.
Branch Chief, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Branch
Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
National Institutes of Health
45 Center Drive MSC 6200
Bethesda, MD 20892-6200​​