Increasingly complex biological problems and extremely large biological data sets have necessitated new approaches to answer many of today’s current research challenges and tackle emerging questions in biology not amenable to traditional approaches.  As one of the fields in the “New Biologies”, Computational and Systems Biology (CSB) encompasses an interdisciplinary approach that harnesses the power of computation and systems-level analyses to formulate and solve critical biological problems.  These research programs within CSB also synergize and collaborate with the extensive basic and clinical research programs at the University of Pittsburgh and across the globe.  Concomitant with our research foci, CSB is also a leader in educating and training all levels of emerging and nascent scientists, who will continue this work and identify and tackle new biological problems of the next generation.

The Lee lab develop a dynamic stimulation system to probe signal transduction networks in single cells
Using open-source parts and 3D-printed components, the Lee lab develops a robotic system for mammalian cell cultures that accurately reproduces user-defined... (read more)

Weiguang Mao and Dr. Maria Chikina Publish in Nature Methods
We present pathway-level information extractor (PLIER), a broadly applicable solution for this problem that outperforms available cell proportion inference algorithms... (read more)

Dr. Joseph Ayoob Named NRMN Mentor of the Month
Dr. Joeseph Ayoob was named as the National Research Mentoring Network Mentor of the Month for July 2019, where he is also one of only four NRMN’s Master Mentors.  Dr. Ayoob is an... (read more)

Carvunis Lab publishes review on De Novo Gene Birth in PLOS Genetics
Drs. Branden Van Oss and Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis review the field of de novo gene birth in their new PLOS Genetics Topic Page article. As part of the Topic Page initiative, the journal article also seeds a new Wikipedia page on the topic. (read more)

A collaboration betwen the labs of Drs. Xing and Sant (Pharmacy) leads to publication in Cancer Research
Targeting microenvironmental factors that foster migratory cell phenotypes is a promising strategy for halting tumor migration. However, lack of mechanistic understanding of the emergence of migratory phenotypes impedes pharmaceutical drug (read more)

Machine learning model can help reduce follow up screenings to 28% of people with benign nodules
A new machine learning model, developed in the Benos lab, can help reduce the unnecessary follow up screenings to people with benign nodules detected in low-dose CT scans by 28%. (read more)

Dr. Xing (PI) and Dr. Simon Watkins (co-I) receive R01 award from NIDDK
Kidney fibrosis is slowly-developing, largely irreversible process that accompanies all chronic kidney diseases. The team will use mathematical modeling and quantitative imaging approaches to study how the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and... (read more)

Healthcare Startup SpIntellx Officially Launches
SpIntellx has officially launched as a computational pathology company applying its proprietary AI technologies to analyze whole slide images based on spatial analytics. (read more)

Jintao Liu (Tsinghua University) received a 2018 Outstanding Young Scholar Award at the 2018 Annual Qiu Shi Awards Ceremony this past weekend at the University of Science and Technology of China. A total of twelve young scholars were presented with the award for having made outstanding achievements in areas such as new condensed theoretical physic...

Dr. Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis receives 2018 Trailblazer Award
Congratulations to Dr. Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis for being a recipient of a 2018 Trailblazer Award from... (read more)