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.

Robin Lee, Rachel Gottschalk, and Agustin Cruz Awarded AAI Intersect Fellowship
The American Association of Immunologists(AAI) awarded Drs. J. Agustin Cruz and Robin E.C. Lee the Intersect Fellowship 2020. Dr. Cruz holds a PhD in Immunology and has been working for the past two years as a postdoctoral associate... (read more)

Sanjana Gupta received the DCSB Best Student of the Year Award for 2019 at the CSB Annual Appreciation lunch
Sanjana Gupta received the DCSB Best PhD Student of the Year Award for 2019 at the CSB Annual Appreciation lunch held at the University Club on Pitt’s Oakland campus, December 4, 2019. She was nominated by her co-advisors, Dr. James R. Faeder and Dr. Robin E.C. Lee for her current work on addressing the question of parameterization... (read more)

Koes Lab Members Win NCATS ASPIRE Challenge
Dr. Koes and his lab members were among the winners of the NCATS ASPIRE 2018 Award for the following project... (read more)

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)