biomedical sciences research institute - Research - University of Ulster

11. SYSTEMS BIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUPThe strategy of the Systems Biology Research Group (SBRG) is focused on the bioinformatics and computationalelements of the now strongly growing interdisciplinary field of systems biology. Systems biology is defined as “thequantitative analysis of the dynamic interactions between several components of a biological system and aims to understand thebehaviour of the system as a whole. It applies the concepts and methodologies of systems theory and engineering to the studyof complex biological systems through iteration between computational and mathematical modelling and experimentation.Systems Biology is a tool to increase understanding of the system, to develop more directed experiments and finally allowpredictions”.This strategic view on the Group’s research aligns well with national and international priorities. Complementing thisresearch strategy, academic members of the Group are currently in the process to develop a basic teaching coursein systems biology. As personalized medicine seems to find its way into national and international research agendas,first steps have been taken to explore this dimension in the context of systems biology.The main research themes investigated by the SBRG, include modelling of interactions in kinase/phosphatase systems;modelling and simulation of gene regulatory networks; qualitative modelling of the bile acid and xenobiotic system;computational study of the genetic causes of LQT syndrome; and various aspects of management and analysis ofbiological information.In the reporting period, members of the Group published a considerable number of articles in high-calibre internationaljournals and conferences (some of which were included in the 2008 RAE submission) and was awarded considerablelevels of research grants. The Group has also consolidated its research partner network nationally and internationally,including renowned organizations such as the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; the Haifa Institute ofTechnology, Israel; Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Republic of Korea. Some membersof the Group have been members of international advisory boards and journal editorial boards.The Group has 5 dual processor servers that provide Web services and content-management software, groupware,file and database services (Oracle Enterprise server 10G) as well as Grid services (Globus and CONDOR). Forlarge-scale computing tasks, there is a 64-way Itanium Altix 3700 supercomputer with 128GB of addressable memoryand 8 TB of disk storage. Projects using this system range from protein-unfolding simulations to tracing of stainedstructures in large image stacks.98