Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Core Facility

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Core Facility

The University of Texas Health Science Center

and the University of Texas San Antonio

The University of Texas Health Science Center

and the University of Texas San Antonio

PurposePurpose

To build infrastructure to significantly advance collaborative bioscience research in San Antonio

To build infrastructure to significantly advance collaborative bioscience research in San Antonio

SignificanceSignificance

The healthcare and biotechnology lead the San Antonio economy: Annual economic impact of $11.5 billion Employs more than 98,000 citizens

With the South Texas Medical Center and more than 30 other medical facilities, San Antonio has become a leading research and treatment center for: Cancer Diabetes Heart disease Lupus

Burgeoning biotechnology development base

Program Objectives

Foster the use of state-of-the-art core computational and analytic facilities

Enhance local expertise in San Antonio Consult with outside experts Develop training opportunities

Bring in new talent

Implications

This program can have positive scientific, educational, and economic impact for the San Antonio university components as well other partner organizations

We can further capitalize on the existing partnership between UTHSCSA and UTSA (SALSI, new Ph.D. in Biostatistics/Bioinformatics)

UTHSCSA-UTSA Bioinformatics/Computational Biology Program

AdministrationPollock, Bower

Internal Advisory

Committee

External Advisory

Committee

Scientific Users

Committee

Management Work Group

Core Facilities

Support Unit

AnalysisUnit

Visualization Unit

Modeling Unit

Training Work Group

SoftwareSupport

HardwareSupport

Scientific Liaison Positions Three Scientific Liaison positions are currently being

recruited Research faculty positions (Ph.D.-level) requiring

significant experience in both experimental and computational biology

Primary responsibility is to foster development and application of applied computational methodologies within existing individual laboratories and research programs at UTHSCSA and UTSA

Liaisons are expected to work with several different labs on: Experimental design Development of analysis plans Identification of training needs in computational techniques

Bioinformatics/Computational BiologyCore Facility

Bioinformatics/Computational BiologyCore Facility

Zhiwei Wang, DirectorZhiwei Wang, Director

Core Facility Objectives To provide resources to increase the use of

computational methods in biology

To maintain highly useable computing resources

To provide mass data storage

To provide user support for all of the major software packages for computational biology and bioinformatics

Computing and Data Storage Resources

Three Dell 670 workstations (dual-CPU, 6G memory) and one Apple’s Power G5 (dual-CPU, 8G memory)

SUN E2900 Midrange server (12 CPUs, 96G memory)

The Sun StorEdge 3511(6 Terabytes)

The Sun StorEdge L100 tape library (40 Terabytes)

10 SUN Ultra 20 workstations

Software and Training

The facility licenses expensive software packages to share among the researchers. So far, we have MATLAB, GeneSpring, Igor, etc.

The facility provides support for free software.

A series of training sessions have been scheduled after the grand opening of the Core Facility, including AffyMetrix, GeneSpring, etc.

Data Storage Service

The data storage service will be provided via NFS, SMB and web-based drag and drop (UTHSCSA Virtual).

Cross-campus traffic will be encrypted to ensure the privacy of the data.

Recent Development

Moved in the new building at UTSA

“Grand Opening”

March 22nd from 5:00 – 7:00 PM

Biotechnology Science & Engineering Building (BSE) Room 3.114, UTSA