CAS-MPG Partner Institute
CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology
About the Institute
The Partner Institute for Computational Biology is legally and administratively an institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) . Organisationally, it belongs to the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS) , the largest CAS campus for biological sciences. However, the Institute has been modelled on the Max Planck institutes and, just like them, it is evaluated by an international Scientific Advisory Board once every two years, to ensure that the scientific work maintains a high quality.
The Institute is a pilot project for an institutional commitment by the Max Planck Society in China. During its start-up phase (2005−2012), a third of the funding will come from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Two thirds of the Institute’s budget will be provided by CAS. After 2012, the Max Planck Society will contribute with specific programmes geared to the promotion of junior scientists and scientific projects of the Max Planck institutes. CAS will assume the basic funding of the PICB.
Research areas
The Institute works at the interface between biology, theory and modelling. Special attention is given to the modelling of complex processes in molecular networks and cell systems using computer-assisted calculation methods. The simulation of complex cellular processes can lead to a deeper understanding of processes in human organs and also contribute to the development of new medications. The research scope is wide and touches upon fields such as evolutionary biology, genome analysis and population genetics, mathematics, statistics and the development of algorithms, as well as computer-assisted neurobiology.
Institute management/Directors
The Founding Director of the Institute in 2005 was mathematician Andreas Dress (Department of Combinatorics and Geometry). His main scientific interest, besides molecular evolution, is proteomics – the study of all proteins in cells, tissues or organisms.
On 1 September 2010, geneticist and bioinformatician HAN, Jingdong (Department of Molecular Systems Biology) succeeded her in this position. Having made essential contributions to the explanation of the protein-protein interaction network, her work now focuses on the study of gene networks which are important for the development and the ageing process of an organism.
Chinese population geneticist JIN Li (Department of Computational Genomics), who is also the Vice President of the renowned Fudan University in Shanghai, examines the molecular evolution of human populations. His goal is to identify the genetic basis of complex global human diseases.
Martin Vingron (Department of Regulatory Genomics), Director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, has been working as an Interim Director at PICB since 2006. He heads a group there that studies gene regulation, signal transduction, and gene networks.
Klaus Gerwert (Department of Biophysics) is the full-time head of the Department of Biophysics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Since 2009 he has been focusing on mechanisms that determine protein folding, protein reactions and interactions, as well as membrane bound protein networks.
