April 17, 2007

The Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (BCB) Training Program hosted a group of students from Bennett College on April 10 to learn about bioinformatics, structural biology, and systems biology, and how these approaches are being used by researchers to answer cutting-edge biological problems. Located in Greensboro, NC, Bennett is one of only two historically Black colleges in the US exclusively for women. The visiting Bennett students are fellows in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) funded by the National Science Foundation. The overall goal of this program is to encourage African-American undergrads to pursue careers in computational science through various specialized activities including fieldtrips to major research institutions. During their visit to UNC, Bennett students were introduced to genomics and bioinformatics by Hemant Kelkar, Director of the UNC Bioinformatics Center. This was followed by a hands-on computer exercise in genome annotation conducted by BCB faculty member Todd Vision and SPIRE post-doctoral fellow Eric Ganko. The students were also given an introduction to structural biology along with a 3D visualization demonstration of protein structures by Brenda Temple, BCB faculty member and Director of the UNC Structural Bioinformatics Core Facility.  Two other faculty members, Nikolay Dokholyan and Tim Elston, gave presentations on their research interests, which focus on protein folding and systems biology, respectively.  This visit also provided Dr. Elston, as BCB Program Director, an opportunity to promote the BCB training program and encourage the students to think about careers in computational biology.