Press Release

The Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine (CIBM) Training Program at UW-Madison has been awarded a $5 million grant from the National Library of Medicine to extend its training program for bioinformatics at UW-Madison for five years. This program is producing the next generation of computer researchers addressing biomedical problems. This training program is one of just 19 institutional training programs in biomedical informatics in the U.S. The 41 CIBM faculty span 15 different departments and five colleges at UW-Madison as well as several faculty at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation (located about 100 miles north of Madison).

CIBM focuses on the development of novel bioinformatics algorithms to analyze molecular data, including genome sequences, proteins (levels, interactions, structures), and regulatory pathways. New tools for imaging, genetic analysis, and health delivery systems will result. In its second five-year period, the CIBM Program is adding a unique translational molecules-to-bedside medicine component. In a collaboration with the Marshfield Clinic, CIBM trainees have the added opportunity to develop algorithms to predict clinical parameters, such as disease susceptibility or treatment response, from combined molecular and clinical data.

The faculty of the CIBM Training Program’s Management Committee include:
-Fred Blattner, Genetics
-Patricia Brennan, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Biostatistics & Medical
Informatics, and the School of Nursing
-Mark Craven, Biostatistics & Medical Informatics and Computer Sciences
-David Page, Co-Director; Biostatistics & Medical Informatics and Computer
Sciences
-George Phillips, Jr., Director; Biochemistry and Computer Sciences
-Jude Shavlik, Co-Director; Computer Sciences and Biostatistics & Medical
Informatics
-Justin Starren, Director of Biomedical Informatics Research Center, Marshfield
Clinic Research Foundation

The National Library of Medicine grant for training in biomedical informatics will fund 14 predoctoral and 4 postdoctoral traineeships at UW-Madison per year. Since its inception in 2002, the program has supported 35 individual predoctoral and 10 postdoctoral trainees.

Biomedical informatics studies the collection, organization and application of information in health care and medical research. There are many different sub-fields within the broader field of biomedical informatics. These sub-fields use similar techniques and tools but apply them to different problem areas. Bioinformatics focuses on molecules, cells and the interactions between them. This includes studies of genomics, gene-gene interactions, gene-protein interactions, and regulatory networks. Imaging Informatics (also called structural or systems informatics) focuses at the level of organs and organ systems. Clinical Informatics focuses at the level of the individual. Work in Clinical Informatics includes the development of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Decision Support Systems (DSS), standardized vocabularies for storing medical information, as well as standards for interoperability between different clinical systems. Public Health Informatics focuses at the level of populations. This includes computerized disease surveillance systems, vaccine registries, systems for disaster management and tools to educate patients. Translations Informatics is a newer sub-field that focuses on moving new discoveries from the laboratory into routine clinical care faster. Systems to improve clinical research are included in Translational Informatics.

CIBM gratefully acknowledges additional support from the UW Graduate School, the Department of Biochemistry and from the Genome Center of Wisconsin, which also is the administrative home of the program. A press release from the National Library of Medicine describes their biomedical informatics training program as a whole (<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/press_releases/award_info_res_training06.html>).

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File last modified: August 13, 2003
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