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| A New Southern California Los Angeles, CA  Jamil Momand, assistant professor of biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles, was recently awarded a four-year grant (totaling nearly $700,000) from a joint National Science Foundation-National Institutes of Health sponsored program to start a new Southern California Bioinformatics Summer Institute (SoCal-BSI) on the Cal State L.A. campus. Principal Investigator Momand explains, ÂThis was a highly competitive award and nine campuses nationwide were awarded. Among the other awardees are MIT and Clemson University. Additionally, the co-principal investigators on the award include professors Nancy Warter-Perez (Electrical Engineering, Cal State L.A.), Sandra Sharp (Biological Sciences, Cal State L.A.), and Wendie Johnston (Biological Technologies, Pasadena City College). The mission of the SoCal-BSI at Cal State L.A. is to identify and educate college students for a successful career in bioinformatics. The SoCal-BSI will offer lectures, workshops, research training, and career counseling to selected college students in this fast growing field. Students with a background in molecular life sciences and/or computer sciences and who have completed their second year of college but have not entered their third year of graduate school are welcome to apply. The summer program is scheduled to begin Monday, June 23, 2003, and run through Friday, August 29, 2003. (An online application form will be available by mid-December.) ÂCurrent professional bioinformaticists generally fall into one of two categories: those that use existing software programs to address molecular life science issues and those that develop new software programs. It is the view of the SoCal-BSI that students equipped with both user and developer skills will make the greatest impact on science, Momand elaborates. ÂWith this in mind, the SoCal-BSI will train students to be proficient at using existing bioinformatics software programs and at developing bioinformatics programs on their own. Through this new institute, students will be provided with internships to perform bioinformatics research at an academic research institute or at a bioinformatics company in the Southern California area. In this research environment they will apply the knowledge gained from the didactic training portion of the course. Students may apply for a second year at the SoCal-BSI in which they will receive more advanced training in bioinformatics. Momand adds, ÂIt is the overall goal of the SoCal-BSI to provide students with the motivation and intellectual tools to pursue a successful career in bioinformatics. Bioinformatics: The use of computers in solving information problems in the life sciences, mainly, it involves the creation of extensive electronic databases on genomes, protein sequences, etc. Secondarily, it involves techniques such as the three-dimensional modeling of biomolecules and biologic systems. (Source: On-line Medical Dictionary, © 1997-98 Academic Medical Publishing & CancerWEB)
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