This summer, the Board of Regents approved the formation of a new major in bioinformatics and computational biology, which will officially be launched in fall 2007.

The field of bioinformatics and computational biology takes advantage of computational, mathematical and statistical analysis tools in order to understand biological questions, said Drena Dobbs, professor of genetics, development and cell biology.

Dobbs was involved in the organizational committee for the new undergraduate major, and she was also the first chairwoman of the graduate program in the same field.

She said the human genome project and the sequencing of other genomes has provided knowledge that is very useful to the field, which is growing in demand.

In 2000, the graduate program was incorporated into the fabric of Iowa State, and because of the rise in demand in the field, the undergraduate program followed.

Dobbs said the growing need for professionals in this field is similar to what occurred approximately 30 years ago in the field of microbiology.

“Students who study the program will take courses not only in biochemistry and math, but also in computer science, statistics and artificial intelligence within the field of computer science,” Dobbs said.

The pharmaceutical industry is particularly interested in graduates who have had training in these areas, Dobbs said, because one area of focus in the field is the computational structure of drugs.

One practical dimension of the research is the ability to identify differences in the human genome that make people either particularly susceptible or particularly resistant to such things as cancer, she said.

Stephen Willson, professor of mathematics, will be the chairman of the new department.

Students interested in the major may begin taking classes in fall 2007, even though the program will not be officially available until the following fall semester.

“The BCB undergraduate program is a natural outgrowth of the highly successful interdepartmental BCB graduate program at ISU,” said Vasant Honavar, a professor of computer science and involved in developing the new major.

Honavar said students interested in the field should have strong analytical skills, an inquisitive personality, and a willingness to learn mathematics and computer science in addition to biology.

“I expect the BCB program to offer a challenging, but extremely rewarding, undergraduate experience,” Honavar said.