ComBi
The graduate school in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Biometry (ComBi) is a postgraduate programme jointly offered by the universities of Helsinki , Turku and Tampere and Helsinki University of Technology. The Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki coordinates the school. The research goal of ComBi is to develop computational, mathematical and statistical methods for biological sciences. To that end, ComBi will educate PhDs with high-quality methodological expertise. In their thesis work, the students are expected to apply this expertise to computational, data-analysis or modelling problems in biology or related fields. The thesis projects are carried out in cooperation with one or more research groups in the application area (such as bio-chemistry, molecular biology, genetics and genetic engineering, ecology, evolution research and systematics, geography, and public health).
Computational biology is a field of research that develops methods for computational problems in molecular biology, molecular genetics and biotechnology. Bioinformatics refers to the development and use of (molecular) biological databases. Biometry investigates statistical modelling problems related to genetic mapping, for example, or to the genetic and environmental risk factors of complex diseases, or to the spreading of infectious diseases. Further topics include population dynamics and numerical taxonomy of ecological and genetic phenomena.
In 2006, a total of 29 graduates participated in ComBi. Of them, 10 were foreigners (34 %) and 12 were female (41 %). ComBi participated in numerous international courses and conferences. ComBi is one of the co-founders of a European congress series for post-graduates, BREW (Bioinformatics Research and Education Workshop), which met for the fifth time in the UK in April. During 2006, five ComBi graduate students defended their PhD theses.
Contact person: University Lecturer Heikki Lokki
Website: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/combi/