Research directions
Research focus. Molecular Biology and System Biology: several projects involving performing
computations with cells, scientifically demonstration of the fact that anything that can be
done in a silicon computer may also be done with bio-meter. This direction has resulted in
three grants being awarded to the department. The project director has a strong background
in this area; one of his papers has been chosen by the Thomson ISI as a fast breaking research
front and has received more than 300 citations.
The Biostatistics direction: development of a new segmentation method for DNA microarray which
aims to provide more accurate results than the current used methods is one of the several projects
implemented on Biostatistics, which started recently and was funded through National Plan for RDI.
Biomedicine direction: research cooperation in between more research teams for study of several
microscopic events from human body in order to understand the mechanism of some human diseases.
Another role of our department is an horizontal one: creation and maintenance of the institute
research database (research results of all departments, information on the potential producers and
processors in the projects areas, new technologies data, medicinal and aromatic plants data, etc).
Human resources. Our team has 9 researchers with background in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science
and Computational Analysis, Theoretical Physics and Statistics, out of which 4 are senior researchers
with doctoral degrees in Computer Science, Computational Analysis and Modelling, Theoretical Physics
and Statistics. They play also the mentor role for our young colleagues researchers throughout their
doctoral studies and support their integration into the research vision of the department, aiming
that by the end of their doctoral studies to turn to mature researchers skilled to conduct and perform
qualitative research.
The mission of the department is not only to conduct stand-alone research on the areas in which the
department members have expertise, but to partner with other departments inside of the Institute and
outside of it. By their nature, Bioinformatics and Biostatistics are areas that complement and support
a wide range of other disciplines, and the Bioanalysis, Cellular and Molecular Biology and Cytometry
and Cell Dynamics departments in the Institute constitute natural partners of the Bioinformatics department.
The partnership and support are going on two different axes, the vision of the Institute is for the
Bioinformatics, the Biotechnology & Bioproducts and the Bioanalysis departments to partner and collaborate
and together to support and develop the three main research directions that the Institute considers proprietary
directions: Biomedical Research, Agri-food Research and Environment & Biodiversity Research.
Achievements. Bioinformatics staff coordinated 7 big projects of a total of 2 mil euro, financed by CNCSIS,
ANCS or MDRL, public national authorities, and was involved in other over 10 projects awarded to other research
teams of the Institute. The department managed the most important project of the Institute during 2011.
Publications & patents. In the last four years we published over 28 research papers in journals and international
conference proceedings (9 papers in ISI Journals, 5 papers in international indexed databases and 14 papers in
proceedings of international conferences), have two registered patents, 5 books and 8 book chapters published in
national and international publishing houses (e.g. Chapman & Hall or Oxford University Press).
Prizes & Awards. In the last four years the Department staff was awarded several research projects, as project
directors, funded through the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation. Also, the senior researchers
from the department were involved as members in projects awarded to members of the other departments in the institutes,
which supports our earlier statement of a successful partnership among the institutes departments.