In order to help you and your students familiarise with the topic of computational biology, we have prepared a brief summary on the subject. We have added links to websites in which you can find more detailed information, and we have also collected some educational resources that you might find of use to support your classes.

Human protein interaction network

Statistics, maths, biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, anatomy, neuroscience, animation… these are just some of the fields included in computational biology. Computational biologists spend their time developing new sophisticated tools to study different biological, behavioural and social systems.

Scientists started to use biological data to develop mathematical relations among a range of biological systems in the early 1970s. However, it was not until a decade after that they started sharing big amounts of data, which required the development of new computational methods. And since the late 1990s, computational biology has become an essential part of the latest biology advancements.

The fields inside the field

Computational biology is a very broad term that can be subdivided in several disciplines. Below we have summarised just some of these disciplines, and we have linked them to educational resources that  your students might find useful:

Genome Explorer, one of the tools available at yourgenome.org

Computational genomics studies the genomes of different cells and organisms. The best example of this field is the Human Genome Project, which sequenced the entire human genome into a set of data that opened the possibility of personalised medicine. Yourgenome.org is the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s educational website around this topic.
 

Computational pharmacology uses genomic data to find links between specific genotypes and diseases in order to assist the screening of drug data. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are developing new computational methods that will help them compare chemical and genomic data related to the effectiveness of drugs.
 

Cell slider, a interactive tool to help scientist identify cancer cells

Cancer computational biology is composed of several areas that include determining tumours’ characteristics and analysing molecules and genomic patterns that relate to the causation of cancer. Cell Slider is an interactive online site in which the public analyse real cancer data. By getting as many people as possible to participate, more samples will be analysed, leaving scientists with more free time to carry out other cancer research.
 

The tree of life, from the Natural History Museum

Computational evolutionary biology uses DNA data to track or even predict evolutionary changes of species over time, among other purposes. Computational evolutionary biology is often used to draw more accurate evolution trees. In this link from the Natural History Museum you will find a simple and interactive Tree of Life.
 

Eyewire, a game to help scientists understand brain connections.

Computational neuroscience studies how electrical and chemical signals are used in the brain to represent and process information. Today, a large scientific research project called Human Brain Project, funded by the European Union aims to simulate the whole human brain on supercomputers in order to gain a better understanding of how it functions. Eyewire is a game in which players help scientist figure out how the brain is wired, starting from the nerves in the back of the eye.

 
Computational systems biology involves the use of computer simulations of biological systems – including cellular systems, multicellular organisms, ecological models or even models of infectious disease – in order to analyse and visualise the complex connections of the processes that take place within each system. Plague Inc. is a game that uses an epidemic model with a realistic set of variables to simulate the spread of a plague. Playing this game will help your students learn how computer models can be a useful tool to predict the outcomes of certain changes in a given ecosystem. They will also understand the basic concepts of epidemiology.

 
If you are aware of any other resources or useful information that we could link here, please contact us. We will be updating the site periodically to include up to date information and educational materials.

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