Biotech future to wed biology, computers

One day, doctors will use a computer to
see your genetic makeup, predict what diseases you’re likely to get
later in life and give you personalized drugs to prevent them from
catching up to you.

By Jennifer Beauprez
Denver Post Business Writer

That’s the
future
experts in
biotechnology
predict, as
the industry
shifts from
one that was
dependent on
chemistry to
one that is
centered on
information
technology.

But right now,
few people
have the
technical
skills in
computers,
math and
biology to get
us there. The University of Colorado at Denver is working to solve
that problem.

CU has created three new advanced-degree programs to handle
the expected workforce shortage in a new field of bioinformatics,
which uses computers and mathematical algorithms to analyze
genetic information. Another certificate program is aimed at people
with technical backgrounds who might want to redirect their
career in biotech.

Historically, training for biologists excluded math and science.
Conversely, most engineers and computer scientists lack
knowledge about biology.

"We are woefully underprepared as a nation – we just don’t have
enough people in the pipeline," said Larry Hunter, director of CU’s
center for computational pharmacology at the School of Medicine in
Denver.

"In the last weeks to months, a lot of people have gotten on this
bioinformatics train, and it has gotten a lot of momentum," he said.

The hype over bioinformatics began after scientists mapped the
human genome two years ago. Now massive computing power is
needed to store and analyze the reams of genetic data and to
come up with new drugs and, someday, personalized medicine.

"We’re in the middle of a revolution here, but most of the lay people
don’t know it," said Harvey Greenberg, a mathematics professor
who is leading the bioinformatics programs at CU-Denver.

"Every individual protein and genomic profile will be on a chip. It will
revolutionize our lives."

Greenberg redirected his own 19-year career as mathematics
professor to bioinformatics after a research stint two years ago at
Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. For seven weeks,
Greenberg was surrounded by books and journals on the topic.

"It wasn’t a "eureka’ moment, but the more I read, the more I talked
to people, the more excited I got about it," he said.

When Greenberg returned to Colorado, he started lobbying for
CU’s new bioinformatics degree programs and to start a
computational biology center, which would encourage biotech and
computer collaboration between the school and industry.

CU has just started enrolling students for the fall semester for its
bioinformatics certificate and doctorate programs as well as for
two similar master’s degree programs. It also has added several
new courses that teach people computational techniques,
statistical methods and system programming.

More universities nationwide are creating similar degree programs
as drug companies and academic scientists search for people
who have biology and computer backgrounds to make sense of
the genetic data.

"I don’t have any statistics, but everyone will tell you people in
bioinformatics will find very good jobs immediately," said James
Cassatt, who is acting director of the bioinformatics center at the
National Institute of General Medical Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

IBM, which put more than $100 million behind its new life-sciences
division, has 100 bioinformatics researchers who customize and
test drug discovery products for biotech companies. The company
is looking to hire even more, said Brent Hinkston, a Denver-based
business-unit executive for IBM’s life sciences division, based in
New York.

"The impact on society this will have will be far more significant
than the last five years with the dot-coms," said Hinkston. "The
demand for a person in this space is tough."

Cassatt agreed.

"The data are a mother lode of information," he said. "The
computing power is there, but traditional biologists don’t have the
expertise to mine this data."

http://www.denverpost.com/framework/0%2C1918%2C36%257E33%257E622893%257E%2C00.html