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Computational biology is a field with much room to grow. Finding a mutation is just the start of the journey for someone like Bertrand. Once you find the muta
by mattmight 14y ago
Computational biology is a field with much room to grow.
Finding a mutation is just the start of the journey for someone like Bertrand.
Once you find the mutation, you have to figure out what the mutant gene does versus the normal gene.
Duke had to work with a lab, culturing cells from my son and poking at them to figure this part out.
If we were better at predicting the structure of proteins from the DNA that encodes them, we've taken a big first step toward automating/simulating the "functional work."
Protein folding is a nasty research problem at the intersection of chemistry, biology and computer science.
- borism 14y agoInteresting, now that you've mentioned protein folding, even though I've very vague understanding of it, I instantly recalled donating some cycles to http://folding.stanford.edu http://folding.stanford.edu Hope that helped a little.
- bhickey 14y agoI've spent a bit of time waffling about writing this. I hope I'm not crass. There's a major problem with incentives in attracting people to research. Why should supply and demand behave differently at universities? I believe that research is an example of the tragedy of the anti-commons. If I were to jump back to computational biology my lifetime wages would conservatively decrease by $5 million, non-inflation adjusted. Many people are unable to accept lower wages for more interesting work. The wheels of scientific progress will turn slowly as long as it is the sole realm of those able and willing to accept substantial economic sacrifices. I want to help, I'm just not able.