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About the CCB

The Center for Computational Biology (CCB)  is focused on the development of computational biological atlases of different populations, subjects, modalities and spatio-temporal scales.


ComputingCCB Mission

The CCB develops novel mathematical, computational, and engineering approaches to map biological form and function in health and disease. CCB computational tools integrate neuroimaging, genetic, clinical, and other relevant data to enable the detailed exploration of distinct spatial and temporal biological characteristics. Generalizable mathematical approaches are developed and deployed using Grid computing to create practical biological atlases that describe spatiotemporal change in biological systems. The efforts of CCB make possible discovery-oriented science and the accumulation of new biological knowledge.

A Computational Atlas is a framework that:

  • contains: spatial, temporal, scale and action information about a system;
  • enables: computational measurements (e.g., distance, similarity, causality, relationships, etc.);
  • provides: database, visualization, mining, inference and interpretation of the state of the system described by the computational atlas.

A Computational Brain Atlas is an interactive, extensible and functional infrastructure that:

  • contains: structural, functional, physiological, relational and phenotypic information about the brain (the system);
  • enables: computational measurements discriminating between anatomical, functional, regional or temporal differences, deviations or changes that are indicative of the relationships between phenotypes and observational records (e.g., images) within or between subjects and populations;
  • provides: access to novel imaging and non-imaging databases, visualization resources, data-mining tools, inference protocols and interpretation strategies for understanding the brain shape, function, transition, evolution and state.

The Center has been divided into cores organized as follows:

  • Core 1 is focused on mathematical and computational research. Core 2 is involved in the development of tools to be used by Core 3. Core 3 is composed of the driving biological projects; Mapping Genomic Function, Mapping Biological Structure, and Mapping Brain Phenotype.
  • Cores 4 - 7 provide the infrastructure for joint structure within the Center as well as the development of new approaches and procedures to augment the research and development of Cores 1-3. These cores are: (4)Infrastructure & Resources, (5) Education & Training, (6) Dissemination, and (7) Administration & Management.

Our history and established interactions among various academic departments, institutes, divisions, and laboratories ensures the success for the Center.

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, Grant U54 RR021813. Information on the National Centers for Biomedical Computing can be obtained from http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/bioinformatics and www.NCBCs.org.