VCU Biological Complexity

The Conference on Bridging Knowledge Gaps in Computational Biology
Research Triangle Park
Thursday & Friday, October 28-29, 2004
details coming soon

Dr. Tarynn M. Witten, Director of Research and Development at the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity will be presenting a keynote lecture at The Conference on Bridging Knowledge Gaps in Computational Biology

The greatest challenges are often at the intersection of different disciplines, creating opportunities to develop novel connections and establish new relationships among varying fields of knowledge. Computational biology is the field representing the multi-dimensional interface between IT and biological research, a broad term describing the use of information technology to help collect, store, transport and analyze biological data of all types. As disciplines mature, they seek new ideas at the interface of the established disciplines, new ways to fill the gaps ... the search for bridges.

Collaborations are becoming increasingly common and are now critical for success. However, collaborations are no longer as simple as they used to be and typically extend into multiple disciplines and to external organizations. Furthermore, relevant datasets are increasingly distributed over many different locations. As such, there is a growing need for heightened security, IP protection, coordinated project management, and an IT infrastructure that supports these and other related needs. The complexity inherent in today's global collaborations presents additional challenges stemming from the issue of technical compatibility for the management, sharing and analysis of information, world-wide.

The term "Knowledge" itself varies in meaning depending on who you ask, and asking the question, "How should one capture and manage knowledge?", typically fires up an even more lively debate! To date, the life science community has struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of discovery and has been unable to obtain widespread adoption and agreement of proposed vocabularies. The development of public domain ontologies has shown much promise but still exists as a relatively new approach to defining terms and their relationships so utilization of such ontologies is currently limited.

Tarynn M. Witten, PhD, FGSA, FCSBC, is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and holder of the Inaugural Nathan W. and Margaret Shock New Investigator Award from the Gerontological Society of America. She is currently a Professor of Bio statistics at Virginia Commonwealth University-Medical College of Virginia Campus, Visiting Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University-Main Campus, and Director of Research and Development, Center for the Study of Biological Complexity. She has served as one of the consortium members of the Bio markers of Aging Project (NIH/NIA). In addition, Dr. Witten is a member of the consulting consortium of the Healthy People 2010 Project. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National AIDS and HIV Over Fifty Association (NAHOF).

Dr. Witten has presented over 200 international scientific talks on aging-related issues, mathematical modeling and simulation, and the role of computation in medicine and has written over 100 papers on modeling aging. She is also the author of the Encyclopedia of Computer Science entry on Computational Biology and Medicine.

Dr. Witten is listed in Who's Who In International Science - 1989/90, Who's Who In Computing - 1989/90, Who's Who In Health & Medicine-1990/91, Who's Who Worldwide - 1990/93/94, Who's Who In Science And Engineering - 1992/93/94, Who's Who In The South And Southwest - 1992/94/97, Who's Who In American Education - 1993/94, International Who's Who of Information Technology 1996/1997, Who’s Who In the World 2000, International Who’s Who of Professionals 2000, and as one of the Top 2000 Women Scientists in the World 2001!