Editors for Computational and Systems Biology

We aim to publish studies that use computational methods, models and software to provide important biological insights in all areas of the life sciences. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Type

All sections

Senior editors

Naama Barkai

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Naama Barkai is a systems and computational biologist interested in how bio-molecular circuits are designed. She joined the Weizmann Institute in 1999, following a post-doc (Princeton) and graduate studies (Hebrew University) in physics. She is currently chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics, and the head of the Azrieli and Kahan Centers for Systems Biology at the Weizmann Institute. In 2013, Barkai was elected to a Vallee Foundation Visiting Professorship and awarded the Abisch Frankel prize.

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Physics of Living Systems
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
systems biology
modeling
functional genomics
yeast genetics
morphogen gradients

Competing interests statement
Naama Barkai's main funding sources are from the European Research Council (ERC), the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), Minerva, and the Bi-national Science Foundation (BSF). Barkai also serves on the editorial board of Development.
Ronald L Calabrese

Emory University, United States

Ron Calabrese earned his BS in Biochemistry from Cornell University and a PhD in Neurobiology from Stanford University. He has been on the Faculty of the Department of Biology, Emory University since 1986 and is currently the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology and Senior Associate Dean for Research. Calabrese's research focuses on the cellular mechanisms of motor control by central pattern generator (CPG) networks and the importance and implications of individual variation for network function and motor performance. His group uses an invertebrate model system, leeches, and focuses on the CPG that controls the beating of the animals two coordinated hearts. His research closely integrates electrophysiological experiments and computational modeling. They are particularly excited about their discovery, in collaboration with GS Cymbalyuk, that the Na/K pump current contributes to the bursting dynamics of oscillator neurons that pace the CPG, and in their recent eLife publication on output variability across animals and levels in a the leech-heartbeat motor system. Calabrese has been actively engaged in training 12 doctoral students, 2 masters' students, and 22 postdoctoral fellows. In 2017, he received the Award for Education in Neuroscience of the Society for Neuroscience.

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
motor pattern generation
neuronal and small networks models
electrophysiological properties of neurons and synapse
computational neuroscience

Experimental organism
leech

Competing interests statement
Over the past 30 years, Ron Calabrese has been consistently supported by NIH R01 grants. Since 2015, Calabrese has been a regular member of the SMI study section of NIH.
Arup K Chakraborty

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

Arup K Chakraborty is the Robert T Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering at MIT. He is the founding Director of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. He is also a founding steering committee member of the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH, and Harvard, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. After obtaining his PhD in chemical engineering and postdoctoral studies, he joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in December 1988. He rose through the ranks, and ultimately served as the Warren and Katherine Schlinger Distinguished Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and Professor of Biophysics at Berkeley. He was also Head of Theoretical and Computational Biology at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In September 2005, Chakraborty moved to MIT.

His entire career has been focused on research at the intersection of disciplines. After an early career in engineering of polymers and catalysts, since 2000 Chakraborty’s work has focused on bringing together immunology and the physical and engineering sciences; more specifically, the intersection of statistical mechanics and immunology. His interests span T-cell signaling, T-cell development and repertoire, and a mechanistic understanding of HIV evolution, antibody evolution, and vaccine design. Chakraborty’s work at the intersection of disciplines has been recognized by numerous honors, including the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the EO Lawrence Medal for Life Sciences from the US DOE, the Allan P Colburn and Professional Progress awards from the AIChE, a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award, and a National Young investigator award. Chakraborty was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering for completely different bodies of work. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, making him one of 21 individuals who are members of all three branches of the US National Academies. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and serves on the US Defense Science Board. Chakraborty has received four teaching awards at Berkeley and MIT.

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Immunology and Inflammation
Physics of Living Systems
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
computational biology
immunology
statistical mechanics
signaling
virology
protein evolution

Competing interests statement
Arup Chakraborty is funded by the NIH and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.
Patricia Wittkopp

University of Michigan, United States

Patricia Wittkopp received a BS from the University of Michigan, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and did postdoctoral work at Cornell University. In 2005, she began a faculty position at the University of Michigan, where she is now an Arthur F Thurnau Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, and LSA Honors Program. Her research investigates the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution, with an emphasis on the evolution of gene expression. Molecular and developmental biology, population and quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics are integrated in this work. She was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow, an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow, and a recipient of a March of Dimes Starter Scholar Award.

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Genetics and Genomics
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
evolutionary genetics
evolution and development
gene expression
regulatory networks
allele-specific expression

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
S. cerevisiae

Competing interests statement
Patricia Wittkopp has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, March of Dimes, and the Alfred P Sloan Foundation. She is currently an Associate Editor of Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution, and also serves on the Advisory Editorial Board of Trends in Genetics.

Reviewing editors

Nir Ben-Tal

Tel Aviv University, Israel

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
structural bioinformatics
structure, function and motion in membrane proteins
protein interactions
Carl T Bergstrom

University of Washington, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
game theory
network science
evolution
Alexander Borst

Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Germany

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
visual processing
systems neuroscience
computational neuroscience

Experimental organism
Drosophila
Ben Cooper

Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Thailand

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Epidemiology and Global Health

Research focus
population biology of communicable diseases
antimicrobial resistance
epidemiological methods
Job Dekker

University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
spatial organisation of genomes
chromatin interaction networks

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
Michael Doebeli

University of British Columbia, Canada

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
mathematical modelling
evolution of diversity
social insects
ecology and evolution of microbial communities
David D Ginty

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
neurotrophic factors
peripheral nervous system development
mechanosensory neurons
tactile processing
spinal cord

Experimental organism
mouse
Thorsten Kahnt

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Neuroscience
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
Neural and computational principles of learning and decision-making
psychophysics
computational modeling
TMS
fMRI

Experimental organism
human
Mary B Kennedy

California Institute of Technology, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
synaptic plasticity
synaptic regulation
biochemical signal transduction networks
systems biology

Experimental organism
mouse
rat
Christian R Landry

Universite Laval, Canada

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
evolutionary genetics
evolution
bioinformatics
cell and systems biology
yeast genetics

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
Peter Latham

University College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
computational neuroscience
bayesian inference
network dynamics
neural coding
synaptic plasticity
Andrei Lupas

Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
origins and evolution of folded proteins
coiled coils
bioinformatics
transmembrane signal tranduction
bacterial surface proteins
Andrew Morris

University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
statistical genetics
genetic epidemiology
methodological development
genome-wide association studies

Experimental organism
human
Richard A Neher

University of Basel, Switzerland

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Physics of Living Systems
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
population genetics
evolution of RNA viruses
bioinformatics
Stephen Parker

University of Michigan, United States

Expertise
Genetics and Genomics
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
diabetes
disease susceptibility
functional genomics
comparative genomics
population genomics

Experimental organism
human
mouse
rat
Chris Ponting

University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
evolutionary genomics
long non-coding RNAs
functional genomics
transcriptomics

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
human
mouse
Molly Przeworski

Columbia University, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
population genetics
evolutionary biology
recombination

Experimental organism
primates
Yibing Shan

DE Shaw Research, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
computational structural biology
signaling
computational chemistry
molecular dynamics
Computer-aided drug design
Wenying Shou

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
evolution of cooperation and multi-level selection
microbial ecology and evolution
quantitative experimental biology
theoretical biology

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
Cassidy Sugimoto

Indiana University Bloomington, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
scholarly communication
scientometrics
gender
science policy
M Dawn Teare

University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Epidemiology and Global Health

Research focus
statistics
population genetics
epidemiology
Alfonso Valencia

Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
bioinformatics
computational biology
structural bioinformatics
co-evolution
cancer genomics
text mining
Mark CW van Rossum

University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
computational neuroscience
synaptic plasticity
noise in neural systems
the early visual system
retina
Timothy Verstynen

Carnegie Mellon University, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
cognition
decision-making
white matter
brain sensorimotor pathways
plasticity
action planning
decision making
complex skill learning
obesity
basal ganglia
striatum
drift diffusion models
attractor networks

Experimental organism
human
Aleksandra Walczak

Ecole normale superieure, France

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
systems biology
gene regulatory networks
immune system
population genetics

Experimental organism
zebrafish