The Computational Biology Initiative (CBI) is a new interdisciplinary initiative at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) which was launched in January 2005. The overall goal of the initiative is to build infrastructure to significantly advance collaborative interdisciplinary bioscience research in San Antonio. Currently, healthcare and biotechnology industries lead the San Antonio economy with an estimated annual economic impact of over $13 billion and employ almost 100,000 citizens. The San Antonio area is developing a burgeoning biotechnology base. The objectives of this program are to foster the use of state-of-the-art core computational and analytic facilities, to enhance local expertise in San Antonio bioscience community, and to develop training opportunities.
Our first priority has been to develop and provide expanded access to state-of-the-art core computational and analytic facilities in bioscience research through this new program at both institutions. The focus has been on increasing the usability of computational resources, in contrast to a program merely focused on the acquisition of more computer hardware and software. It is the lack of computational biology expertise that is the primary limiting factor in the low useage rates of high performance computing methods in research laboratories at UTHSCSA and UTSA. We seek to provide access to scientific expertise and state-of-the art computer resources.