Iowa State University
Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology
1210 Molecular Biology Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3260
Phone: 515-294-7322
Fax: 515-294-6755
Email:
Volker Brendel
Bergdahl Professor of Bioinformatics
Dr. Brendel, Professor, received his M.Sc. in Applied Statistics from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He received his Ph.D. in Life Sciences (advisor Prof. E.N. Trifonov) from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and continued his studies as a postdoctoral fellow in Bioinformatics with Prof. Samuel Karlin (deceased 2007) at Stanford University. Dr. Brendel served as a research associate and lecturer in Mathematics at Stanford from 1989 to 1998 and joined the faculty at Iowa State University in 1998 as Associated Professor. He was promoted to Professor here at Iowa State in 2001 and is currently the Bergdahl Professor of Bioinformatics.
Research Description
Modern biological research is characterized by an integration of scale. Scientists study phenomena in a context ranging from the molecular to the organismal and population levels. Information from vast and diverse databases are brought to bear on any particular research question. Often such approaches are now referred to as "systems biology". Within this larger context, our group focuses mainly on "genome informatics". On the genomic scale, we try to understand the functional units in a genome (identification of protein-coding genes and RNA genes; organization of transposable elements and other repetitive sequences), how their expression is controlled, and how they may have come to be what and where they are (comparative genomics, genome dynamics, molecular phylogeny). On the molecular scale, we are particularly interested in the process of pre-mRNA splicing (identification of splice sites and characterization of splicing factors). Most of our data work concerns plant genomes.
We approach our research using a combination of computational and experimental approaches. Typically, we start with a biological question, then derive a statistical model for evaluation of the data, develop algorithms and software to organize and analyze the data for the study, and finally interpret the results, more often than not leading to further biological questions and another iteration of research.
A key aspect to this approach is efficient data management, and thus we devote much of our efforts to the development of bioinformatics databases and data management tools.
Contact Information:
2112 Molecular Biology
Ames, IA 50011-3260
515-294-9884 voice
515-294-6755 fax
Education:
B.S. - Mathematics/Biology, University of Kiel, Germany, 1979
M.Sc. - Applied Statistics, University of Oxford, UK, 1981
Ph.D. - Life Sciences, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, 1986
