The Bioinformatics Group

The Bioinformatics Group at Rice University‘s Department of Computer Science is led by Dr. Luay Nakhleh and conducts research into developing methodologies, implementing software tools and conducting analyses–all aimed at answering and enabling research into biological questions.

We work on a variety of biological questions in the general areas of phylogenomics, population genomics and cellular networks. Work in our group involves mathematical modeling, algorithm design, software development, performance studies, and data analysis. In particular, we are actively pursuing three broad lines of research:

• Methodologies for phylogenomic analysis (e.g., incomplete lineage sorting, horizontal gene transfer, hybridization, etc.).
• Modeling cellular networks (protein interaction, regulatory networks, and metabolic networks).
• Evolutionary analysis of cellular networks (e.g., the role of gene duplication, horizonal gene transfer, and genomic architectures in shaping the properties of networks).

We are always looking for motivated individuals (undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral) who are intrigued by both the biology and computational aspects of our interdisciplinary projects to join our group.