The Third Symposium on the Nature of Science

The Innovation Laboratory develops applied computational biology/bioinformatics applications, instrumentation and methods, especially focused to address important topics in genetics, genomics, biology and medicine. We have built devices and software solutions to facilitate rapid progress in biomedicine, and these have lead to a number of computational tools and databases that are available via the world wide web, a variety of instruments, some of which have been commercialized, some spin-off companies and a series discoveries in biology and medicine. The Innovation Laboratory staff is multi-disciplinary, including physicists, engineers, mathematicians, biologists and physicians. The Innovation Research and Development Laboratory personnel are engaged in a number of collaborations throughout the world, with academic and corporate institutions, supplying technology and conducting research in cancer, heart disease, drug discovery, biodefense, computer science and engineering. A series of examples of our work, how we approach the research and how it has affected medical research will be discussed.

Skip received his BS in Nuclear Engineering (minor in computer science) at the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1976. Skip received a Ph.D. in plasma/high temperature matter physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1982. He also holds an honorary professional engineering degree. Skip worked for 12 years at General Atomics in La Jolla, California, where he conducted experimental and theoretical research for the Department of Energy at international fusion research facilities, principally in Japan (5 years) and the Soviet Union. In the last 6 years at General Atomics, he was a founding member of The Institute for Development and Application of Advanced Technologies, an internal think tank group, where he developed artificial intelligence/expert systems, new particle accelerators, high temperature superconductors, stealth technologies and biology software and instrumentation. Skip currently holds the P. O'B. Montgomery, M.D., Distinguished Chair, is a Professor of Biochemistry and Internal Medicine, is a member of the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development (Human Genetics Center) and a founding member of the Center for Biomedical Inventions (CBI). Our research is in three areas: 1) applied computational biology, 2) advanced instrumentation development and 3) genetics, genomics and proteomics research that capitalizes on our software findings and instrumentation capabilities. Additional information and our on-line computational resources can be found on the www at http://innovation.swmed.edu.

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