17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) 17 years of sustained high performance interdisciplinarity (IBEST) James A. Foster University of Idaho 1 October 2010

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : In the beginning... Good colleagues, good science

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : Reading Group Still meet weekly after 17 years Books read Third chimpanzee Blind watchmaker Hyperspace Getting to “yes” 7 Habits Bell Curve (“etc”?)

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : First Publication Factoids Lead author: undergraduate Built tool for later collaboration Combined: modeling, computation, molecular biology Major journal James E. Clough, James A. Foster, Michael Barnett, Holly A. Wichman (1996) “Computer simulations of transposable element evolution: random template and strict master models.” J. Mol. Evol. 42(1): DOI: /BF

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : funding begins NIH Fellowship (Foster, 2y) Support computer scientist (Foster) to do experimental evolution with phage in a biologist’s (Wichman) lab NSF Program Project (1y) NSF EPSCoR (Foster): $500,000 to build core, classroom, begin research projects NIH Program Project (5y) NIH COBRE (Forney): $10M to build computing and sequencing cores begin collaborative research projects leading to PI independence Included statisticians, mathematicians, chemist

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : Core & classroom Factoids Core built/programmed by students Classroom used by multiple colleges

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : Graduate program Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Organization/Curricula Integrated research/classes in Math/Stat, Computation, and Biology Interdisciplinary thesis committees Faculty have self-identified specialties Home departments/colleges get “credit” Managed by IBEST Factoids Postdocs/faculty positions at top schools (Yale, Florida State, Cornell, University of Michigan, etc.) One of first Ph.D. bioinformatics programs in the USA Faculty in 9 departments, 5 colleges First graduate in 2005 “Graduates of the BCB program will be the vanguard who create the bioinformatics and computational biology of the future.” -BCB homepage

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) now: Core expansion Bioinformatics Core 300+ years workstation-equivalent computation on over 700 processors, 1.4 TB $600K/yr operating expenses Staff of 3.25 All current support staff are/were undergraduates at UI Genetics/Genomics Core Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium Illumina BeadExpress Multiple ABI capillary sequencers Staff of 3 (one a former BCB student) Projects: glacial soil, women’s health, genetics of stress, and more

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : national consortia (BEACON) BEACON: Evolution in Action 5 yr NSF STC ($25M) 5 institutions Emphasis on cross- institutional, cross- disciplinary research

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) : Sustaining IBEST Plans Increase individual project funding Shift cores to “service center” model Fund core staff on state lines Help departments make strategic hires Expand program project activity Expand national consortia involvement

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) 11 A time line ❖ 1993: beginnings ❖ 1993: “Computational biology seminar” ❖ 1995: first publication ❖ 1999: Funding (NSF, NIH) ❖ 2001: graduate program ❖ 2002: first core facility and classroom ❖ 2003: entered exponential growth phase ❖ 2005+: expansion of cores ❖ 2009+: national consortia (BEACON, HMP) ❖ 2010+: entered sustainability phase

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) 12 How to do what we did ❖ Start with the right people Passionate about scholarship and education Enjoy each others’ company Risk takers with disciplinary strengths ❖ Focus on what YOU can do Not on administrative mandates, program projects ❖ Eat (and drink) together (go outside) ❖ Be patient ❖ Keep it real do good work, recognizable by external peers insist on the highest quality research/education Involve students if that’s your mission IBEST is about “having fun by doing good science with good colleagues”

17 years of IBEST (©2010, james a. foster) 13 Acknowledgements ❖ Thanks to all current and past IBEST-ians and BCB-ers ❖ Especially Holly Wichman, Larry Forney and Paul Joyce ❖ Thanks to NSF and NIH for funding, especially BRIN/INBRE (Laskowski/Bohach) NIH P20 RR NSF “Evolution in Action” (Goodman) STC DBI COBRE (Forney) NIH P20 RR16448 NSF EPSCOR (Foster) EPS NIH (Foster) F33 GM20122 Follow-on awards to IBEST PIs