Centre for Informational Biology was aimed for development of education and research of bioinformatics and system biology in this university. Centre for Informational Biology targets all fields in Biology. We capture a living life by its atoms or molecular resolutions, analyse the data systematically by using theories in information science. Our research is based on analysis of the data, which are from the level of DNA base arrangement to the level of a cell. We also develop the education system, which is needed for the research. At CIB, we aim for technical developments and practical applications of those listed below; gene prediction from genome sequence, prediction of function from gene, gene sequential analysis, function and conformation prediction of RNA, manifestation profile analysis, conformational and functional prediction of proteins, homology modelling, classification and analysis of informational biology imagery, enzyme reaction mechanism estimate using quantum chemistry calculations, method for data extraction from enormous amount of data, construction of database and so forth.

Informational biology is an interdisciplinary area, which go across various branches of arts and sciences. As this is an academic subject that uses information science to make clear of a biological phenomenon, biology and information science are its foundation. However, because living organisms are made of matter, physics and chemistry exist as the basic elements for informational biology. Informational biology is related to details for chemical reaction, hence chemistry is crucial, and physics is crucial for informational biology that is concerned with conformational analysis of biological polymer molecules. To ascend evolution of organisms by comparing genetic base sequences, geologic knowledge will be needed. For statistical analysis of huge amount of data, it is clear that statistical mathematics is also important. For information analysis in brain or behavioural pattern analysis of mice, psychology may take an important position. To approach human evolution in full-scale from genome, even a basic knowledge of linguistics will be needed, because the evolution of language has something to do with the evolution of humankind. It is not possible to explore all of these wide-ranged developing fields of academic study at CIB. However, we will support anyone who will aim for the exploitation in those subjects.

For students who learn above fields of informational biology at this university, CIB will suggest a model curriculum. Informational biology is an academic field, which researchers with various specialties cooperate to develop. One researcher is a specialist in any one of the fields related to informational biology, and at the same time, he/she needs some knowledge to be able to understand other fields. For this reason, while in the undergraduate course or the postgraduate school, it is essential for you not only to learn various field with great interest, but also to learn a certain field on a firm basis to make it into your speciality. This type of education, certainly, will make students to be able to open future as researchers in informational biology, but make them to develop other fields in the future as well. Opening eyes widely for various academic subjects will lead up to higher adaptations to various areas.

Almost all of the university staffs in CIB are assigned to the postgraduate school research institute and they are engaged in various fields of education and research. At CIB, we put together various fields of education and research that are related to informational biology, and we will systematically dispatch the achievements in this field at Ochanomizu University. Since informational biology is an interdisciplinary area, the university staffs will be members of disparate faculties if they are located into traditional academic classifications. Even if they publish the results of informational biology researches from each faculty, the publication would not attract the attention unfortunately. By publishing the results through CIB, it will be able to get clearer characteristics and future images of informational biology research at Ochanomizu University.

Centre for Informational Biology welcomes anyone who wants to learn informational biology at Ohanomizu University, and will support progress of informational biology research at the university.