Computational Biophysics and Biochemistry

Simon Tavare holds the George and Louise Kawamoto Chair in Biological Sciences and is a research professor in Molecular and Computational Biology in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. Tavare applies the power of mathematical sciences to help solve complex biological and medical problems through collaborations with paleontologists, pathologists, cancer genomicists, statistical geneticists, molecular biologists, and population geneticists.

One of the pioneers in the field of computational biology, Tavare has made key contributions in statistical bioinformatics and the development of evolutionary genomic approaches for understanding cancer. Tavare's best-known work centers on the use of DNA sequence data to trace the lineage of a cell, an individual, or a species back through time.

Tavare's group uses HPCC resources to study aspects of tumor evolution. He and his research team use variation in the DNA of tumor cells to infer a tumor's ancestral history. To generate the molecular data, they have developed a high-throughput, experimental technology for assessing variability in millions of individual tumor cells. Approximate Bayesian computation methods are then used to infer parameters of biological interest. One goal of this research is to identify the role that cancer stem cell s play in the evolution of tumors.

Tavare is also the principal investigator of the USC Center of Excellence in Genomic Science. Under Tavare's leadership, the center is investigating the process by which genotypic variation translates into phenotypic variation. The CEGS uses HPCC resources for the analysis of next-generation sequencing data, including DNA, RNA, and methylation data. The center hopes to create a unified picture of how different genetic variants interact with the environment to influence aspects of disease.

Tavare's research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and Cancer Research UK. Tavare is a Fellow of the United Kingdom's Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.