What is Biomathematics?

What is Biomathematics?

Mathematics is essential for understanding many areas of biology. For example, population genetics, cellular neurobiology, comparative genetics, evolutionary tree reconstruction, ecology, pharmacokinetics, protein folding, biomedical imaging, epidemic modelling, and the study of cell membranes all have mathematics as an essential part of their theory.

Scope and Objectives

(from the General Catalog)

As biology advances rapidly in quantitative research methods, both the need for and possibility of closely associated theoretical research increases. On numerous medical and medical science frontiers -- such as genetics, molecular biology, oncology, pharmacology, neurosciences, and physiology -- biomathematics is contributing both in its basic research and the development of specialized computer software to support investigation and health care. UCLA has one of the few departments in this relatively new, rapidly evolving field.

The Department of Biomathematics welcomes both undergraduate and graduate students in other majors to its courses in biomedical computing, modeling, and statistics. Premedical majors with mathematical/computer interests can receive early guidance toward an M.D./Ph.D. program in Biomathematics. The department is responsible for statistical and biomathematical training in the medical curriculum.

The department's orientation is away from abstract modeling and toward theoretical research vital to the advancement of current biomedical research frontiers. The doctoral program reflects this in requirements for advanced training in a biomedical research specialty and for the mathematical and computing skills required to contend realistically with complex phenomena encountered in biology and medicine. The art of biomathematical research is developed individually from the first year on. The master's program adapts to the various needs of researchers desiring supplemental biomathematical training, people preparing to provide methodological support to researchers in biology or medicine, or students pursuing a stepwise approach to graduate training in biomathematics.

Biomathematics vs Biostatistics

Our central educational mission is to provide diverse, broadly based training to those interested in quantitative approaches to the biological and medical sciences. In addition, a major part of the mission of the field of biomathematics is to develop analytical and predictive models of biological and medical systems that can serve as important aids to understanding of those systems and as guides for future research and development. Thus the subject matter of the entire enterprise is fundamentally different from that of the field of biostatistics. The latter field focuses primarily on the design of tests of hypotheses (which may result from the use of biomathematical models or from empirical observations) and on the retrospective analysis of pre-existing data sets.