Our philosophy on broader impacts and education
The Center for Quantitative Cell Biology is developing a completely new way of approaching problems in cell biology.
We’re also developing new ways of teaching and training future generations of researchers in the field. We know future cell biology researchers must be well-trained in quantitative approaches, like computational whole cell models and rapid 3D tracking in live cells.
They must also understand how to collaborate. They’ll work with scientists from academia and industry alike, as well as with researchers from different fields, experimentalists working closely with theoretical, and computational scientists.
For these collaborations to be successful, researchers must communicate respectfully and clearly with other researchers.
Our center has a range of programs that address key areas:
Technical training
Training in science communication and mentoring
Knowledge Transfer
Summer School in Quantitative Cell Biology
The Summer School in Quantitative Cell Biology is designed for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers in physics, biophysics, chemical and life sciences, and engineering who seek to expand their research skills in quantitative methods for studying and modeling cells. The summer school includes lectures, mini-courses, and hands-on training in experimental and computational techniques.
Villa Cisse Scholars Program
The Villa Cisse Scholars program at the Center for Quantitative Cell Biology is designed to promote undergraduate students by offering research opportunities they might not otherwise have.
In this 18-month program, students apply in the spring semester, and, once selected, spend two weeks at Illinois in the summer being introduced to the Center and research techniques and research options. They select a team and, during the academic year, prepare to spend a 10-week summer session immersed with their chosen QCB research team.
The program is named for two well-known biophysicists who earned their doctorates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Elizabeth Villa, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, University of California San Diego, was a graduate student in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the Beckman Institute. The TCBG is a QCB collaborator, and the Beckman Institute is QCB’s home base. Ibrahim Cisse, director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, studied under QCB researcher Taekjip Ha, who is now at Harvard.