Groundbreaking technological advances in recent decades have enabled unprecedented access to biological systems at multiple length and time scales, resulting in an explosion of data. This information holds the key to unraveling fundamental principles governing biological systems, engineering novel bio-inspired systems, and repairing systems that have been rendered dysfunctional by age or disease. With this promise comes a tremendous challenge: to distill and transform overwhelming amounts of information into knowledge that can improve human health and society. BU BME computational modeling and data science faculty apply rigorous quantitative and engineering methods to a tremendous variety of biological systems across length and time scales to seize this challenge.
We process large-scale data sets from genomic, molecular, neural, and other systems. To make sense of these data, we employ quantitative frameworks from artificial intelligence, data science, statistics, and signal processing. We construct computational models to understand normal physiological function and dysfunction in diseases, including cancer, diabetes, sensory impairments, and lung disease. Our work bridges length scales from the protein to the whole organ. Finally, we design and engineer novel bioinspired systems, including biosensors, wearables, and brain-inspired algorithms, for a wide-range of applications in health and society.

Computational Modeling and Data Sciences Faculty 

Primary Faculty: David Boas, Charles Delisi, Mary Dunlop, Michael Economo, James Galagan, Xue Han, Simon Kasif, Laura Lewis, Hadi T. Nia, Kamal Sen, Allyson Sgro, Bela Suki, Adriana Tomic, Lucia Vaina, Sandor Vajda, John White

Research Faculty: Dmitri Beglov, Aurelie Edwards, Fernando Fernandez, Oded Ghitza

Affiliated Faculty: Douglas Densmore, Frank Guenther, Michael Hasselmo, Pankaj Mehta, Elise Morgan, Ioannis Paschalidis, Benjamin Scott, Daniel Segrè, Cara Stepp

Emeritus: Steve Colburn, Stephen Grossberg, Temple Smith, Malvin Teich

Affiliated Research Centers

BME Computational Modeling and Data Sciences in the news:

  • October 21, 2022

    Nia Earns NIH Award for Ground-Breaking Lung Research Technology

    Assistant Professor Hadi Nia (BME, MSE) has earned the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award. Granting him nearly $2.5 million, the award will empower Nia to pursue novel models and tools to image the lung in real time and at cellular resolution. He will probe the links... [ More ]

  • August 26, 2022

    PRISM highlights ENG’s Pioneering Data Science Curriculum

    As the data revolution transforms industry and society, engineering schools are rethinking the basics. [ More ]

  • February 18, 2022

    Trio Tapped to Join AIMBE College of Fellows

    Prestigious honor for top biomedical engineers For the second year in a row, three ENG faculty members have been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). This time, the honorees are Professor James Galagan (BME, Microbiology), Associate Professor Xue Han (BME), and... [ More ]

  • December 8, 2021

    BME’s Laura Lewis in SCIENCE

    Using fMRI technology to monitor brain activity, Lewis’s research on sleep is featured in one of the world's top academic journals. [ More ]

  • November 18, 2021

    Cross-disciplinary research teams win Kilachand funding

    Five Studies Pushing the Limits of Science: This year’s Kilachand fund awards will support pioneering research across engineering and life sciences [ More ]

  • November 16, 2021

    Going from Gauzy to Granular

    Anna Devor and collaborators aim to extract neuronal circuit activity from fMRI, opening door for clinical applications By Patrick L. Kennedy Say you’re listening to a lecture and paying close attention. When that happens, your brain releases a chemical called acetylcholine. Later, though, you start to doze off. Suddenly, the professor calls... [ More ]

  • July 14, 2021

    Photoacoustic Stimulation with Single-Neuron Precision Developed by a BU Team

    An article by a BU team entitled “Non-genetic Photoacoustic Stimulation of Single Neurons” will appear in Light: Science & Applications. This research is led by Professors Chen Yang (ECE, Chem, MSE) and Ji-Xin Cheng (ECE, BME, MSE) in collaboration with Professor John White (BME) and Professor Heng-Ye Man (Biology). The graduate students and researchers who made key contributions to the work include Linli Shi (Chemistry), Ying Jiang (ECE), Fernando Fernandez (BME), Guo Chen (ECE), and Lu Lan (ECE). [ More ]

  • June 15, 2021

    Laura Lewis Named a Pew Scholar

    Continuing a streak of honors for her ground-breaking research into the complex neural circuits that govern sleep, Assistant Professor Laura Lewis (BME) has been selected one of 22 early-career researchers to join the Pew Scholars Program. [ More ]

  • June 1, 2021

    Professor Ji-Xin Cheng and Coworkers Published in Nature Communications

    BU researchers reported an ultrafast fingerprint-stimulated Raman spectroscopic imaging platform, with broad applications to cancer metabolism, brain mapping, and biofuel production, in Nature Communications on May 24th, 2021.  This work was funded by grants from the Department of Energy and the NIH.  [ More ]

  • May 11, 2021

    Paschalidis Shares Health Data Findings in DeLisi Lecture

    Professor Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, BME, SE) discussed data-driven reasoning—which he calls “the backbone of engineering systems”—and predictive health analytics as he delivered the Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecture May 6 to an online audience of about 100 members of the Boston University community. The DeLisi Award and Lecture honors a senior faculty... [ More ]