Within BioComp 23 PIs and 5 associated researchers from the faculties of  biology, physics, (process)-engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) collaborate in 14 cross-disciplinary projects. 

The focus of these 14 projects lies on the development of procedures with which biological systems can be captured in their entirety.

For this, mathematical and computational methods are indispensable. On the one hand such methods are required for the mathematical modeling of a biological subsystem based on quantitative data. On the other hand they are required for the analysis of multivariate, complex datasets which are generated by novel techniques based on nanotechnology, mass spectrometry and imaging. 

The storing and handling of large datasets generated by these novel techniques requires computational solutions and their evaluation specifically adapted statistical methods.

Thus, the collaboration between researchers from life sciences, computational sciences and mathematics on the one hand allows researchers from life sciences to process and interpret large datasets and therefore to capture and describe biological systems in their entire complexity. On the other hand, the sustainably stored, large datasets provide a rich basis for computer scientists and mathematicians to pose new questions.

Finally, mathematical models of biological systems may be challenged experimentally by researchers from life sciences.