Søren Brunak
Encyclopedia
Søren Brunak is a Danish physical and biological scientist working in bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

. He is the director of the Center for Biological Sequence Analysis at the Department of Systems Biology of the Technical University of Denmark
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark , often simply referred to as DTU, is a university just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions, and the...

 since 1993.

Biography

Søren Brunak obtained his M.Sc. in Physics, in 1987 at the Niels Bohr Institute
Niels Bohr Institute
The Niels Bohr Institute is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics....

, University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

, in 1991 his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in Computational Biology
Computational biology
Computational biology involves the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological, behavioral, and social systems...

 at the Department of Structural Properties of Materials, Technical University of Denmark
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark , often simply referred to as DTU, is a university just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions, and the...

, and in 2002 a Dr.phil. (honoris causa) from the Natural Science Faculty of the Stockholm University
Stockholm University
Stockholm University is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. It has over 28,000 students at four faculties, making it one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is also frequently regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world...

.

He is member of the Danish Academy for the Natural Sciences since 1997, member of the Board of directors of the International Society for Computational Biology since 2001, of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences since 2002, and of the Danish Royal Society of Science and Letters since 2004.

He is part of the scientific advisory committees of several scientific organizations, such as EMBL (Heidelberg), Ensembl
Ensembl
Ensembl is a joint scientific project between the European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, which was launched in 1999 in response to the imminent completion of the Human Genome Project...

 at the European Bioinformatics Institute
European Bioinformatics Institute
The European Bioinformatics Institute is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics, and is part of European Molecular Biology Laboratory...

/Sanger Centre (chairman), the Bioinformatics Advisory Committee at the European Bioinformatics Institute
European Bioinformatics Institute
The European Bioinformatics Institute is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics, and is part of European Molecular Biology Laboratory...

 (chairman), and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics
The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics is a research institute for molecular genetics based in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Max Planck Institute network of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science.- External links :*...

 (Berlin).

Dir. Ib Henriksens Price for Outstanding Science Achievement. Villum Kann Rasmussen Price for Research within the Natural and Technical Sciences (2006).

Work

Brunak's main research is in Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

 and systems biology
Systems biology
Systems biology is a term used to describe a number of trends in bioscience research, and a movement which draws on those trends. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, claiming that it uses...

. In particular, the prediction of protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 properties from their sequences. For example, protein cleavage sites, protein glycosilation sites, phosphorylation
Protein phosphorylation
Protein phosphorylation is a post-translational modification of proteins in which a serine, a threonine or a tyrosine residue is phosphorylated by a protein kinase by the addition of a covalently bound phosphate group. Regulation of proteins by phosphorylation is one of the most common modes of...

sites, transmembrane helices, etc.

Positions and awards

  • 1993–present: Member: Danish Academy for the Natural Sciences (DNA).
  • 1997-2003: Board of directors BioCentrum-DTU.
  • 1998: Bjerrum-Brøndsted-Lang Award from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
  • 2000–present: Board of directors, Selskabet for Naturlærens Udbredelse.
  • 2000–present: Nordic Bioinformatics Network Program Board.
  • 2001-2004: Board of directors, International Society for Computational Biology.
  • 2001–present: Member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences.
  • 2002: Dir. Ib Henriksens Price for Outstanding Science Achievement.
  • 2004–present: Member: Danish Royal Society of Science and Letters.
  • 2006: Villum Kann Rasmussen Price for Research within the Natural and Technical Sciences.
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