By Sonja Barisic

“To address the real problems that affect the world, you sometimes have to back up, look at the bigger picture and borrow knowledge from specialties other than your own.”

Not all superheroes wear capes. Some don lab coats and goggles as they use their scholarly powers to identify new ways to predict and thwart the threat of planet-wide pandemics. An interdisciplinary team of UNC Charlotte researchers — who like movie superheroes possess an extraordinary ability to make the world a better place — are combining knowledge and expertise so future widespread outbreaks of communicable disease are never again a surprise or feared unmanageable.

“Science is a bit strange,” said Dan Janies, the University’s Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics. “To address the real problems that affect the world, you sometimes have to back up, look at the bigger picture and borrow knowledge from specialties other than your own.”

For the researchers, collaboration is crucial to predictive health. Accomplished in computer science, bioinformatics, software and information systems, biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics and statistics, geographical information systems, public health, data science, education and communication, they form CIPHER, the University’s Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks.

Led by Janies and fellow researcher Adam Reitzel, professor of biological sciences, CIPHER’s research faculty are conducting cutting-edge research in bioinformatics and related predictive health fields. Here are just a few of CIPHER’s superheroes:

By Sonja Barisic

“To address the real problems that affect the world, you sometimes have to back up, look at the bigger picture and borrow knowledge from specialties other than your own.”

Not all superheroes wear capes. Some don lab coats and goggles as they use their scholarly powers to identify new ways to predict and thwart the threat of planet-wide pandemics. An interdisciplinary team of UNC Charlotte researchers — who like movie superheroes possess an extraordinary ability to make the world a better place — are combining knowledge and expertise so future widespread outbreaks of communicable disease are never again a surprise or feared unmanageable.

“Science is a bit strange,” said Dan Janies, the University’s Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics. “To address the real problems that affect the world, you sometimes have to back up, look at the bigger picture and borrow knowledge from specialties other than your own.”

For the researchers, collaboration is crucial to predictive health. Accomplished in computer science, bioinformatics, software and information systems, biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics and statistics, geographical information systems, public health, data science, education and communication, they form CIPHER, the University’s Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks.

Led by Janies and fellow researcher Adam Reitzel, professor of biological sciences, CIPHER’s research faculty are conducting cutting-edge research in bioinformatics and related predictive health fields. Here are just a few of CIPHER’s superheroes: