Cynthia Gibas, Ph.D.

Dr. Cynthia Gibas received the Ph.D. in Biophysics and Computational Biology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996. She subsequently worked as a bioinformatics analyst and programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. In 1999, she took a faculty position at Virginia Tech and was involved in the development of their Bioinformatics graduate programs and the initial formation of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. In 2005 she moved to UNC-Charlotte.

Dr. Gibas' current research is focused on development of automated methods for probe and target selection and microarray data analysis. Her research group is developing analytical methods that will take into account the biophysical properties of molecules involved in the array experiment. This work attempts to connect the real physical behavior of molecules to microarray experiment outcomes, and to eliminate confounding factors based on accurate models of molecular behavior. Microarrays are now so commonly used that providing new methods and standards for their use impacts broadly across many fields of molecular biology research. Long oligonucleotide microarrays, the class of arrays that we are studying, are increasingly commonly used, and yet it is not known whether the parameters used to model hybridization reactions are valid in the microarray context. Complete hybridization of each target molecule to its intended probe is taken for granted, in a milieu where many competing binding scenarios may be equally valid. Dr. Gibas' major funding is from NIH; the project is titled "Biophysical Optimization of Oligonucleotide Microarrays".

Dr. Gibas' other research interests include development of devices for measuring hybridization in real time, application of visual analytics approaches to comparative genomics, and development of accurate molecular diagnostics.

	Recent Publications: Gharaibeh, RZ, Fodor, A, Gibas CJ. Using Probe Secondary Structure Information to Enhance Affymetrix GeneChip Background Estimates. Comp. Biol. Chem. ePub ahead of print Feb. 20, 2007. Karanam, RK, Ravindran, A, Mukherjee, A, Gibas, CJ, Wilkinson, AB. Using FPGA-Based Hybrid Computers for Bioinformatics Applications. XCell Journal 58:80-83, 2006. Ratushna VG, Sturgill DM, Ramamoorthy S, Reichow SA, He Y, Lathigra R, Sriranganathan N, Halling SM, Boyle SM, Gibas CJ. Molecular targets for rapid identification of Brucella spp. BMC Microbiol. 2006 Feb 22;6:13. Ratushna VG, Weller JW, Gibas CJ. Secondary Structure in the Target As a Confounding Factor in Synthetic Oligomer Microarray Design. BMC Microbiol. 2005 Mar;6:31. Kaluszka A, Gibas C. Interactive Gene-order Comparison for Multiple Small Genomes. Bioinformatics. 2004 Dec; 20:3662-4 Halling S, Gibas C, Boyle S. Comparative genomics of Brucella melitensis, B. suis, and B. abortus. in: Frontier in the Molecular and Cellular Biology of Brucella (Ignacio Lopez-Goni et al., eds.) 2004, Horizon Scientific Press. Gibas, C., Sturgill, D., and J. Weller. GenoMosaic: On-Demand Multiple Genome Comparison and Comparative Annotation. in: Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Symposium on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering. 2003 Mar, 158. Gibas C, Jambeck P, Developing Bioinformatics Computer Skills, Cambridge, MA: OReilly and Associates, April 2001 Gibas CJ, Jambeck P, Subramaniam S. Continuum electrostatic methods applied to pH-dependent properties of antibody-antigen association. Methods. 2000 Mar, 20:292-309.
	Research Areas: Bioinformatics Biophysics and Computational Biology DNA Microarray Analysis DNA Microarray Experiment Design Nucleic acid modeling