Serghei Mangul, PhD, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy and quantitative and computational biology at the USC Mann School, has received a $498,823 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award will support the project “Sustainable, Nationwide Network to Promote Reproducible Big-Data Analysis in Biology Programs within Community Colleges and Minority-Serving Institutions.”
This collaborative project aims to serve the national interest by equipping undergraduate students with essential skills in big data analytics, bridging an educational gap at community colleges and minority-serving institutions. The Mangul lab is collaborating with co-principal investigators at George Washington University, Georgia State University, Anoka-Ramsey Community College and Tuskegee University.
“Bioinformatics and data science is for all,” Mangul says. “I am excited to help build a broad bioinformatics community led by USC in the L.A. area, welcoming students and faculty from diverse backgrounds.”
Mangul’s research focuses on improving the techniques of bioinformatics—computational analysis of biological data—to better understand the mechanisms of disease. He aims to design, develop and apply novel and robust data-driven, computational approaches that will accelerate the diffusion of genomics and biomedical data into translational research and education.
In February 2023, Mangul was awarded a five-year, $3,916,730 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for his project developing new software and databases to study diverse populations.