What is Quantitative Biology (qBio)?
Quantitative biology (qBio) is a fusion of biological and physical sciences, with the goal to predict and understand living systems in quantitative terms, including their behaviors, interactions, and heredity. qBio combines the power of abstract, quantitative reasoning with advanced instrumentation from physics and engineering to discover fundamental organizing principles of living systems.
Thus, the next generation of quantitative biologists need to master three skills:
- identify key unsolved biological phenomena
- carry out relevant quantitative measurements
- develop theory to understanding biological systems
PhD students in the qBio program at UC San Diego master these skills and use them to understand biological phenomena across scales: from molecules, to physiology of unicellular and multicellular organisms, to populations.
Learn more about the qBio PhD specialization.