title: Computational cancer biology: education is a natural key to many locks.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oncology is a field that profits tremendously from the genomic data generated by high-throughput technologies, including next-generation sequencing. However, in order to exploit, integrate, visualize and interpret such high-dimensional data efficiently, non-trivial computational and statistical analysis methods are required that need to be developed in a problem-directed manner.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For this reason, computational cancer biology aims to fill this gap. Unfortunately, computational cancer biology is not yet fully recognized as a coequal field in oncology, leading to a delay in its maturation and, as an immediate consequence, an under-exploration of high-throughput data for translational research. Here we argue that this imbalance, favoring 'wet lab-based activities', will be naturally rectified over time, if the next generation of scientists receives an academic education that provides a fair and competent introduction to computational biology and its manifold capabilities. Furthermore, we discuss a number of local educational provisions that can be implemented on university level to help in facilitating the process of harmonization.
authors.affiliation: Computational Biology and Machine Learning Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Lisburn Road, Belfast, UK. v@bio-complexity.com.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Emmert-Streib
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Lisburn Road, Belfast, UK. s.zhang@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Shu-Dong
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Lisburn Road, Belfast, UK. p.hamilton@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hamilton
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms; D014495:Universities