Methods
The CBI core facility at UTSA is built around a High Performance Computing System, a high throughput and high availability data storage system, and a number of high-end workstations. The CBI also supports a number of computational software packages including MatLab, Mathematica, Imaris, Genespring, GENESIS, etc. The CBI is also fully integrated with other core facilities including a Research Imaging Core and a Proteonimics core. In addition to providing resources, however, the CBI from the outset has focused on educating undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in the use of computational techniques. In that capacity the CBI has sponsored 17 training workshops with more than 400 participants to date. A novel initial feature of the CBI involved the hiring of computational liaisons to serve as the interface with individual laboratories and research projects. These liaisons were Ph.D. research biologists who had also been trained in computation. As trained biologists, they understand the nature of biological experimentation, while their computational training allowed them to infuse computational approaches into existing research projects.