This interview is with Evolutionary Bioinformatics editorial board member Dr Carsten Wiuf. Evolutionary Bioinformatics is an open access journal published by Libertas Academica.

Editor in Chief Dr Dennis Wall has recently issued a call for papers

What is the primary focus of your research?

The focus of my research is currently divided in two:

1) The application of statistics and bioinformatics in cancer research. Here, my focus is changing towards "integrative genomics", the simultaneous analysis of multiple data types to enhance power and provide a richer framework for interpretation of molecular data.

2) I have a long standing interest in mathematical biology and take an interest in theoretical network modelling as well as in some issues arising from population variation data. I have always found it challenging to seek models that explain and explore biological reality.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

The most exciting developments are those that affect most of biology and molecular biology today. The many new high throughput techniques that make it possible to begin to understand the complexity seen in a single cell or organism and how different organisms are related through common history.

Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

I collaborate with experimental groups as well as theoretical and statistical groups. I have strong collaborations with cancer groups at Aarhus University where I'm based. My collaborators in mathematical biology are scattered throughout the world and include pure mathematicians as well as theoretical biologists.

How did you come to be working in your research area?: I was doing master work in mathematical statistics when I met Jotun Hein (now Oxford) who introduced me to population genetics and bioinformatics

What do you think about the development of open access publishing? Have you published in an open access journal? What motivated you to do so?

Open access publishing has changed the way of publishing and the amount of publishing. It has made science literature available to a much wider audience and made it much easier to access than previously. I frequently publish in open access journals

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

Papers:
Ratmann O, Andrieu C, Wiuf C, Richardson S. 2009 Model Criticism based on likelihood-free inference. PNAS 106(26):10576-81.

Hobolth A, Wiuf C. 2009 The genealogy, site frequency spectrum and ages of two nested mutant alleles. Theor Pop Biol 75: 260-265.

Madsen BE, Villesen P, Wiuf C. 2008 Short tandem repeats in human exons: A target for disease mutations. BMC Genomics 9: 410.

Books:
Wiuf C, Andersen CL (eds). 2009 Statistics and Informatics in Molecular Cancer Research. Oxford University Press.

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