USC College Department of Biology

Faculty

Biological Sciences has more than 60 full-time faculty members, as well as more than 20 faculty with joint appointments and 15 visiting or adjunct professors. Among its many distinctions and honors, the Ph.D. program faculty includes two members of the National Academy of Sciences, four members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 18 holders of endowed chairs and professorships.

Mihail Bota

Assistant Professor (research) of Biological Sciences

Contact Information
Office: HNB 428
Phone: (213) 740-9099
E-mail: mbota@usc.edu

LINKS
Personal Website

Education

M.S. Physics, University of Bucharest, 6/1992
Ph.D. Neurobiology, University of Southern California, 5/2001

Postdoctoral Training

Research Associate, University of Southern California, 2001-2004

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Development of informatics systems for neurobiological data for online information retrieval, and data mining. Construction of the rat connectome. Development of ontologies for neurosciences. Research in the neural grounds of language and action recognition in humans and monkeys.

Research Keywords

neurobiology, neuroinformatics, databases, data mining, knowledge management, connectome

Funded Research

Contracts and Grants Awarded

A Mature Brain Architecture Knowledge Management System (NINDS), Larry W. Swanson, Mihail Bota, $326,000, 2009-2013
A MATURE BRAIN ARCHITECTURE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NIH-NIH), Larry Swanson, Mihail Bota, $1,002,353, 08/01/2004-04/30/2008

Publications

Book Chapter

Arbib, M., Bota, M. (2006). Neural homologies and the grounding of linguistics. pp. 136-173. Cambridge University Press.
Bota, M., Arbib, M. (2002). NeuroHomology Database: an online KMS for handling and evaluation of the neurobiological information. pp. p. 230-220. Norwell, MA: Neuroscience databases/Kluwer Academic Press.

Journal Article

Bohland, J. W., Wu, C., Barbas, H., Bota, M., Mithra, P. P. (2009). A proposal for a coordinated effort for the determination of brainwide neuroanatomical connectivity in model organisms at a mesoscopic scale. PLOS Comput Neurobiology. Vol. 5 (3) PubMed Web Address
Bota, M., Swanson, L. W. (2008). BAMS neuroanatomical ontology: design and implementation. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. Vol. 2 (2) PubMed Web Address
Bota, M., Swanson, L. W. (2008). Report on the 1st INCF workshop on neuroanatomical nomenclature and taxonomy. Nature Preceedings. website
Bota, M., Swanson, L. W. (2007). The neuron classification problem. Brain Research Reviews.
Bota, M., Swanson, L. W. (2007). Online workbenches for neural network connections. Journal of Comparative Neurology/Wiley. Vol. 500(5) 807-814
Bota, M., Swanson, L. W. (2006). A new module for manipulation and display of molecular information in the brain architecture management system. Neuroinformatics/Humane. Vol. in press
Bota, M., Dong, H., Swanson, L. W. (2005). Brain architecture management system. Neuroinformatics/Humane. Vol. 3, pp. 15-48.
Bota, M., Arbib, M. (2004). Integrating databases and expert systems for the analysis of brain structures, connections, and homologies. Neuroinformatics/Humane. pp. p. 20-59.
Arbib, M., Bota, M. (2004). Evolving Mirror Systems: Homologies and the Nature of Neuroinformatics. Trends in Cognitive Sciences/Elsevier. Vol. 8(7), pp. p.290-291.
Bota, M., Dong, H., Swanson, L. W. (2003). From gene networks to brain networks. Nature Neuroscience/Nature Publishing Group. Vol. 8(6), pp. p. 795-799.
Arbib, M., Bota, M. (2003). Language evolution: neural homologies and neuroinformatics. Neural Networks/Elsevier. Vol. 16(9), pp. p.1237-1260.
Bota, M. (2003). From axis to triangle: The role of orbital cortex. Behavioral and Brain Sciences/Cambridge University Press. Vol. 26(5), pp. p. 552-553.
Bota, M., Arbib, M. (2001). The NeuroHomology Database. Neurocomputing/Elsevier. Vol. 38-40, pp. pp.1627-1631.

Multimedia Scholarship and Creative Works

Online knowledge management system, The Brain Architecture Management System (BAMS) is a repository of knowledge about brain parts from different species, and includesinference engines for processing the neurobiological data. BAMS contains five interrelated modules: Brain Parts (brain regions, major fiber tracts, and ventricles), Cell Types, Molecules, Relations, and Connections. , 01/2002-
Online Ontology, BAMS Neuroanatomical Ontology is a lightweght ontology designed specifically for neuroscience. It contains a complete set of concepts that describe the structure of the rat central nervous system (CNS) and a growing set of concepts that describe different neuron populations in the rat CNS., 2008-