$16 Million Grant Awarded to Institute for Systems Biology

The Institute for Systems Biology has received a five-year, $16.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund the operation of a Center for Systems Biology in Seattle.

The new Center will be housed at ISB's research and office building, located on Lake Union, and will foster collaborative research among the diverse set of researchers at ISB.

With a faculty and staff composed of biologists, chemists, computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians and physicists, ISB designed the Center to bring its researchers together in order to further the systems approach to biology and medicine they have pioneered since its formation in 2000.

"The future of systems biology depends on effective collaborations among researchers from different disciplines," said John Aitchison, the new associate director of the Center for Systems Biology.

"This grant will help the institute grow in its capacity to conduct collaborative research, develop new technologies and reach out to the larger community."

The Center will be only the sixth of its kind in the U.S. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of NIH, is funding the centers in an effort to support the systems biology work already being done at institutes like ISB.

Other systems biology centers have been established at Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Case Western Reserve University.

"This grant provides crucial support to ISB as we continue to push the limits of science in order to make new discoveries about biology and the human body, and ultimately find new ways to fight diseases," said Leroy Hood, Institute for Systems Biology's president and co-founder.

"By gathering together researchers from multiples fields, using the new technologies that we have developed and the computer modeling programs we've pioneered, we will advance our research in ways not possible before."

The center will provide professional development, including workshops, courses, internships, and sabbatical opportunities, in order to help researchers learn about the systems biology approach, combine their expertise and further ISB's research on human biology and disease.

Resources and results from the work conducted at the Center will be shared with the larger scientific community.

In addition, it will be a place for students in grades K-12 to experience inquiry-based science, a method encouraging young scientists to explore, ask questions, engage, and analyze data as they study the field of science.

"The emergence of systems biology as a defined discipline can partly be attributed to the vision of Dr. Hood," said Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., director of NIGMS.

"With his track record in technological innovation and his interest in training the next generation of scientists, Dr. Hood and his center are likely to continue to help define the discipline and, at the same time, advance our understanding of complex biological processes that impact human health."