Institute for Systems Biology Awarded $19.8 Million Contract and Named Center for Major Proteomics Initiative
Research is part of newly funded National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Program Focusing on Technology Development
Wednesday October 9, 10:15 am ET
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 2002-- The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), a non-profit research institute dedicated to predicting and preventing diseases, has been awarded a $19.8 million contract to develop new technology in the field of proteomics.
The contract will establish ISB as one of only ten centers nationwide for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's (NHLBI's) long-term proteomics Initiative. The centers will focus on developing new technologies in the context of significant research problems in heart, lung and blood diseases.
Proteomics -- the study of all or large groups of proteins in cells, tissues, and organs, and how they respond, interact, and change -- is considered to provide many of the next major breakthroughs in genomics research. While explosive growth in proteomics is anticipated, the field is in very early stages of development.
"We are excited about being awarded a contract to form a NHLBI proteome research center," stated ISB co-founder, faculty member and principal investigator Dr. Ruedi Aebersold. "Proteomics holds enormous promise for biology and medicine. It will lead to the discovery of new diagnostic disease markers, new targets for therapeutic drugs and increase the understanding of biological mechanisms in health and disease."
"These awards take an important step beyond the science of gene research, which has accelerated in recent years and continues to make a huge impact on biomedical research," said NHLBI Director Dr. Claude Lenfant. "However, research at the level of the gene cannot provide a full picture of what's going on within a cell. These state-of-the-art centers will help supply that missing information and so advance biomedical research and clinical care."
The NHLBI has made a truly significant investment in this program, allowing academic researchers to not only make technological advances, but provide the infrastructure to move the field forward. The Proteomics Initiative will award a total of $157 million over seven years. Approximately $22 million has been awarded to fund the centers' first year. Of that amount, approximately $2 million has been awarded to the ISB.
"The NHLBI has taken a very innovative approach with this new program, focusing considerable resources on technology development -- over the long term," said Aebersold. "This will allow us to explore technologies that take time to mature."
The Initiative has been structured to provide a number of research institutions the opportunity to advance proteomics technology in a coordinated fashion. The program will enable the ISB to form collaborative project groups with leading northwest academic and industrial researchers at institutions such as Amgen, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington.
One of the overriding goals for the ISB is to apply these technologies to the biology of the macrophage -- a cell of central importance in chronic inflammatory responses that lead to numerous disabling human diseases. To achieve this, technologies developed at the ISB will be transferred to a high throughput proteomics facility that will apply the emerging technologies.
The initiative is funding 10 centers nationwide. The other centers include:
Cardiovascular Proteomic Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston
Development of Novel Mass Spectrometry Tools for Individual Cell Proteome Analysis at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee
NHLBI Proteomics Center at Yale University in New Haven, CT
Oxidative Protein Modifications in Cardiovascular Disease at Boston University in MA
Proteomic Analysis of Blood Components in Autoimmune Disease at Stanford University in Stanford, CA
Proteomic Technologies to Study Airway Inflammation at the University of Texas, Medical Branch in Galveston
Proteomics of Adaptation to Ischemia/Hypoxia in the Heart, Lung, and Blood at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD
Southwestern Center for Proteomics Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas
About the Institute for Systems Biology
The Institute for Systems Biology is one of the most visible and innovative research organizations in the world dedicated to systems biology. The Institute was founded by Dr. Leroy Hood, Dr. Ruedi Aebersold and Dr. Alan Aderem in 2000 and has grown to a faculty of nine and a staff of more than 170. Dr. Hood, the Institute's president, led the development of the automated DNA sequencing technology that enabled the Human Genome Project and was among the small group that advocated for the effort in 1985. Director Alan Aderem, a prominent immunologist and cell biologist and pioneer in the study of innate immunity, has provided scientists with fundamental insights into the functioning of the macrophage. Dr. Aebersold, an international expert in analytical protein biochemistry and proteomics, leads a research group at the Institute that is focused on developing new methods and technologies for understanding the structure, function and control of complex biological systems. For more information, visit systemsbiology.org. |
