"The future of the biological sciences will be driven by advances in bioinformatics and computational biology," says Marvin Cassman, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). The new center, to be located with the NIGMS, will handle this institute's projects.
While the new center will primarily focus on developing and coordinating bioinformatics programs within NIGMS, "There's a lot going on that has strong computational elements" throughout NIH, Cassman says. "A large number of these [research activities] will stay where they are within the divisions--cell biology and biophysics, genetics and developmental biology, and so on. But we want to be sure that there's an awareness of the connections between all of these," he explains.
Toward this end, the new center will coordinate the Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative Consortium (BISTIC), a committee comprised of senior representatives from each of the NIH institutes and centers as well as ...
