NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University said Friday it has received two research awards totaling $376,000 from the Science Foundation of Arizona to expand a bioinformatics database and to develop its genetic imaging technology.
Sudhir Kumar of the Biodesign Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics received $142,000 to develop a database called the TimeTree, which is “a relational database of life on Earth that is easy to use for researchers, the public and K-12 students,” the institute said.
The institute said Neal Woodbury, director of the Biodesign Center for BioOptical Nanotechnology, received $234,000 to develop nanoscale techniques and imaging technologies to study gene regulatory networks of interest to biomedical research.
Biodesign Institute spokesman Joe Caspermeyer said in an e-mail that the institute is currently “ramping up our capabilities” in personalized medicine and bioinformatics, as well as other areas including convergence biology, public health and the environment.