NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Science Foundation has awarded $18.6M to the University of Tennessee to continue work into developing new mathematical approaches aimed at biological research.
The effort, called the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, or NIMBioS, is developing approaches to tackle issues ranging from the genomes of individuals to entire ecosystems, UT said.
The five-year award follows a five-year, $16 million award from NSF to the university in 2008. UT also supports NIMBioS.
Since its creation, more than 3,500 researchers in the US and internationally have participated in activities held at NIMBioS and NIMBioS research has led to more than 270 scientific publications, UT said.
NIMBioS has especially been active in modeling animal infectious diseases, including white-nose syndrome in bats, and pseudo-rabies virus in feral swine. The award announced today will continue such research and expand investigations into other areas, such as biological engineering, molecular biology, cell biology, and microbiology, UT said.