The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health has awarded the Molecular Sciences Institute a $15.5 million, 5-year grant supporting MSI's Center for Genomic Experimentation and Computation (CGEC). The federal government also named CGEC one of its four Centers of Excellence in Genomic Sciences, an acknowledgement of the MSI's past and future research contributions to the new field of predictive biology.

MSI, a nonprofit research laboratory that combines genomic experimentation with computer modeling, is the first independent research institute to be recognized as a Center of Excellence under this program.

The grant supports MSI's Alpha Project, an ambitious effort to examine communication within cells and to develop computer models that accurately predict intra-cellular signaling. One ultimate goal of this research is to reveal insights that enable much more precisely targeted treatments for diseases.

The Alpha Project's focus is on the flow and processing of information within cells in a prototypical pathway, the pheromone signal transduction pathway in a well studied, single cell organism, baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Though a simple organism, yeast cells have much in common with cells of more complex organisms, including humans.

By developing and applying innovative experimental and computational approaches to this system, MSI scientists will generate an interactive model of the pathway. The Alpha Project, the research methods and the computer models developed are a pilot study to explore similar pathways in higher organisms.

The key to crafting predictive models will be the development of new research methods and computational tools to probe and analyze complex biological processes. MSI was established to enable and encourage collaboration among scientific disciplines to foster independent thinking and novel approaches so that these new research methods and computational tools will emerge.

Led by Brent at MSI, the Alpha Project brings together 40 independent researchers, faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from a variety of fields including biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, computer science, and physics at the Molecular Sciences Institute, the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California, Berkeley, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

As an independent, non-profit research laboratory, MSI practices the open publication and release of data, methods, and materials. Similarly, the CGEC's work will be freely shared, so that its scientific achievements and new technologies can be disseminated quickly to scientists worldwide for maximum public benefit.

In addition to the new NHGRI funding, MSI is supported by other federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and from philanthropic contributions.