Integrated BioSystems Institute goes global

Launched in February 2008 to create a forum for the multidisciplinary study and research of large-scale challenges in biology and medicine in the 21st century, the Integrative BioSystems Institute (IBSI) held its International Launch Conference Oct. 18–21.

	Integrative BioSystems Institute Director Eberhard Voit.

Approximately 160 attended, representing the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, India and Spain in addition to the United States.

Speakers, comprised of both academics and business professionals, gave presentations in the areas of genome, proteome, metabalome and cancer research; modeling and simulation, neuroscience and environmental science; high-performance computing; and synthetic biology.

IBSI’s initial focus will be on developmental processes leading to cancer and on interactions between humans and microbial agents in the environment. Collaborative in nature, the convergence of engineering, the sciences, mathematics and high-powered computing will enable IBSI researchers to approach complex biomedical problems. In four or five years, IBSI staff plan to move into a new facility on the corner of Atlantic Drive and 10th Street, providing space for roughly 85 faculty members and several hundred undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students.

Institute centers affiliated with IBSI include the Center for the Study of Systems Biology, the Laboratory for Biological Systems Analysis, Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics, High Performance Computing and Environmental Systems Microbiology.

The Whistle spoke with Department of Biomedical Engineering Professor and Director Eberhard Voit about IBSI’s inception and its future.

What is the genesis of the IBSI?

IBSI is entirely new. It was created from scratch, although it obviously draws from existing strengths. These strengths come from a large number of enthusiastic faculty that are distributed throughout numerous schools and departments within Georgia Tech and are eager to work together on some of the biomedical grand challenge problems of our time.

The idea of bringing expertise in integrative systems biology to Tech is several years old, as I came to Tech about four years ago. Shortly after my arrival at Tech, I was asked to be part of a committee evaluating whether computational or systems biology should be pursued at all. This committee was charged by the three deans at the time: Gary Schuster (College of Sciences), Don Giddens (Engineering), and Rich DeMillo (Computing). The committee recommended in favor of pursuing the idea.

In 2005 a small committee consisting of Steve Harvey, Richard Lipton and myself investigated details of the feasibility of some academic entity in the field. We discussed pertinent aspects with numerous potential stakeholders and organized a lot of ideas. In 2006 we presented a 123-page white paper to the three deans, recommending the creation of IBSI. In the summer of 2006, a new small committee—Jeff Skolnick, Richard Fujimoto and I—was charged with developing an implementation plan, which was approved in 2007. In February 2008, we had our launch announcement celebration, with Professor Doug Lauffenburger from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as our distinguished speaker. [In October], we had our international launch, which we had planned over the past 18 months.

For whom was the conference intended?

The conference was primarily for academicians from representative areas of integrative systems biology, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, nanotechnology, databases, molecular structures, computational and mathematical modeling and high-performance computing, as well as applications to cancer, the nervous system and the environment. Besides academe, we had representation from industry, and an associate editor from Science participated. Many students and postdocs attended. The total number of attendees was about 160.

Many of the speakers were from outside of Tech. While IBSI is by design interdisciplinary among the Institute’s colleges and schools, is there any collaboration or planned collaboration with other universities?

Yes. At this point, we are in the process of getting ourselves organized within Tech, but there have been plans and intentions from the very beginning of our “creation process” to include other academic—and possibly industrial—strategic partners. We already had discussions with institutions in Japan, Germany and Spain.

What does IBSI bring to the table for the biomedical industry and researchers?

Initially the opportunity to do cross-disciplinary research that otherwise would be very difficult. This opportunity is fostered, at least in part, by funds for cross-disciplinary pilot projects for faculty and for students, as well as distinguished seminars by international leaders in the field and informal chalk talks that allow GT researchers to discuss open challenges. Ultimately IBSI will bring results to the table: Insights into cancer, possibly treatment strategies, an understanding of environmental systems and possible means of remediation and sustainability.

For the Georgia Tech community, what does the IBSI mean?

We hope that it means an exciting new venue for multi-disciplinary collaboration between biology and medicine on one hand and computing and engineering on the other. Many of the projects we envision would not be possible without an infrastructure as it will be provided by IBSI.