Colleagues,
The following announcement from the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences provides links to a suite of five recent program announcements relating
to quantitative approaches to biomedical problems. Please alert your colleagues
to these developments.
J. J. Anderson
(301) 594-0943
(301) 480-2228 (fax)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
National Institutes of Health
INITIATIVES SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES
TO COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) announces five related initiatives that seek to
promote quantitative, interdisciplinary approaches to problems of biomedical
significance, particularly those that involve the complex, interactive behavior
of many components.
The initiatives, published as program announcements in the NIH Guide for Grants
and Contracts, resulted in part from recommendations made at workshops held in
late 1997 on "New Approaches to the Study of Complex Biological Processes" and
"The Genetic Architecture of Complex Traits." The reports of these workshops
can be found on the NIGMS Web site at
http://www.nih.gov/nigms/news/reports/complexbio.html and
http://www.nih.gov/nigms/news/reports/genetic_arch.html.
The workshop participants recommended three classes of initiatives:
* The support of interdisciplinary research with the specific objective of
attracting investigators trained in the mathematically based disciplines
(physics, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, and chemistry) to
the study of biomedical problems.
* The development of workshops and other vehicles to train established
biomedical scientists in new, quantitative approaches to their fields of study,
and reciprocally, to acquaint established, mathematically expert non-biologists
with biological problems.
* The promotion of interdisciplinary training for scientists at the pre-
and postdoctoral levels.
The initiatives and the Web sites where the full text of each program
announcement can be found are listed below:
* Supplements for the Study of Complex Biological Systems
PA-98-024, January 16, 1998
http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-98-024.html
* Quantitative Approaches to the Analysis of Complex Biological Systems
PA-98-077, June 4, 1998 (co-sponsored with NIMH)
http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-98-077.html
* Genetic Architecture of Complex Phenotypes
PA-98-078, June 9, 1998 (co-sponsored with NIEHS, NIAMS, NIA, NIMH,
NIDA, NIAAA, NICHD, NHGRI, NHLBI)
http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-98-078.html
* Fellowships in Quantitative Biology
PA-98-082, June 23, 1998
http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-98-082.html
* Short Courses on Mathematical and Statistical Tools for the Study of
Complex Phenotypes and Complex Systems
PA-98-083, June 23, 1998 (co-sponsored with NIMH, NIDA, NIDDK, NHGRI)
http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-98-083.html
Inquiries are welcome, and should be directed to the contact people listed in
the program announcements.
