National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY: Propelled by considerable federal and private investment over the last twenty years, state-of-the-art mass spectrometry systems have become powerful fixtures in the fabric of biomedical research across the country. Researchers submit samples, typically to a core facility but also to expert collaborators, to interrogate the proteome with speed, depth, and precision. Lipidomics and metabolomics are on a similar trajectory. The investment in fundamental technology development by the NIH and other agencies has thus paid off in the revelation of otherwise unseen biology. Another result of these advances, however, is the increasingly widespread appreciation for the value of multi-omic data uniquely capable of revealing the critical interplay between proteins, modified proteins, lipids, and metabolites. It is this orchestra of key biological effector molecules – not any one player, and not simply genes – that regulates complex organisms. That said, the technology paradigm remains single-ome analysis; global quantification methodologies are not routine, even for most expert laboratories. Attaining and understanding multi-omic data in effect requires researchers or laboratories to triple their expertise to piece together the protocols of three different disciplines. Indeed, the proteome alone harbors tremendous complexity that is inaccessible to conventional widely employed methods. Pervasive access to comprehensive technologies would greatly accelerate our understanding of the networks that regulate the health and disease of complex organisms. These technologies are essential for furthering human health – for example by advancing the mechanistic understanding of aging to laying the foundation for personalized cancer treatment. The National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems (NCQBCS) expedites this transformation in quantitative biology. For nearly a decade, the NCQBCS has developed and delivered next-generation technologies for rapid, accessible biomolecular characterization and measurement. These technologies have led to remarkable biological discoveries and considerable economic growth through patents, technology licensure, and commercialization. The Center is now poised to optimize these technologies for broad dissemination to experts and non-experts alike, lowering the barrier to improved biomolecular characterization, to accessible multi-plexed quantification of proteins and lipids, and to fully integrated multi-omic workflows. For biomedical researchers, success in these goals will open new avenues of inquiry across health and disease contexts and sample types and scales.