Biology

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution (STRI) in Panama, is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States, is dedicated to understanding biological diversity. STRI aims to offer research facilities that allow staff scientists, fellows, and visiting scientists to achieve their research objectives. The 38 staff scientists reside in the tropics and are encouraged to pursue their own research priorities without geographic limitations. The continuity of their long-term programs enables in-depth investigations that attract an elite group of fellows and visitors. Active support for fellows and visitors leverages resources further and attracts more than 900 scientists to STRI each year.

The world's most biologically rich ecosystem, the tropical rainforest, is also its most poorly understood. To better understand and manage tropical rainforests, the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, through a consortium of scientific collaborators and institutions around the world, coordinates a network of long-term research programs in the natural and social sciences. The central feature of the CTFS network is the standardized Forest Dynamics Plot. Within each plot, every tree over one centimeter in diameter is identified according to species and monitored through time. CTFS is now monitoring more than 3 million trees of 6000 species, at least 10% of all known tropical tree species.

UWEB brings together a cross-disciplinary team of scientists, biologists, engineers, researchers and physicians, as well as industry leaders, to exploit specific biological mechanisms in the development of medical innovations.

The Institute for Systems Biology was co-founded in 2000 by Alan Aderem, Ruedi Aebersold, and Leroy Hood. In just five years it has grown to more than 170 staff members, including 11 faculty members and their laboratory groups. This pioneering approach to the study of biological systems takes place in the institute's 65,000-square-foot facility in Seattle. Building a new kind of research institute one that can tackle the multi-disciplinary challenges of systems biology requires a strategy that itself integrates many sciences including biology, chemistry, physics, computation, mathematics and medicine. Because the field of systems biology requires the seamless integration of these disciplines, ISB has developed a philosophy, an environment, and an administrative structure that transcends traditional organizational and disciplinary barriers. Scientists collaborate across their specialties to leverage knowledge and expertise with others at the Institute and in academia and industry. You can find a tour of ISB here.

Funded in 1999 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the Research Center for Alcoholic Liver and Pancreatic Diseases is a collaborative effort among the leaders in the study of alcoholic liver and pancreatic diseases in the Los Angeles area. Our research attempts to elucidate the mechanisms by which ethanol sensitizes and primes the liver and pancreas to diseases. Unifying all Center investigations, our Center's goals are based on the concept that manifestation of alcoholic liver and pancreatic diseases is dependent on critical interactions between alcohol and secondary factors. These secondary factors include diet, concomitant use of drugs, viral hepatitis infection, and gender. We believe that the best approach to elucidate the mechanisms of the diseases is to define the mode and nature of these interactive processes. This would lead to an improved understanding of individual predisposition to the diseases and development of better modalities to protect the liver and pancreas. The Cirrhosis Research Program is an important development of the Center.

Pharmacology involves the discovery of new drugs, the investigation of how drugs work and the use of drugs to probe mechanisms of disease. But pharmacology also involves the elucidation and manipulation of macromolecular structures, the analysis of regulatory mechanisms in cell biology and development, and the translation of this information into clinical research. Thus, the science of pharmacology spans the most fundamental aspects of basic research, through transgenic animal models, to clinical investigation. Pharmacology at Penn addresses all of these issues in an exciting, collegial and interactive environment.

The Department of Basic Medical Sciences encompasses molecular to whole animal approaches and generally emphasizes molecular processes in development as applied to growth, differentiation, regeneration, and oncogenesis. Model systems are employed to investigate both animal and human disease, as well as biomedical engineering. Current research programs involve: signal transduction in development and oncogenesis, cell adhesion molecules in development and oncogenesis; growth factors in musculoskeletal development; ovarian follicle development; neural regeneration; implantable therapeutic or diagnostic devices, and application of computers in veterinary and medical education.

The Center for BioDynamics (CBD) is a multidisciplinary, interdepartmental center whose mission is to advance training and research at the interfaces among dynamical systems, biology and engineering. The CBD develops and implements techniques from dynamical systems theory to gain insight into the functioning of physiological systems, as well as to improve clinical devices and techniques. In addition, the CBD serves as a home for the development and sharing of dynamical systems techniques for use in diverse applications.

Application of the principles of in vitro selection and directed evolution to peptides and proteins is a powerful tool for investigating protein function and structure and for obtaining insight into the pathways by which enzymes evolve in nature. Our approach has been to generate stable, covalent RNA-protein fusions in a completely in vitro system. We do this by covalently linking puromycin, an antibiotic that mimics an aminoacylated tRNA, to the 3' end of a synthetic mRNA through a DNA linker. A ribosome begins translation of such a template as usual, generating a peptide as it transits the open reading frame. When the ribosome reaches the end of the open reading frame and hits the DNA linker it stalls, allowing the nearby puromycin to enter the A site of the ribosome and accept the nascent peptide chain. The resulting RNA-peptide fusions can be formed efficiently from mRNAs encoding small peptides or large proteins. We have prepared libraries of fusions encoding random peptides and are preparing to begin evolving new binding domains and enzymes. An exciting future application will be the ability to conduct side-by-side comparisons of RNA and protein evolution.

The BRI fosters interdepartmental cooperation in research and education, and provides services to the neuroscience community as a whole. The BRIs mission is to increase understanding of how the brain works, how it develops, and how it responds to experience, injury and disease, and to help make UCLA the preeminent center for translating basic knowledge into medical interventions and new technologies.

We use mathematical models and computer simulations to study a wide range of problems in population biology, animal behavior, and evolutionary theory. Our current research efforts are concentrated in two areas: (1) Information in biological systems. How do living organisms acquire, store, and make use of information? How and why does communication evolve? (2) The ecology and evolution of infectious disease. How do pathogens evolve and spread through populations? How do populations evolve in response to pathogen challenge?

has been a strong advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science. Its award-winning newsletter, Nutrition Action Healthletter, is the largest-circulation health newsletter in North America, providing reliable information on nutrition and health.

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) is an interagency program whose mission is to evaluate agents of public health concern by developing and applying tools of modern toxicology and molecular biology. The program maintains an objective, science-based approach in dealing with critical issues in toxicology and is committed to using the best science available to prioritize, design, conduct, and interpret its studies. To that end, the NTP is continually evolving to remain at the cutting edge of scientific research and to develop and apply new technologies.

One of the nation's first comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute in 1974, Fox Chase conducts basic and clinical research; programs of prevention, detection and treatment of cancer; and community outreach. We invite you to learn about us. Current faculty research programs are wide-ranging and include: gene expression; molecular aspects of oncogenesis; viral molecular biology and pathogenesis; molecular structure and function analysis; pharmacology and therapeutics; regulation and development of the immune system; cell cycle control; human genetics; and cellular and developmental biology.

Our overall theme is to understand the underlying basic mechanisms by which individuals can reduce their risk to cancer, inflammatory damage, and chronic degenerative diseases by improving their ability to respond to environmental stresses through chemoprevention, diet, and other preventive strategies.

The Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing at Oregon State University facilitates the development of molecular biological and genetic research with the ultimate goal of improving health, natural and agricultural resources, and environmental quality. The center offers leadership and services to faculty, staff and students through core laboratories, seminars, and retreats. It also provides a focal point for researchers to establish contacts, initiate collaborations, and establish new technologies in their own laboratories.

Our mission is to determine the function and role of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and phytochemicals (chemicals from plants) in promoting optimum health and preventing and treating disease; to determine the role of oxidative and nitrative stress and antioxidants in human health and disease; and to help people everywhere achieve a healthy and productive life, full of vitality, with minimal suffering, and free of cancer and other debilitating diseases. Major areas of research in the Institute encompass heart disease, cancer, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases. Specific laboratories address antioxidants and vascular biology; vitamin E metabolism and biological activity; colon cancer and cancer chemoprevention by phytochemicals; the role of nitric oxide and oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease); and the role of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in the aging process.

The mission of the Center is to help people understand that our health, and that of our children, depends on the health of the environment, and that we must do everything we can to protect it.

The North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium conducts research on the relationship between fisheries and marine mammals in the North Pacific Ocean and the Eastern Bering Sea.

The Jackson Laboratory, an independent, mammalian genetics research institution and an NCI-designated Cancer Center. Our mission is to improve the quality of human life through discoveries arising from our own genetic research and by enabling the research and education of others.