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U of T researcher part of a new $6.5 million centre to study how cells are wired

National Resource for Network Biology will provide better tools for studying
biological systems

Toronto, November 3, 2010: Professor Gary Bader, PhD, Donnelly Centre for
Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto, is part of
a team of six world-renowned network biology experts to open up a new centre
called the National Resource for Network Biology (NRNB). The NRNB will help
researchers and clinicians analyze an ever-growing wealth of complex
biological data and apply that knowledge to real problems and diseases.

Network Biology is the science of creating and analyzing maps of how a
system fits together. Network maps help us to understand the relationships
among all parts and how they come together and work as a system to achieve a
common goal. Network biology helps us understand how cells work and how
contagious diseases spread through our social networks.

In recent years, the study of biological networks has exploded, with
scientists shifting much of their focus from single cells to complex
systems, producing novel maps of interactive networks of genes and proteins
that help define and describe a functioning human being. But the exponential
growth in data has created a new challenge: How do you effectively use it?

"The NRNB is part of the answer," says Trey Ideker, PhD, associate professor
of bioengineering at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, chief of
the Division of Genetics at the School of Medicine and principal
investigator of the new centre. The NRNB is funded by a five-year, $6.5
million grant from the National Institute of Health's National Center for
Research Resources (NCRR), and the only centre of its type to be funded this
year.

"Ten years ago, the Human Genome Project was a huge achievement. It listed
for the first time all of the 25,000 or so genes in a human being," says
Ideker. "But it didn't - and doesn't - really tell us how those genes work
together. For that you need another 'omics data set: the interactome."

An "interactome" describes all of the molecular interactions within cells.
For the past decade, a grassroots effort called Cytoscape, developed by
Ideker, Bader and their colleagues, has provided biologists with the
beginnings of one: an online, open-source, evolving platform that describes
and visualizes complex molecular interactions and biological pathways. See
http://www.cytoscape.org/

"But this gathering of basic data has generally outpaced efforts to
practically apply it," says Alexander Pico, PhD, bioinformatics group leader
at Gladstone Institutes and executive director of the NRNB.

"The field of network biology is at a very interesting stage," Pico says.
"We are sitting on loads of measurement data, with new technologies
continuously expanding, and we are just beginning to put these 'parts lists'
into comprehensive biological systems."

With support from the NIH, the new centre will provide qualified researchers
with access to more and better tools for conducting advanced studies of
biological systems that result in sophisticated models of how human systems
function or fail. All of this will ultimately lead to new and improved
treatments and therapies, such as identifying disease biomarkers and
molecular targets for potential drugs, defining genetic risk factors and
deciphering how individual or group lifestyles (social networks) affect the
development and transmission of disease.

"We are unique in having a balanced mix of software developers and bench
biologists who know how to communicate with each other and with the greater
community," says Pico. "We have been building and using the core toolset of
NRNB for many years and we've made a regular practice of training others -
establishing collaborations that drive development along the most fruitful
and effective routes."

Like its subject, the NRNB is the product of extensive interaction, with
multiple collaborators. They include James Fowler, a UCSD professor in the
School of Medicine and Division of Social Sciences who specializes in social
networks; Chris Sander of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New
York; Bruce Conklin of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in
San Francisco, Gary Bader of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and
Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto and Benno Schwikowski of
Institut Pasteur in France. Olga Brazhnik of the NCRR is program officer.

NCRR biomedical technology centres serve a specific purpose in NIH-funded
research. They provide critical and often unique technological and
intellectual resources to scientists, emphasizing service and training for
outside investigators.

To arrange an interview with Professor Gary Bader, please call:

Phone: 416-978-3935
Email: gary.bader@utoronto.ca