$5M grant funds LSI program

To bolster the beginnings of the University's Life Science Institute, the Parke Davis Pharmaceutical Research Division of Warner-Lambert Company will donate $5 million to the University for the development of a new program in bioinformatics.

At the University Board of Regents meeting Friday Vice President for Medical Affairs Gilbert Omenn said bioinformatics is a component of the University's Life Science Initiatives and the donation serves as a "head start" to its development.

Through the donation and the $5 million contribution from the University Health System last October, new faculty and research space will be added, said microbiology and immunology Prof. Michael Savageau, interim director of the program for bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics, Savageau said, combines the revolutionary developments in the field of microbiology with the recent advancements in computer technology.

Savageau said about five additional faculty members will be added, but that initial appointments will be within the Medical School.

Renovations to the Medical Science Buildings I & II, which will create five research laboratories as well as office space for the program's new faculty, are set to begin in November.

But the teaching of the program's curriculum is already underway this academic year. Savageau said more than 50 students are enrolled in an introductory course in bioinformatics in the Medical School this fall, adding that interest was so high there are also many students still trying to get into the course.

"Microbiologists have been generating enormous amounts of data and extracting meaning has been difficult for individual scientists to do on a manual basis," Savageau said. "The scope of the data is so enormous that there is a need for computer assistance."

Omenn said bioinformatics is an important and beneficial area of study because it permits an organization of data for gene and protein studies as well as studies of the nervous system.

In the past the company has contributed funds to other University departments, Omenn said adding that he hopes the latest donation will "build an even more robust and programmatic relationship."

09-20-99