The new center aims to make important discoveries about the emergent properties of growth and development.

How does life develop? What are the limits of biological adaptation? Why do organisms age differently? These are some of the fundamental questions that quantitative biology, a new interdisciplinary approach to biological science, hopes to answer, thanks to a $10M grant aimed at using mathematical models to describe and analyze the development of living organisms.

Jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation, the highly competitive grant established the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology. The center enables innovative collaborative research at the intersection of mathematics and molecular, cellular and organismal biology, to establish new connections and promote interdisciplinary education. This educational mission provides interdisciplinary training for the next generation of scientists, research and training opportunities for established scientists eager to enrich their research programs, and fosters new collaborations across traditional disciplines.

The center’s researchers address fundamental questions about how life develops, including how a single cell can self-assemble into a complex, living animal with elaborate parts, each displaying their own intricate functions. Quantitative biology probes these questions associated with emergent properties in living systems by using mathematical, statistical, computational and big data techniques.

Learn more about the grant from the National Science Foundation and Simons Foundation.

Learn more about the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology.

Watch how NSF Simons Quantitative Biology is revolutionizing the way mathematical scientists and developmental biologists work together in the video below.