Interdisciplinary research at NIH.

Abstract

Norman Metzger and Richard N. Zare (Policy Forum, Science's Compass, 29 Jan. p. 642) sound cautionary notes about the difficulties of organizing, and obtaining funding for, interdisciplinary research. For biomedical research, the trend toward interdisciplinary approaches appears to be inevitable and accelerating. This is particularly visible in the proliferation of data provided by genomics, in situ measurements, and other innovative technologies that require nontraditional analyses using quantitative skills not commonly found among biomedical scientists. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has sponsored or cosponsored several workshops dealing with interdisciplinary, quantitative approaches to complex biomedical problems. Reports of these workshops, and funding initiatives resulting from them, can be found on the NIGMS Web sites (1). One initiative focuses on understanding the design principles and dynamics of biomedical systems with large numbers of interacting components, at all levels of biological organization. These goals will likely require the collaborative participation of investigators in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences. Other initiatives with interdisciplinary requirements address the analysis of complex genetic traits and the evolutionary dynamics of pathogens and their hosts. Because NIH has a major role in training future biomedical scientists, NIGMS, along with other institutes, has announced support for short courses and workshops that will provide either quantitative training and background to biological scientists or training in biological systems to scientists and engineers in the mathematically focused disciplines. Some large-scale interdisciplinary research projects may require special mechanisms of funding; NIGMS expects to announce these new mechanisms shortly.