Four million for Systems Biology Centre

Researchers from the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Science and Engineering (formerly known as the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) will be awarded a EUR 4 million grant by NWO for setting up a centre for systems biology. The centre, which will fall under the umbrella of the Groningen institute for research into ageing, ERIBA, will study the link between energy metabolism and ageing.

In systems biology, theoretical and experimental biologists develop computer models of biological networks. At the new centre the medical researchers will work on computer models of the relationship between fat metabolism and ageing in mice, while system biologists from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences will study the link between ageing and energy metabolism in yeast cells.

The knowledge acquired via these yeast cells and mice will then be linked to findings from the LifeLines study. LifeLines is the project that aims to map the relationship between behaviour and health in tens of thousands of inhabitants of the northern Netherlands over a period of 30 years.

The research sponsors NWO and ZonMw awarded three grants, totalling EUR 13 million, to centres for systems biology last week. In addition to the University of Groningen, the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam and the Centre for Systems Biology and Bioenergetics of Radboud University Nijmegen were each awarded a EUR 4.5 million grant.