UC San Diego, UCSF each received $15.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to create systems biology research centers.

The UC San Diego Center for Systems Biology will focus on interactions involved in cells’ responses to stress, said director Alexander Hoffmann, professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the Division of Physical Sciences. Researchers at the new center will analyze interactions among all of the genes and proteins within a cell in response to potentially harmful changes in the environment, then test the functions of specific genetic “circuits” involved in the response by recreating them in isolation using synthesized genes.

The UCSF Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology will lead by Wendell A. Lim, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology. He and his colleagues into understanding how cells use biological circuits to sense and adjust to their surroundings. The emerging field of research that could revolutionize medicine by creating “smart cells” to deliver medications and other therapeutics more effectively.