Cornell University has announced a New Life Sciences Initiative (NLSI) designed to advance discovery in the genomics age. Cornell is renowned for pioneering research and teaching in the life sciences and for world-class physics, chemistry, computational science, and engineering programs.

Progress in the biological sciences will rely on computational and cutting-edge measurement and imaging technologies of the physical and mathematical sciences, and on a deeper understanding of the structure and interactions of large numbers of biomolecules.

Moreover, the new biology will be a two-way street: discoveries in molecular-scale biology will present new paradigms and opportunities for applications in physics, chemistry, and engineering, quite apart from their implications for understanding the nature of biological processes.

Cornell is already culturally adapted to the interdisciplinary mode of research needed to forge new discoveries in the basic life and physical sciences and in medicine. Cornell's inherently interdisciplinary graduate "field system" encompasses the broad sweep of disciplines needed for cross-cutting discovery by encouraging interdepartmental doctoral committees.

Interaction across disciplines is further enhanced by a large number of multidisciplinary national research centers at Cornell (e.g., Biotechnology Institute; Center for Materials Research; High Energy Synchrotron Source; Cornell Nanofabrication Facility; Nanobiotechnology Center; Theory Center; Developmental Resource for Biophysical Imaging and Opto-electronics).

Since 1999, the Cornell Genomics Initiative has re-vitalized Cornell's investments in molecular biology and genetics by promoting "department-open" faculty hiring, thereby setting the tone for the NLSI. Because innovation must be founded upon excellence in traditional departments in the life and physical sciences and engineering, the NLSI will strive to strengthen existing premier departments and programs as well as promote new and collaborative initiatives.

Cornell foresees hiring at least 50 new faculty into life science-related areas as part of the NLSI. The hiring plan will be guided by three organizing principles that broadly define the strategic mission of the NLSI: first, at the foundation, Genomic/Proteomic Biology involves understanding the information encoded in the basic DNA, RNA, and protein molecules of life. This sequence information contains the constructive rules for the building blocks of life itself. Additionally, physicists and computer scientists are intrigued by use of this information for applications such as computation and materials synthesis.

Second, the translation of these codes into biological entities is the province of Systems Biology. Biological systems encompass structure and function at all levels of organization and all size scales, from molecules to cells to tissues and organs to individual organisms to populations of organisms within ecosystems. These elements can be described as an interacting network that needs to be understood and computationally modeled. Thus, investigation of biological systems and networks draws as much from computer science and engineering as from biology.

Hence, the third organizing principle is interaction, which is the modus operandi of the NLSI: the goal is to further catalyze a network of campus-wide research and educational activities to continue to bring together biologists, physicists, chemists, computational scientists, and engineers in an atmosphere where traditional departmental and college boundaries become secondary to the intellectual work itself.