Virginia Bioinformatics Institute

The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI), Alexandria, focuses research efforts on understanding host-pathogen-environmental interactions. Because understanding complex biological principles now requires an integrated approach including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, computer modeling and advanced analytical tools, VBI fosters collaborations within the Institute, Virginia Tech, and all of academia, industry and government.  This integration epitomizes the multidisciplinary approach to which the Institute is dedicated.

VBI scientists define bioinformatics in the broadest sense by combining approaches from a wide variety of disciplines, including the life sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and engineering. Coupled with VBI's efforts in informatics, research groups develop new experimental techniques, apply existing and novel techniques to complex biological problems and create new analytic and theoretical tools to convert biological data into useful knowledge. As a common asset in bioinformatics, both data generation and informatics services hosted in VBI’s core facilities are available to the greater community on a cost-recovery basis.

VBI and its partners have been awarded a five-year, $10.3 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) -- one of the largest National Institute of Health (NIH) contracts in Virginia Tech’s history -- to establish a national Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC) that consists of a multi-organism relational database in support of infectious disease research, especially as it affects biodefense and emerging infectious diseases.