BIO-X HOME PAGE	THE CLARK CENTER	BIO-X COMMITTEES
INTRODUCTION TO BIO-X	BIO-X PUBLIC DOCUMENT	BIO-X COURSES & SYMPOSIA
PARTICIPATION IN THE BIO-X PROJECT	INDICATION OF INTEREST IN BIO-X	COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS

Interdisciplinary frontiers within the Bio-X Program will be broadly based. They will be the norm within the Center, but will also incorporate investigators in other buildings within the Bio-X Program. This will stimulate further interactions between investigators completely outside the Center. There are no limitations with respect to themes represented. The critical issue is that the combination of investigators from physics, chemistry, biology, engineering and medicine should create an electric atmosphere of invention and innovation that will open new, unanticipated frontiers. We present here several examples of interaction groups that are already anticipated within the Bio-X Program.   1.Investigators who develop new biological tools and apply these tools in the study of biological processes that span the range from individual biomolecules to cell behavior to communication between cells. Examples of new technologies include ultra sensitive fluorescence techniques, nanometer imaging of biological samples under physiological conditions, and optical tweezers and atomic force microscopes that can measure molecular force and displacements. New tools for biochemical analysis, manipulation and study of membranes and other biological and biochemical interfaces will also be developed. These new tools, coupled with the wide range of more standard techniques (e.g. classical genetics, molecular genetics, NMR and X-ray diffraction, chemical synthesis), will be used to study a wide variety of biological problems including the molecular basis of energy transduction by molecular motors, protein-membrane interactions, molecular kinetics in vesicles, synapse transduction, protein and RNA folding, and protein/DNA interactions. Importantly, this theme also imports biological techniques back into the physical sciences and engineering. Examples include the use of DNA as a model polymer to study fundamental questions in polymer dynamics, the use of biological inspired membranes and surface chemistry to construct new analytic and diagnostic tools, and the co-development of nanostructure imaging, manipulation and analysis for both biological sciences and micro-to-nano electronics. 2. Investigators creating an interdisciplinary environment to enhance our understanding of the structure and function of the cardiovascular system. These will be clinicians, engineers and basic scientists with an interest in molecular biology, vascular biology, biomechanics, fluid dynamics, computational modeling and cardiovascular disease and its treatment. The core constituents will be molecular and cell biology as they relate to hemodynamic forces acting on the cardiovascular system, experimental manipulation of biomechanical and hemodynamic influences on blood vessels, and computational analysis of fluid dynamic and biomechanical factors.  3. Investigators involved in functional genomics. Stanford clearly leads the world in this effort and the opportunities are enormous and varied. Functional genomics is based on two self-evident observations: First, we are about to have the DNA sequence of the entire human genome yet we need to know the functions of these genes if we are to reap the huge potential benefits for mankind. Second, biology is driven by evolution so that there are deep relationships between all functional components. Discovering these connections is the very powerful lever that will speed the determination of biological function from genomic data. Functional genomics is a broad area extending as it does from molecules to medicine. This interaction group will draw on and enhance the existing strengths at Stanford in computer science, bio-informatics, structural biology, genetics, micro-device engineering, gene array technologies, gene expression measurements, molecular synthesis, developmental biology, model organism studies and clinical medicine. It will foster the integration of these existing strengths focusing on and eliminating bottlenecks as they occur. 4. Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary area that sits squarely at the interface between cell biology, molecular biology, materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and others. The basic premise is to harness living tissues in a controllable and repeatable manner. End-goals include cultured replacement tissues (and, ultimately, complete vascular organs) for humans, bioproduction of complex substances at the organ level, modulation of immune functions, manipulation of cell mortality, development of molecular and macroscopic scaffoldings for tissue culture, and the co-mingling of live tissues and hardware (e.g., tissue based biosensors that make use of live cells to sense chemical events). Such efforts will bring together clinicians, engineers and basic scientists on campus and will undoubtedly lead to major developments in science.     NEW COURSE - "FRONTIERS IN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSCIENCES"