Microsoft backs biology computing in Italy

Microsoft Corp. and an Italian university will open a computational research center Wednesday to focus on the creation of software applications and computational tools for scientists striving for breakthroughs in biology, the life sciences and drug discovery.

About 30 researchers will work at the Microsoft Research/Trento University Center for Computational and System Biology in Trento, Italy, said Stephen Emmott, director of Microsoft's European Science Initiative, at the company's European Research and Innovation Day in Brussels on Tuesday.

Over the last 10 years, great strides have been made in raw computing power, such as the mapping of the human genome, Emmott said. But scientists lack the advanced tools to understand how advanced biological processes work, he said.

"Current computational models of biological systems are very primitive," Emmott said. The project "looks as if it has the potential to create the kinds of complex predictive, powerful predictive models, of biological processing that biologists have only dreamed of in the last 50 years."

The programs and tools would empower, for example, oncologists and immunologists to better understand what causes cells to change in what appear now to be unpredictable ways, Emmott said. "We don't understand that at all," he said.

Conversely, the project may also foster novel ways to construct computer architectures as a result of a deeper understanding of biology, Emmott said. The research is scheduled for a five-year run but may continue depending on how successful it is, he said.

The University of Trento was selected because its staff has expertise in both computer science and biology, Emmott said. Microsoft has been working with the university for the last year, he said.