In 2008, NIAID established the Systems Biology Program for Infectious Disease Research. In 2012/2013, NIAID continued the Systems Biology Program to further develop an interdisciplinary community that integrates experimental biology, computational tools and modeling across temporal and spatial scales towards a better understanding of infectious diseases. These efforts laid the groundwork in 2016 to support Systems Biology centers that address antibacterial resistance and centers funded in 2018 to advance models across diverse pathogens.
Through well-defined research questions each center built, tested, and validated hypotheses that relied on generating and interpreting and integrating large-scale datasets. Their work ushered cutting-edge “omics” technologies into the infectious diseases field by connecting computational scientists, microbiologists, virologists, immunologists, and clinicians.
A funding timeline and Specific Center details are outlined below.

Funding timeline and Specific Center details
2008: NIAID/DMID launches the Systems Biology Program for Infectious Diseases
Centers
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; The Center for Systems Biology for EnteroPathogens
- Institute for Systems Biology; The Center for Systems Influenza
- University of Washington; The Systems Virology Center
- Stanford University; The TB Systems Biology Center
Publications
- PubMed search for 2008 Center publications
- Co-authored perspective: A systems biology approach to infectious disease research: innovating the pathogen-host research paradigm
2012-2013: NIAID continues to support the Systems Biology Centers for Infectious Diseases
- Funding opportunity announcements RFA-AI-12-027 and NOT-AI-11-038.
Centers
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Multiscale analysis of influenza host-pathogen interactions: FluOMICS
- Contact PI: Adolfo Garcia-Sastre
- University of Pittsburg; Omics-Based Predictive Modeling of Age-Dependent Outcome to Influenza Infection
- Contact PI: Elodie Ghedin
- Modeling Host Responses to Understand Severe Human Virus Infections
- Contact PI: Yoshihiro Kawaoka
- Omics for TB Disease Progression (OTB)
- Contact PI: Alan Aderem
- Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center (MaHPIC)
- Contact PIs: Mary Galinski; Jessica Kissinger
Publications
- PubMed search for 2012-2013 Center publications
2016: Systems Biology and Antibacterial Resistance Program
- Funding opportunity announcement RFA-AI-14-064.
Centers
- Baylor College of Medicine; Decoding Antibiotic-Induced Susceptibility to Clostridium difficile Infection
- Contact PI: Tor Savidge
- Boston College; Predicting the Emergence of Antibiotic Resistance through Multi-Omics Approaches and Immune System Surveillance
- Contact PI: Tim Opijnen
- Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research; Systems Biology of Microbiome-Mediated Resilience to Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens
- Contact PI: Eric Pamer & Joao Xavier
- Los Angeles Biomedical Institute at Harbor - UCLA Med; Systems Immunolobiology of Antibiotic-Persistent MRSA Infection
- Contact PI: Michael Yeaman
- University of California, San Diego; Systems Biology Approach to Redefine Susceptibility Testing and Treatment of MDR Pathogens in the Context of Host Immunity
- Contact PI: Bernhard Palsson
- University of Michigan; Systems Biology of Clostridium difficile Infection
- Contact PI: Vincent Young
Publications
- PubMed for the Antibacterial Resistance Program publications.
2018: Systems Biology—The Next Generation Program
- Funding opportunity announcement RFA-AI-16-080
Centers
- Scripps Research Institute; Consortium for Viral Systems Biology (CViSB)
- Contact PI: Kristian Andersen
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; FluOMICS, The Next Generation
- Contact PI: Adolfo Garcia-Sastre
- Seattle Biomedical Research Institute; OMICS for TB: Response to Infection and Treatment
- Contact PI: Alan Aderem & David Sherman
- Northwestern University at Chicago; Successful Clinical Response in Pneumonia Therapy (SCRIPT) Systems Biology
- Contact PI: Richard Wunderink
- University of California, San Francisco; HPMI: Host Pathogen Mapping Initiative
- Contact PI: Nevan Krogan
Publications
- PubMed search for the Next Generation Program publications.