Northwestern University has announced a five-year, $50 million partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation to establish the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (NITMB), a first-of-its-kind institute in the United States.

Northwestern also will partner with the University of Chicago in the initiative to develop and use math to investigate some of the most important fundamental questions in the life sciences. To that end, the universities will create a nationwide collaborative research community that will generate new mathematical results and uncover the “rules of life” through theories, data-informed mathematical models, and computational and statistical tools. Approximately 80 faculty—40 from each university—will be involved in the institute’s work, including quantitative biologists (both experimental and theoretical), computer scientists, physicists, and mathematicians.

NITMB builds on Northwestern’s NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, established in 2018 to develop interdisciplinary research between mathematics and developmental biology. Since then, the Weinberg College center has yielded scientific successes and the growth of a robust research community. The new institute will take the older center’s foundation and expand it with new partners and an international reach, a broader scientific vision, and dedication to training a diverse workforce across disciplines.

“This is incredibly exciting and important funding that will fuel breakthrough interdisciplinary science,” said Northwestern University vice president for research Milan Mrksich. “Earlier this year, we celebrated being selected to lead the Chan Zuckerberg Chicago Biohub. Now we are two-for-two this year in winning competitions that create single centers of their kind in the country.”

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