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Since becoming Executive Director of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) in November 2009, I have had the opportunity to experience in person the collaborative science and talented employees behind the success of the Institute. VBI is an excellent example of how to integrate different disciplinary approaches into groundbreaking scientific programs that span policy and decision informatics, cyberinfrastructure, and biosystems research. It also offers many exciting paths for further development.
This is a very exciting time to be working at the interface of biology, medicine, and the physical sciences. As the Institute's new director, my job is to build on VBI's achievements and identify new opportunities that will provide significant growth. I believe we are in an ideal position to take advantage of the many exciting developments that are materializing in fields such as genetics, computational biology, and clinical research.
VBI will continue to build on its strengths as one of the leading international institutes for informatics and infectious disease research. Many of the challenges that exist in bioinformatics, computational biology, and biomedicine demand next-generation High Performance Computing environments. We will be working hard to deliver innovative computing solutions and environments that will enable researchers to make sense of the tremendous amounts of new data that are being generated by biological investigations. We will also be pursuing new strategic directions, for example human disease and the use of a wide range of -omics-based research initiatives.
In addition to national and international partnerships, we will be looking closely at the many possibilities for collaborative research on our own doorstep. Opportunities in the life sciences are opening up across the Virginia Tech campus, including possibilities to partner with translational science initiatives at the recently created Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute. VBI will work closely with Virginia Tech and key partners as part of its mission to drive science, facilitate policy and decision-making, and produce meaningful outcomes for society. The Institute will also be moving ahead with our business development efforts to translate VBI's research achievements into commercial undertakings.
This is a very exciting time to be joining VBI. I look forward to working with the Institute's dedicated employees and partners as we invent the future for this remarkable Institute.
Harold "Skip" Garner, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
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