Stanford launched the Bio-X program in 1998 as an incubator for multidisciplinary solutions to complex challenges in human health. The program performs pioneering research at the intersection of biology and medicine, an approach that has proved so successful it now serves as a model for other multidisciplinary efforts throughout the university and around the world. With its hub in the Clark Center, Bio-X nurtures the discoveries that emerge from daily encounters between scientists, engineers, and physicians, advancing human health in directions not yet imagined.

Rather than simply study genes, molecules, or even organs in isolation, Bio-X investigators are attempting to gain an understanding of entire systems within the body. More than 300 faculty members from 50 disciplines, including those at the center of the Initiative on Human Health, have joined Bio-X teams. These teams work on a broad spectrum of research problems that share at least one of the four Bio-X goals: to image and simulate life from molecules to mind, to restore the health of cells and tissues, to decode the genetics of health and disease, and to design therapeutic devices and molecular machines.

The cornerstone of Bio-X is its financial support of multidisciplinary investigation at the frontiers of knowledge through the Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program (IIP), which rewards bold, entrepreneurial thinking through seed grants for promising research. In addition, the new Bio-X Ventures project encourages rapid development of novel ideas, ultimately passing along the most successful ventures to a more permanent university setting so that Bio-X can continue to incubate the "next new thing."

Imaging: Bio-X scientists are developing innovative new tools to see intricate systems at work in the human body. Investigators are devising imaging methods that promise to help guide surgery, determine a drug's efficacy, and diagnose diseases at their earliest stages.

Invention: Bio-X researchers are tackling the challenge of understanding the body?s complex organ systems by inventing and applying new engineering and computational technologies, including therapeutic appliances, nanometer-scale "molecular machines," new prosthetic devices, instruments for minimally invasive surgery, and molecular genetic methods for turning brain circuits on and off.

Integration: Bio-X researchers are deciphering the complex interplay between genes and environment in health and disease.