The importance of multidisciplinary teams in a large biomedical research program

The formation of multidisciplinary teams is vital to modern biomedical research. These teams are important contributors to the advancement of scientific discovery as well as the translation of those discoveries into useful clinical practice. The issues involved in providing scientific and technical expertise in computational science and engineering to support a large biomedical research program are presented. The activities of the Division of Computational Bioscience (DCB) of the Center for Information Technology (CIT) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are highlighted. Professionals in this organization apply the concepts and technologies of computer science, engineering, physical science and mathematics to biomedical applications, making available this expertise to the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP). The areas of application include imaging, informatics, instrumentation, telemedicine, structural biology and mathematical analysis. Examples where collaborative research and development teams containing DCB professionals have worked to produce significant results are presented. These examples are a chromosome microdissection instrument, a telemedicine system for radiation oncology, and a medical image archive.