# National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems

> **NIH NIH P41** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2024 · $1,251,614

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The advent of genome technologies for interrogating gene expression has irreversibly changed the scale at
which scientists investigate biological problems. More specifically, large-scale gene expression sequencing
technologies have allowed us to glean insights into biology and disease pathogenesis at unprecedented pace.
However, RNA levels are only one piece of a highly complex biological puzzle: genes are the starting point of
the cellular regulatory process, while metabolites are often the end products and the ultimate biological effector
molecules. There are many layers of regulation post-expression that fine-tune the biological system in the path
from gene to protein to metabolite. Recognizing the central role of proteins and their post-translational
modifications (PTMs) in this process, the National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems was
founded to provide large-scale quantitative data for these molecules. Our Biotechnology Research Resource
aims to accelerate the pace, depth, and accuracy of quantifying the proteome, metabolome, and lipidome. Driven
by the needs of biomedical researchers, our mission is to develop technologies that provide rapid access to the
most comprehensive and accurate reporters of the biological state. Specifically we will (1) extend and ultimately
culminate our work to enable comprehensive biomolecule characterization; (2) develop and conclude our work
enabling highly multiplexed proteome quantification and (3) break ground on the development of the novel
chromatographic and mass spectrometry platform for wholly integrated multi-omic analysis.
We shall develop these technologies in the context of several high impact driving biomedical research projects
that require the new technological advancements for success and that can serve as technology testbeds. These
driving projects comprise two central themes. First, responding to the demands of biomedical researchers to
explore the roles of emergent and yet poorly understood biomolecules and their PTMs, we will target projects
concerned with new, metabolite-derived post-translational modifications. Second, we have come to appreciate
that in addition to protein measurements our collaborators require new technologies to identify and quantify
metabolites and lipids to fully understand their biological systems of interest and we will work with a host of
projects that allow us to test and refine technologies for the large-scale systems and multi-omics analyses to
explore physiology and metabolism. Finally, we propose a multi-faceted approach to dissemination, training, and
collaboration, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the sustained impact of our technology. All of our technologies
are designed to be sustainable, and we have created both systematic and informal mechanisms to deliver our
knowledge and innovations to the scientific community.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10878847
- **Project number:** 5P41GM108538-09
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Joshua J Coon
- **Activity code:** P41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,251,614
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-07-05 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10878847

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10878847, National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems (5P41GM108538-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10878847. Licensed CC0.

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