The Living Systems Institute aims to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of human, animal, and plant diseases by bringing together experts from various fields to apply engineering and physics techniques to biology. The Institute will work on combating serious diseases, predicting rapid pathogen evolution, and predicting and treating disease at the sub-cellular level. Funding priorities include building the Institute, attracting top academics and funding research, interdisciplinary PhD programs, equipment, and supporting disadvantaged students.

1. Living Systems: introduction
Professor Mark Goodwin, Dean of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences

2. The vision
Science in the Living Systems Institute
could revolutionise the diagnosis and
treatment of a wide range of human,
animal and plant diseases.

3. The Living Systems Institute will:
Bring together leading mathematicians, physicists, cell and
molecular biologists, biomedical scientists and engineers.
Apply investigative techniques from engineering and physics to
make biology a predictive as well as an observational science.
Move beyond the present frontiers of biology to accurate,
predictive control engineering of whole living systems.

4. Key scientific themes
Combating serious disease in humans, animals and
plants
Predicting the rapid evolution of pathogens and diseases
Predicting and treating disease at a sub-cellular level

5. Funding the project
• A priority investment for the institution.
• External funding is critical to create an institute with global impact.
• Philanthropic funding sources are essential, as are Government, researchfunded charities and charitable trusts, industry, and private individuals.
Key funding priorities are:
1. Building an iconic Living Systems Institute
2. Attracting world-leading academics and funding world-class research.
3. A premium programme of interdisciplinary PhD studentships
4. Cutting-edge equipment.
5. Support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

6. Examples of outstanding science
Dr Ivana Gudelj, Associate Professor of Systems Biology
Professor Jon Mill, Professor of Epigenetics
Professor Peter Ashwin, Head of Mathematics and Computer Science
Dr Julian Moger, Senior Lecturer in Biological Physics
Dr Helen Dawe, Lecturer in Cell Biology