Within the German FORSYS initiative our systems biology unit VIROQUANT: Systems Biology of Virus-Cell Interactions we will decipher and develop dynamic models for cellular networks responsible for virus replication and spread based on high-content screens for virus-cell interactions. Instrumental to achieve this goal will be the unique combination of our expertise in Heidelberg in the fields of high-content screening and high-resolution microscopy, development of biosensors, single molecule spectroscopy, handling of large data sets, image analysis, mathematical modeling and simulation with high caliber virology. The three research areas of the VIROQUANT consortium (biology, modeling, technology development) will develop a technology and modeling platform that deciphers and models host virus interactions studied in the biological work packages.

VIROQUANT is embedded into BIOQUANT, the center for "Quantitative analysis of molecular and cellular biosystems" at the University of Heidelberg. This center will integrate systems biology research dispersed over various research centers at the University of Heidelberg (Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), Biochemistry Center (BZH), Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), and Department of Computer Science in Mannheim, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratories (EMBL), European Media lab (EML) and the Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research (MPIMF). VIROQUANT is formed by members of those research centers and will form the first core of systems biology research at BIOQUANT.