Simbios is the NIH Center for physics-based Simulation of Biological Structures. Simbios provides infrastructure, software, and training to help biomedical researchers understand biological form and function as they create novel drugs, synthetic tissues, medical devices, and surgical interventions.

Simbios is investigating a wide scale of biological structures - from molecules to organisms. Driving biological problems include RNA folding, protein folding, myosin dynamics, cardiovascular dynamics, and neuromuscular biomechanics. Investigators interested in collaborating with Simbios can apply for NIH funding.

To encourage collaboration in building accurate biological models and simulations, Simbios also provides the biomedical community with https://simtk.org, a free, secure, distributed, development system for projects. Projects may include models, software, data, documentation, publications, and graphics and have automatic backups and off-site storage. Projects may be public or private and have project-specific mailing lists, forums, bug & feature databases, news, blogs, and source-code repositories.

Simbios is developing and disseminating the SimTK core simulation toolkit, (simtk.org/home/simtkcore). SimTK core is open-source software developed by experienced professionals. The software includes advanced capabilities for modeling the geometry and physics of biological systems. To ensure utility and accuracy, the software and training material is being developed and tested in close collaboration with biomedical scientists. Simbios has developed OpenSim, an application for advanced neuromuscular modeling that uses the SimTK toolkit, and is making it openly available at simtk.org/home/opensim.

Simbios also publishes the Biomedical Computation Review, a magazine devoted to the science and tools in biocomputation, aimed at the community which encompasses the diverse biocomputation disciplines. To help researchers find high quality software and tools Simbios has also establishes the Simbiome an inventory of high-quality commercial and academic bio-simulation tools. Simbios has recurring openings for postdoctoral researchers, please consult our careers page.

In the context of other NIH centers concentrating on complementary elements of biomedicine, Simbios is focused on the physical reality of biological structures and provides a critical piece of a national biomedical computing infrastructure.