San Diego

The University of California at Berkeley last week announced a $500 million Health Sciences Initiative, which will bring together biologists, physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists to address human disease.

About $300 million will be used to construct new laboratory buildings and $200 million will be spent on researchers and new equipment.

Berkeley, which lacks a medical school is seeking to create an interdisciplinary initiative that produces both biological discoveries and human products, from artificial tissues to drugs.

Robert Tjian, a professor of molecular and cell biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher and co-leader of the initiative, says that many future breakthroughs in biology will occur “at the convergence of these diverse fields”.

Thomas Budinger, chair of the new bioengineering department — a combined effort involving the Berkeley campus and the University of California at San Francisco — says it will “bring engineering to biology and biologists to the methods and resources of engineering”.

A Whitaker Foundation grant is expected to fund an expansion in bioengineering students, say Berkeley officials. The initiative also includes the new Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, named after the former tennis star, whose estate donated $10 million.