The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech (formerly the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute) is a research organization specializing in bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology. The institute has more than 250 personnel, including over 50 tenured and research faculty. Research at the institute involves collaboration in diverse disciplines such as mathematics, computer science, biology, plant pathology, biochemistry, systems biology, statistics, economics, synthetic biology and medicine. The institute develops -omic and bioinformatic tools and databases that can be applied to the study of human, animal and plant diseases as well as the discovery of new vaccine, drug and diagnostic targets.