Stanford is soon to found the National Center for Physics-Based Simulation of Biological Structures ("SimBioS" for short).

The Sanford Report says the center's goal will be to develop software that will allow biologists to physically model the systems they're studying, rather than having to learn how to model the physics themselves. They particularly plan to build simulation software for RNA folding, myosin dynamics, neuromuscular dynamics, and cardiovascular dynamics. Such tools could strongly accelerate the pace of biotech innovations.

"If you look at the physics of many different biological structures, the fundamental equations that describe these systems have a lot in common. We're going to create a package that can simulate everything from proteins folding to human movement."