Varshney and Pop Are Part of New Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science

Two UMIACS researchers, director Amitabh Varshney and computational biologist Mihai Pop, are part of a new research center focused on the study of a wide range of tobacco products and their impact on public health.

The University of Maryland Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science -- launched with a nearly $19 million award from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- is one of 14 centers nationwide created as part of a new federally-funded program to provide the critical science base needed for the FDA to effectively regulate tobacco and protect public health.

Varshney and Pop are part of a team that will provide for the safe and rapid cleaning, analysis, storage and availability of the vast amounts of genomic and other data collected from the center’s research.