The Cell Systems Initiative (CSI) is a multidisciplinary initiative founded by the UW School of Medicine, jointly supported by the College of Engineering, and housed within the Department of Bioengineering. Our mission is to understand the dynamic information control systems that operate within all living cells. Central to this mission are three goals:

• To establish a comprehensive theory of the cell;
• To create predictive models that aid our understanding of the normal cell;
• To provide a distributed, easily accessed collaborative research and learning environment.

CSI maintains a small core staff to identify difficult problems in cell systems biology, gathers diverse experts around these problems, and develops languages and tools towards their solution.