Institute News

Washington, DC, metro-area stakeholders will soon have a new tool at their fingertips to inform equitable and sustainable growth, a critical issue for a region where more than 5.5 million people now live and strong growth is expected over the next 25 years. The unique data platform will emerge from the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute’s launch of a Social Impact Data Commons, an open curated knowledge repository that will co-locate data from various sources, including public datasets, administrative records, and private sources focused on the region.

Bryan Lewis, a research associate professor at the Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative at the University of Virginia, has used models to predict future COVID-19 cases. From recent model runs, Lewis believes the omicron variant will become the dominant strain in the state before the end of the year.

The decline is worrying health officials as colder weather fuels new cases of COVID-19.

According to a recent report from the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute, which collaborates with state health officials, the VDH is deploying up to 25 wastewater monitoring sites across the commonwealth.

Srini Venkatramanan, research assistant professor at the Biocomplexity Institute, weighs in on the recent case numbers across California, Florida, and Texas. 

The University of Virginia has awarded $19 million for interdisciplinary STEM research across Grounds as part of the Prominence-to-Preeminence Fund.  

Dr. Christopher L. Barrett has been elected to the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (VASEM). He said he is surprised and honored to be a newly minted member of VASEM and looks forward to collaborating with fellow members on some of the most pressing problems facing our society today, including national security, transportation, public health, industry, and environmental issues.

For much of the pandemic, the Biocomplexity Institute has been modeling the likely trajectory of COVID-19 in Virginia using mobility data, case rates, vaccination numbers and a slew of other statistics that can predict how, where and how fast the virus will continue to spread. With many Virginians — and public health officials — already preparing for holiday gatherings, understanding potential risks could be crucial for decision-making.

This article discusses how the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute is helping local health officials select mobile vaccine sites. Our data dashboards and reports include information on mobility, drawn from anonymized cell phone data collected by a company called SafeGraph, showing where and when Virginians were traveling to help understand the impact of safety restrictions.

The University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute is pleased to announce the visiting scholar appointment of Joseph J. Salvo as an Institute Fellow, joining a distinguished group of scholars who have been added to the Institute in recent years.