INTERACT

Interdisciplinary Network for Tracking Emerging Risks, Analytics, and Comparative Translational Genomics

INTERACT is an interdisciplinary research initiative focused on developing high-throughput computational methods for analyzing biological sequence and structure data. Our work integrates comparative genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, structural biology, and machine learning to better understand how biological systems evolve, adapt, and respond to emerging risks.

A central goal of INTERACT is to build scalable approaches for comparing genomes and proteins across the tree of life, from viruses and bacteria to archaea and eukaryotes. By combining conserved protein domain analysis, structural motifs, and genome-scale protein language models, we aim to identify both the core protein functions shared across life and the specialized functions that distinguish different species, lineages, and ecological niches.

Through this work, INTERACT seeks to establish a common functional vocabulary for biology—one that can support pathogen surveillance, evolutionary discovery, microbial taxonomy, translational genomics, and the design of future biological systems. Our mission is to turn large-scale biological data into interpretable knowledge that advances fundamental genomics and helps track emerging biological threats.