Susmita Datta, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation for "Statistical Peak Detection, Adaptive Classification and Protein-Protein Network Construction Using Mass Spectra," a three-year project that began June 1, 2008. The main goal of this grant is to develop novel and improved statistical methods for analyzing high dimensional proteomic data generated from mass spectrometers. This research can be applied to identify more sensitive and specific proteomic biomarkers for complex diseases and conditions, such as cancer, acute renal disorder and fetal alcohol syndrome, from easily available bodily fluids like blood, plasma, urine, amniotic fluid and serum.