SRA wins biomedical Web work

SRA International Inc. won a five-year $13.6 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a Web-compatible database system for information used by biomedical researchers in studying biodefense and public health issues, the company said today.

As a division of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases supports basic and applied research to reduce the impact of bioterrorism and emerging and reemerging diseases.

The award is part of $79 million that the agency will issue to industry-academic partnerships and multi-university partnerships for bioinformatics and biodefense centers, SRA said.

SRA will develop and operate a bioinformatics resource center for researchers to analyze and share data and improve the quality and use of genomic research data, the company said. The resource center will consolidate information about enterobacteria, a group of pathogens that can cause diseases such as dysentery, plague, food poisoning and typhoid fever.

SRA's services will include database design and development, data and text mining, systems integration and information security. Staff from the Genome Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison will advise SRA on bioinformatics tools and user interfaces. The work will be done in SRA's Rockville, Md., office.

SRA, Fairfax, Va., provides IT services and solutions to federal government agencies. The company is No. 31 on Washington Technology's Top 100 list of prime federal contractors.