Kansas University researchers have received a $250,000 gift to help predict the spread of viruses such as West Nile, officials announced Wednesday.

The gift, from the Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Charitable Foundation, goes to the KU Biodiversity Informatics Laboratory and a project led by Andrew Townsend âÂÂTownâ Peterson, an associate professor.

The grant will double the space available for researchers, computers and equipment for the projectâÂÂs laboratory.

Peterson and his colleagues are working to create online access for biological information associated with 3 billion plant, animal and microbe specimens housed in natural history museums.

In the case of West Nile, that information allows scientists to know where populations of crows and jays overlap with mosquito populations. That information helps them predict where the virus could spread.