Research Areas

Isn’t Science Beautiful?

The Institute for Systems Biology, where science solves problems, saves lives, and benefits human life on a global scale. If that’s not beautiful, we don’t know what is.

A microbial community-scale metabolic model of an individual’s gut generated by MICOM data and Gephi. Credit: Gibbons Lab/ISB

A microbial community-scale metabolic model of an individual’s gut generated by MICOM data and the data visualization tool Gephi. Image credit: Gibbons Lab/ISB.

ISB Today

Our science is transforming health.

ISB is uncovering new solutions to the world’s most pressing health problems.

ISB Building in South Lake Union, Seattle Photo credit: Trevor Dykstra

ISB Building at dusk in South Lake Union, Seattle. Photo credit: Trevor Dykstra.

Career Opportunities

Great minds don’t think alike.

ISB employs over 170 staff with expertise across a wide range of disciplines. Our teams span multiple scientific fields, with molecular biologists, geneticists, software engineers, computational biologists, and even microbial ecologists working together.

woman working in a lab

Members of the Kuchina Lab working at ISB in Seattle. Photo credit: Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures.

Featured Research Topics

man working in a lab

Cancer won’t cure itself.

Cancer is complex and requires a sophisticated systems approach to understand and treat it. ISB researchers are pursuing several complex and cross-disciplinary means to better create more personalized therapeutics and simulate which treatments will be most effective.

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gibbons in the lab

You are not entirely human.

Each of us has a microbiome — trillions of microorganisms that reside in and on our bodies. ISB researchers study the microbiome’s role in human health and translate this knowledge into approaches designed to promote better health for every individual.

View Microbiome Research
Members of the Kuchina Lab working at ISB in Seattle. (Photography by Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures)

Rewriting the rules of resistance.

Our infectious disease research addresses a wide range of global health initiatives. We are exploring new approaches that focus on cutting-edge treatments and preventive measures to fight infectious diseases.

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Latest News

Read the latest news of our transformational research, devoted scientists and educators, recent and upcoming events, and much more.

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Carole Ellison, Donor Spotlight

Carole Ellison’s Bold Bet on Science and the Researchers of Tomorrow

Carole Ellison has supported ISB’s research and STEM programs for over a decade. She established the K. Carole Ellison Fellowship in Bioinformatics, funding groundbreaking research that has enabled young scientists to make critical discoveries.

Carole Ellison’s Bold Bet on Science and the Researchers of Tomorrow
Carole Ellison’s Bold Bet on Science and the Researchers of Tomorrow

New Research Uncovers Hidden Rules of Immune Response

Scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) reveal how T cells “decide” their fate in fighting infections like COVID-19, paving the way for improved treatments for infections, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.

New Research Uncovers Hidden Rules of Immune Response
New Research Uncovers Hidden Rules of Immune Response
Banner image for Women's Health Consortium: Revolutionizing HPV+ Cancer Treatment

A purple ribbon, the color for gynecologic cancers, composed with diverse faces illustrated by Stacey Knipe.

Giving Priority Area

Join us in our journey to bring effective treatments to all women with HPV+ cancers.

The Women’s Health Consortium, led by ISB President Dr. Jim Heath, is taking a collaborative approach to engineered T cell immunotherapy to benefit women of all ethnicities with advanced HPV+ cancers. Your support will help us bring innovative therapies to patients in need.

Featured Researchers

mr. heath
Who We Are

Dr. Jim Heath

President and Professor Jim Heath is dedicated to advancing precision medicine from benchtop to bedside, particularly in oncology. His research addresses fundamental scientific bottlenecks that can unlock solutions to broader challenges.

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Sean Gibbons
Who We Are

Dr. Sean Gibbons

Associate Professor Sean Gibbons develops experimental and computational approaches to dissect and engineer the functional outputs of the human gut microbiome to advance personalized medicine.

View Gibbons Lab Research
anna from isb
Who We Are

Dr. Anna Kuchina

Assistant Professor Anna Kuchina studies bacteria at the single-cell level, using advanced technologies to understand how bacteria behave in complex settings such as biofilms living in the human body.

View Kuchina Lab Research
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Ways to Give

Help us realize a new vision of health.

The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is a nonprofit scientific research organization located in Seattle. We believe that science has the power to transform health. You have an opportunity to play an essential role in the future of human health. When you get involved, you enable our researchers to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time. Together we can build a better, brighter, healthier future.