2024-25 School Year ISB Education Highlights
In the January installment of the 2024-25 academic year roundup, we detail how the rush of summer intern applicants taxed our intake system, and more.
Lab Overview
Baliga Lab
The Baliga Lab, led by Dr. Nitin Baliga, develops models of biological systems, from single cells to communities of multiple organisms, that accurately predict adaptation to environmental changes.
Cancer Research
An abstracted figure from the Baliga Lab’s Science Advances publication depicting simulated states of core regulatory network topologies.
Topic: Optimizing Outcomes
A New Technology for Personalized Cancer Care
Every cancer patient’s disease is different. Yet most cancer patients receive a similar set of aggressive treatments, resulting in a high treatment failure rate and many adverse side effects. By deeply characterizing a patient’s risk of progression, the Baliga Lab’s SYGNAL technology helps physicians select personalized treatment plans.
Glioblastoma on T2 MR image. Image credit: WikiLectures, recolored by ISB.
Topic: Optimizing Outcomes
New Treatments for Glioblastoma (GBM) – A Primary Brain Tumor
Patients with GBM have a median survival of 12-14 months and a high recurrence rate, in part because treatment itself makes GBM cells more drug-resistant. In partnership with the Swedish Neuroscience Institute, the Baliga Lab is leading a study to prevent drug resistance and improve clinical outcomes in GBM patients by personalizing cocktails of FDA drugs approved for other uses.
Infectious Disease Research
Tuberculosis bacteria. Image credit: CDC.
Topic: Tuberculosis
Fast and Complete Clearance of Tuberculosis
The pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that causes TB is adept at gaining resistance to treatment, making it difficult to eliminate. The World Health Organization has declared multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) a global health crisis. The Baliga Lab, with NIH funding, is accelerating the development of multidrug regimens to achieve fast and complete clearance of Mtb and reduce MDR-TB.
Image of prescription TB drugs. Photo credit: Stockvault, recolored by ISB.
Topic: Tuberculosis
Accelerating Early TB Drug Discovery
The global TB epidemic is worsening as new TB strains emerge that are resistant to current drug treatments. Standard TB treatments are 3-9 months, which for many patients is impractical. The Baliga Lab, with support from the Gates Foundation, is discovering new drug targets and uncovering novel mechanisms of action for next-generation TB agents that can shorten treatment and prevent TB drug resistance.
Patient samples. Photo credit: Victoria Uhl /ISB.
Topic: Tuberculosis
Identifying Patients with Active TB
The World Health Organization estimates that up to a third of the world’s population may be latently infected with TB bacteria, with 5-10 percent of these people developing active, transmittable TB. There is a pressing need for low-cost tests to screen for active TB. The Baliga Lab has developed a new blood-based method to diagnose active TB pre-symptomatically at a very early stage and is assessing ways to develop a low-cost screening tool.
Dr. Nitin Baliga in the lab at ISB. Photo credit: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures.
Topic: Tuberculosis
Variations in TB Bacteria and Patient Genetics Affect Outcomes
Following exposure to TB, the constantly evolving combination of genetic differences in humans and in the Mtb bacteria itself results in a wide array of patient outcomes. To improve clinical decision-making, the Baliga Lab is working with the University of Washington to understand these complex genetic interactions, how they affect TB patients, and the best treatment options.
Stock illustration of antimicrobial resistance. Credit: AdobeStock.
Topic: Treatments and Resistance
How Infectious Disease Microorganisms Evolve Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
All organisms – from humans to microorganisms – utilize adaptive prediction to anticipate and prepare to deal with future environmental challenges. This gives infectious disease microorganisms – including bacteria and viruses – an opportunity to develop AMR to drugs, a catastrophic problem for global health. The Baliga Lab, with support from the NIH, is developing ways to disrupt adaptive prediction and resulting AMR.
Environmental Research
Halobacterium salinarum in a petri dish. Photo credit: Baliga Lab/ISB.
Topic: Sustainability and Remediation
Why Microbes Are Extraordinarily Successful Adaptors
Microbes, including H. salinarum which thrives in extremely salty marine environments, are extraordinarily successful in adapting to diverse and dynamic niche environmental conditions. To improve our ability to harness microbes for remediation and sustainability, the Baliga Lab, with NSF support, studies at the cellular level how H. salinarum responds to changes in its environment, including temperature, salinity, and oxygenation.
Research Associate Amardeep Kaur working in the Baliga Lab at ISB. Photo credit: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures.
Topic: Sustainability and Remediation
Advancing Strategies for Rehabilitating Contaminated Sites
The Oak Ridge Reservation – an original Manhattan Project site and home to a facility manufacturing nuclear weapon parts – is severely contaminated. Since 2009, a DOE-funded consortium that includes the Baliga Lab and 10 other research institutions has been developing a deep understanding of site aquifer microbial communities to find ways to rehabilitate contaminated sites by creating conditions favoring beneficial microbial communities.
Diatoms collected in the Pacific Ocean and photographed under a microscope. Image credit: Karie Holtermann.
Topic: Climate Change
Ecological Resilience of Diatom Algae in the World’s Changing Oceans
Diatom algae photosynthesize carbon dioxide, playing a critical role in the viability of the marine food chain and in climate change. With NSF support, the Baliga Lab is developing a stress test to measure and predict the ability of diatoms to persist – to be ecologically resilient – as oceans become warmer and more acidic over the next century.
View of coral bleaching underwater. Image credit: Dr. Line Bay, Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Topic: Climate Change
Finding Coral Reefs that Naturally Tolerate Warming Oceans
Coral reefs, supporting 25 percent of all marine species and healthy oceans, are threatened by global warming. With Paul G. Allen Family Foundation support, the Baliga Lab is part of an international Global Search team identifying and assessing the biological characteristics of coral populations that are naturally resistant to rising temperatures to help coral conservation and restoration efforts.
Recolored figure from the Nature paper, “Origin of biogeographically distinct ecotypes during laboratory evolution.”
Topic: Climate Change
Modeling Microbial Communities Adaption to Changing Environments
There is an enormous diversity of microbial life on earth, with an estimated 100 million separate species, most of which are not well explored. With NSF funding, the Baliga Lab is developing a robust model of microbial life, using it initially to understand how environmental changes affect two microbes that, working together, help cycle more than 1 gigaton of carbon annually.
Latest Baliga Lab News
Faduma Hussein Joins ISB as Public Health Ambassador Coordinator
Hussein is only the fourth AmeriCorps member to serve at ISB. In this Q&A, she shares insights into her education, what drew her to ISB, career aspirations, and more.
2023-24 School Year ISB Education Highlights
In the final installment of the 2023-24 academic year roundup, we highlight some of the top projects the ISB Education team is working on. Throughout the summer, the ISB Education team was busy publishing research in a special edition of Connected Science Learning, hosting interns, and much more.
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Contact Dr. Nitin Baliga
Senior Vice President, Director and Professor
ISB