ISB News

Ilya Shmulevich at GCPNext

Using Google Cloud Platform to Give Researchers Easier Access to Cancer Data

ISB’s Dr. Ilya Shmulevich attended Google Cloud Platform’s GCPNext conference in San Francisco and presented on ISB’s Cancer Genomics Cloud project. He explains how his team used GCP to create better access for a broad range of researchers to cancer genomics data (from The Cancer Genomics Atlas) and the tools with which to explore that data. Watch Dr. Shmulevich’s talk below.

Genetic Disease Breakthrough Published in ‘Nature Communications’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Genetic Disease Breakthrough Published in Nature Communications SEATTLE, DEC. 18, 2015 – A team of investigators based in Seattle, Amsterdam, and Luxembourg, have established the cause of a rare syndrome consistent with Fanconi Anemia, a chromosome instability disorder which is clinically typified by birth defects, bone marrow failure, leukemia, and susceptibility to solid tumors. The results were reported by researchers from the Institute for Systems Biology (Seattle),…

INTEGRATED VARIANTS FROM 13,000 COMPLETE GENOMES AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC IN KAVIAR DATABASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEATTLE, WA and FALLS CHURCH, VA, Sept. 23, 2015—The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and the Inova Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI) announced today a new release of Kaviar, the most comprehensive collection of human genomic variants currently available to the public. This release expands on the January 2015 release most notably by the addition of 3842 whole genome sequences provided by ITMI. Inova, a not-for-profit healthcare system…

NIH-Led Effort – Including ISB – Launches Big Data Portal for Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery

The National Institutes of Health announced the launch of a new Alzheimer’s Big Data portal, which includes the first wave of data for use by the research community. This portal is the result of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) program, which focuses on facilitating collaboration among government agencies, academia and industry in order to translate research more quickly to therapies. The launch of the AMP Alzeheimers Disease Knowledge Portal is…

Into the genetic weeds of hair growth

3 Bullets: ISB researchers used a data-driven mathematical model to identify specific genes associated with hair regeneration Novel methodology paves way for continued research into the molecular basis of this complex cycle as well as other regenerative organs like skin and liver Findings may lead to more precise targets for therapies and genetic markers of hair wellness By Varsha Dhankani Scientists at ISB have identified genes associated with the growth-and-death…

ISB Recieves $6.5M NIH Contract to Create Cancer Genomics Cloud with Google and SRA International (Image credit: MIT Tech Review)

Cancer Genomics Cloud: ISB and Google Featured in MIT Tech Review

(Above illustration from MIT Technology Review.) MIT Technology Review published an article about the launch of Google Genomics and included a mention of ISB’s new Cancer Genomics Cloud project. ISB received an up-to $6.5 million, two-year NIH contract in collaboration with Google and SRA International. From the MIT Technology Review article: The idea is to create “cancer genome clouds” where scientists can share information and quickly run virtual experiments as…

Cancer genomics visualization at ISB

It’s Easier to Go ‘Viral’ When Your Partner Happens to be Google

By ISBUSA Since we announced that we got a $6.5 million contract from NCI to develop the Cancer Genomics Cloud pilot project, we’ve gotten some great press from around the world. It doesn’t hurt that one of our partners is Google, of course. Here are some of the headlines from around the world: Puget Sound Business Journal: Cancer in the cloud: Institute for Systems Biology teams up with Google NBCNews.com:…

ISB Awarded $6.5 Million NIH Contract to Develop ‘Cancer Genomics Cloud’ with Google and SRA International

PRESS RELEASE Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) has received a $6.5 million, up to two­-year, federally funded contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). ISB is one of three organizations awarded a contract by NCI to develop a cloud-­based platform that will serve as a large­-scale data repository and provide the computational infrastructure necessary to carry out cancer genomics research at unprecedented scales. ISB’s Shmulevich…

PROJECT BIOTECH Camp goers

PROJECT BIOTECH Summer Camp Report

Photo above: Students participating in PROJECT BIOTECH Summer Camp. Photo credit: Shoreline Community College By Dina Kovarik Project Manager, Baliga Lab The Shoreline Community College (SCC) Biotech Program and the Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE) program partnered with the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) to develop a one‐week summer camp for high school students called PROJECT BIOTECH. The camp took place at SCC on July 7‐11, 2014. While the Puget Sound…

BIOCELLION: New Supercomputer Software Framework Models Biological Systems at Unprecedented Scales

3 Bullets: Computer simulation is a promising way to model multicellular biological systems to help understand complexity underlying health and disease. Biocellion is a high-performance computing (HPC) framework that enables the simulation of billions of cells across multiple scales. Biocellion facilitates researchers without HPC expertise to easily build and simulate large models. By Theo Knijnenburg How do molecular changes, such as a mutation in the DNA or infection by a…

NIH awards $10.9 million to National Center for Dynamic Interactome Research

New $10.9 Million Grant from NIH

The NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences has issued a Biotechnology Resource Grant of $10.9 million over five years to the National Center for Dynamic Interactome Research (ncdir.org) project. This project is a collaboration among The Rockefeller University, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle BioMed, University of California at San Francisco, New York University and New York Structural Biology Center. Michael Rout, of The Rockefeller University, is the Program Director/Principal…

ISB Researchers Identify New Protein Modification Critical to Growth of Tuberculosis Pathogen

3 Bullets: Institute for Systems Biology and Seattle BioMed researchers collaborated and discovered a new protein post-translational modification in the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Post-translational modifications are essential mechanisms used by cells to diversify protein functions and ISB scientists identified the rare phosphorylated tyrosine post translational modification on Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins using mass spectrometry. Inhibiting phosphotyrosine modified amino acids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis severely limits the growth of this widespread deadly…

ISB and Seattle BioMed held its annual Lightning Talks on June 12, 2014. The talks offer scientists the chance to share current research and to enable potential collaborations across institutes.

3-Minute Science: ISB and Seattle BioMed Hold Annual Lightning Talks

Photo: Theo Knijnenburg, a research scientist in ISB's Shmulevich Lab, presentaed a summary of his work related to gene mutations and cancer drug sensitivity. Systems biology is about the culture as much as a scientific approach. ISB and Seattle BioMed have an inter-institutional agreement that enables the collective to benefit from shared knowledge and technology resources. For the second consecutive year, we held Lightning Talks (June 12) to allow researchers…

ISB's Ilya Shmulevich describes his lab's work in The Cancer Genome Atlas project and how ISB and FHCRC could collaborate.

Melding ISB and FHCRC Brain Power for Cancer Research

(Photo above: ISB’s Dr. Ilya Shmulevich describes his lab’s work in The Cancer Genome Atlas project and how ISB and FHCRC could collaborate.) Big health challenges require big science. Cancers are prime examples of overwhelmingly complex diseases that need the power of a cross-disciplinary, systems biology approach to decipher the underlying dysfunctional gene networks in order to find ways to prevent and manage the diseases and develop more effective therapies….

The Rise of Open Proteomics

Researchers at EMBL-EBI, Institute for Systems Biology and other partnering organizations have launched ProteomeXchange, a public portal for exchanging proteomics data generated from mass-spectrometry experiments and other related information. From the EMBL-EBI-issued press release: Eric Deutsch, head of PeptideAtlas at the Institute for Systems Biology in the U.S., says: “I’m certain that the ProteomeXchange system is already leading to greater awareness and reuse of publicly available datasets. I’m regularly contacted…

ISB on Cover of C&En Magazine

By ISBUSA ISB researcher Sarah Li was featured on the cover of C&EN Magazine on Nov. 18. The cover story is about how instrumentation companies are teaming up with research organizations to gain access to valuable work that could help refine or develop new technologies. ISB's Dr. Robert Moritz comments about our collaboration with AB Sciex for the story. Excerpt from the piece: "Building on this work, AB Sciex formed…

ISB Senior Software Engineers Win BioVis Award

Congratulations to Dick Kreisberg, Ryan Bressler, Sheila Reynolds, Brady Bernard and Ilya Shmulevich on winning "Best Poster" at the BioVis 2013 conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Here's a link to the poster description. Ryo Sakai, who is currently a visiting researcher in the Shmulevich group from KU Leuven in Belgium, received honorable mention in both the "Redesign Contest" and the "Data Contest." Data science for the win!

photo of sofware engineer waving

ISB Retreat 2013: Wellness and Community

“This is the best retreat we’ve ever had – I say that every year. But this was a singular retreat in that it catalyzed an enormously interesting conversation about future opportunities.” – Lee Hood Every September, ISB holds an all-staff overnight retreat to step away from the day-to-day, celebrate the highlights from the past year, ponder the future and, of course, have some fun. We returned to Seabeck Conference Center…