Study Utilizes Systems Approaches to Develop Diagnostics and Deeper Understanding of Chronic Lyme PRESS RELEASE, SEATTLE, March 26, 2015 – Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) has received $2.13 million in transformational gifts from Jeff and Liesl Wilke; Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos; and the Bay Area Lyme Foundation to tackle chronic Lyme disease, a highly complex and often misdiagnosed disease that can be debilitating for those who do not respond to…
3 Bullets SWATH mass spectrometry, an emerging protein analysis technique being pioneered by ISB researchers, provides a digital fingerprint of all accessible proteins in a sample. The data generated by the SWATH technique are highly complex and require sophisticated computational tools in order to extract identities from a sea of data. ISB researchers have released a free, open source program that allows users to confidently identify and quantify proteins analyzed…
3 Bullets: The barrier function of skin is integral to personal well-being and is associated with several widespread diseases such as eczema and psoriasis. ISB and Procter & Gamble researchers used human skin grown in the lab to measure changes in protein levels as the skin matures. The results of this study provide many new markers for healthy skin development. By Dr. Kristian Swearingen and Dr. Jason Winget In a…
Gov. Jay Inslee hosted a round table discussion today at Institute for Systems Biology with a group of invited college students, who were asked to share their thoughts on the affordability of education. We were honored to be able to provide the venue. ISB has had a long history of supporting systemic change at the K-12 school district level to improve the quality and access of STEM education. Now, our…
Local business, tech and education leaders – including ISB President Dr. Lee Hood – signed a letter of support for House Bill 1813. From the recent Geekwire.com article: “The letter, sent by Code.org and Washington STEM today to leadership in the state House of Representatives, calls on legislators to support passing and funding House Bill 1813, which establishes a grant program with a private match requirement to both train educators in,…
3 Bullets: Inflammation causes cholesterol buildup and leads to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the world ISB, Seattle Biomed, and Oregon State University researchers collaborate to identify a compendium of proteins that control expression of a key regulator of cholesterol efflux Targeting cholesterol efflux to HDL is a potentially important therapeutic strategy for preventing and treating cardiovascular disease By Dr. Mark Gillespie Cells of the immune system,…
ScienceNews posted a news brief about ISB’s latest research publication that discuss results from the first major whole-genome study of bipolar disorder. Researchers describe a breakthrough in understanding the genetic “architecture” of bipolar disorder and in identifying some of the risk genes. Read more about the research here.
3 Bullets: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common, severe and recurrent psychiatric disorder with no known cure and substantial morbidity and mortality. Heritable causes contribute up to 80 percent of lifetime risk for BD. Scientists hope that identifying the specific genes involved in risk for bipolar disorder will lead to new ways to treat the disease. ISB researchers identified contributions of rare variants to BD by sequencing the genomes of…
Mark your calendars for 7:30 p.m. on March 18 to join ISB for a panel discussion about “Tipping Points in Environment and Climate.” The event takes place at Downstairs at Town Hall. Tickets are $5. Info: townhallseattle.org/event/isb-panel Panel description: So-called tipping points — sudden, large-scale environmental changes — are altering our ecosystem in non-intuitive ways that defy our sense of causation. Because the nature of these shifts makes them unexpected,…
ISB announces the appointment of Kathy Scanlan as chief operating officer. Scanlan’s leadership career has spanned government, nonprofits and sports, and includes serving as the Executive Vice-President of the 1990 Seattle Goodwill Games Organizing Committee and as President of USA Gymnastics. Through Scanlan Consulting, her assignments have included working closely with the Washington State Legislature on ferry and transportation issues; strategic and business planning for museums, park facilities, and global health/discovery science…
Congratulations to the Sui Huang Lab at ISB which has received a five-year $1.7 million R01 award from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute for General Medical Sciences to study cancer sub-population dynamics to understand and develop drugs to inhibit lethal cancer-drug resistance. The project proposal states that the work will: “develop a quantitative and formal framework for describing the temporal evolution of cell phenotype distribution in a…
3 Bullets: Kaviar is ISB’s comprehensive catalog of human genomic variation Kaviar combines 31 data sources for a total of 151 million single nucleotide variants (SNVs), covering 5% of all the positions in the human genome A researcher studying possible disease-causing variants can use Kaviar to answer the question, “Have these variants been observed before, and if so, how often?” By Terry Farrah A typical pair of human genomes are…
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…
The journal BioMed Central Medicine published a commentary by Dr. Lee Hood, Dr. Jennifer Lovejoy, and Dr. Nathan Price on the Hundred Person Wellness Project – phase 1 of the 100K Wellness Project. The article was published on Jan. 9, 2015. ABSTRACT: “The Hundred Person Wellness Project (HPWP) is a 10-month pilot study of 100 ‘well’ individuals where integrated data from whole-genome sequencing, gut microbiome, clinical laboratory tests and quantified…
By ISBUSA GenomeWeb announces 2014’s top-10 most-read articles on personalized medicine and the article on ISB’s 100K Wellness Project was No. 1. Here’s an excerpt from GenomeWeb’s Jan. 5 story: NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – GenomeWeb readers in 2014 were most interested in a story about a large study investigating why some people remain healthy while others get sick. The top article was about healthcare entrepreneur Leroy Hood’s efforts to advance…
ISB has had a busy year! Explore a year’s worth of headlines on this timeline.
(Above image: lasers in a cell sorting instrument.) BY ISBUSA If you have a science buff/geek/future geek in your life, here are some gift ideas that our researchers at Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) have offered for your shopping pleasure. For kids, there are many options for “STEM toys” – i.e. toys geared toward science, technology, engineering and math. If you choose to purchase any of these items via Amazon.com,…
It’s a fine day when the Rev. Jesse Jackson is the surprise guest speaker – after Gov. Jay Inslee – at an event. Dana Riley Black, Director of ISB’s Logan Center for Education, had the opportunity to meet the Rev. Jesse Jackson after his speech during the Washington STEM Summit, which is an annual event to bring education, business and community leaders together for a statewide effort to advance excellence,…
