ISB News

Analyzing Family Genomics Reveals New Culprit in Rare Disease

3 Bullets: Adams-Oliver syndrome (AOS) is a rare congenital disease characterized by scalp lesions and limb defects. Additional vascular abnormalities and heart defects can lead to early death in some patients. By analyzing twelve families affected with the disease, we identified causal mutations in a new disease gene, NOTCH1, in five families. NOTCH1 is likely to be the major cause of AOS. NOTCH1 codes for a transcription factor that governs…

New Structural Map Helps To Understand Aggressive Tumors

3 Bullets: Aggressive tumor growth is linked to high activity of a macromolecular assembly called RNA polymerase I. ISB and FHCRC researchers collaborate to map the architecture of the assembly using a powerful crosslinking-mass spectrometry (CXMS) technology. Structural maps provide important insights into therapeutic targets for cancer treatment. By Mark Gillespie Rapidly growing tumor cells require large amounts of protein for their survival. This increased protein synthesis, or translation, can…

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 Help Identify Four New Subtypes of Gastric Cancer That May Lead to New Targeted Treatments

3 Bullets: Gastric cancer has a high mortality rate, but current classification systems haven’t been effective in helping to identify subtypes relevant for treatment of the disease. TCGA researchers have integrated molecular data from 295 stomach tumors and have discovered four subtypes of gastric cancer. Stratification of patients into these four subtypes paves the way for the development of new personalized therapies. By Theo Knijnenburg Gastric cancer is among the…

Decoding the Microbial Gene-Recycling Program: Researchers 'Unzip' Genetic Instruction Manuals

New Open-Access Multiscale Model Captures Dynamic Molecular Processes in Unprecedented Detail

3 Bullets: Microbes are efficient because their streamlined genomes allow them to evolve and adapt rapidly to complex environmental changes. Decoding the highly-compressed information within a microbial genome requires sophisticated systems biology tools to map the genetic programs, and understand how they are executed. ISB researchers invented novel algorithms to unzip and decode microbial genomes into the EGRIN 2.0, an open-access multiscale model that captures instructions for executing the dynamic…

Cover image for ISB's 2013 Annual Report.

ISB’s 2013 Annual Report is Now Available

Institute for Systems Biology has a dizzying breadth of research projects. But when we talk about what we do, it’s how we do it that matters most. The systems approach that we pioneered and exemplify continues to distinguish our ability to tackle the most complex biological and environmental challenges today. Because of how we apply our hallmark collaborative, cross-disciplinary and integrative approach, our collective success is greater than the sum…

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…

In the News: Lee Hood on the Future of Personalized Medicine

Dr. Lee Hood, president of ISB, was featured in a cover story for the spring 2014 issue of HFMA (Healthcare Financial Management Association) Leadership Magazine. He spoke on the future of personalized medicine. “Wellness is not going to emerge out of the current healthcare industry. New thrusts don’t emerge out of old bureaucracies. New approaches emerge out of new institutions that are set up for them.” – Dr. Lee Hood…

Speakers Dr. Joe Gray, of Knight Cancer Institute of Oregon Health & Science University, and Dr. Carla Grandori, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, answer questions during a panel discussion.

ISB Systems Biology Symposium Speaker Videos Now Available

ISB held its 13th Annual International Symposium: Systems Biology & Cancers on April 13-14. Please read more about our speakers and program. If you weren't able to attend or would like to refresh your memory of the talks, we have made a selection of the presentations available to view below. Or visit the playlist on ISB's YouTube channel.

Lee Hood Wins IEEE Innovations in Healthcare Technology Award

Lee Hood Wins IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) announced that Dr. Lee Hood, president of Institute for Systems Biology, is the 2014 recipient of the Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology. He is being recognized for "pioneering contributions to DNA sequencing technologies that revolutionized life and health sciences." Read about all the medal recipients here.  

ISB Data Science/Data Visualizaiton Meetup

Data Vis Meetup Held at ISB

Pictured above: Allison Kudla presents ISB’s Big Data Science site at the start of the meetup. ISB hosted the Seattle Vis meetup group this past Wednesday (April 30). The meetup was organized by Noah Iliinsky and facilitated by ISB’s Dick Kreisberg. The guest speakers were Ryan Lucas and Kevin Lynagh, who have created a very stylistic charting library based on a grammar of graphics. They are an independent data vis…

Support ISB: GiveBIG 2014

Date: Tuesday, May 6th, 2014 Time: 12:00 AM to 12:00 AM Where:  The Seattle Foundation website – ISB profile page GiveBIG is an annual, community-wide day of giving hosted by The Seattle Foundation that aims to inspire regional philanthropy. Between midnight and midnight (PST) on May 6th, The Seattle Foundation and its generous sponsors will match a percentage of all contributions to local nonprofits. If you are considering a gift…

ISB hosted its annual Symposium on April 13-14, 2014.

ISB’s Annual Symposium

ISB held its 13th Annual International Symposium: Systems Biology & Cancers From Big Data to Personalized Treatment on April 13-14, 2014. Visit symposium.isbscience.net for details. Visit the gallery for images. Or visit the video playlist on ISB’s YouTube channel.

Genome Medicine featured ISB's Dr. Lee Hood in a series about participatory medicine.

Participatory Medicine Q&A with Lee Hood

Genome Medicine created a participatory medicine series, which was guest edited by Dr. Lee Hood, president of Institute for Systems Biology, and Dr. Charles Auffray, Founding Director of the European Institute for Systems Biology and Medicine. You can read the collection of articles on participatory medicine here. It includes an editorial "Participatory medicine: a driving force for revolutionizing healthcare" co-authored by Hood and Auffray that was published in December 2013….

Genome Medicine featured ISB's Dr. Lee Hood in a series about participatory medicine.

Participatory Medicine Q&A with Lee Hood

Genome Medicine created a participatory medicine series, which was guest edited by Dr. Lee Hood, president of Institute for Systems Biology, and Dr. Charles Auffray, Founding Director of the European Institute for Systems Biology and Medicine. You can read the collection of articles on participatory medicine here. It includes an editorial "Participatory medicine: a driving force for revolutionizing healthcare" co-authored by Hood and Auffray that was published in December 2013….

Now researchers can explore genomic data across space and time

The figure above is part of a four-step procedure for the multiscale segmentation of genomic signals. 3 Bullets: Understanding systems from a multiscale perspective gives us a more detailed and holistic view of how features or functions from each scale connect and interact in a given system. The challenge is integrating the different types of information that come from each scale in an efficient way that yields the most insight….

ISB’s Robert Moritz Lab Receives NIGMS Grant for Trans Proteomic Pipeline

The National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the NIH has awarded Principal Investigator(s): Eric Deutsch, PhD, and Robert L. Moritz, PhD, a continuing R01 grant GM087221 for the ongoing development of the Trans-Proteomic Pipeline. The award titled “Development of Trans Proteomic Pipeline, an Analysis Suite for Mass Spectrometry” will continue the work of the ISB flagship proteomics analysis suite of open-source programs that has been downloaded thousands of times…