Once an immunologist focusing on research at ISB, Colleen Sheridan followed her passion and became a tenure-track college biology professor focusing on teaching. Sheridan was awarded the Valerie Logan Leadership in Science Education Award, and describes her professional transformation in this Q&A.
Dr. Martin Shelton is a post-doctoral fellow in the Hood Lab. Q: What are you currently working on? Our project, which I work on jointly with Rhishikesh Bargaje and Kalliopi Trachana, along with many other great collaborators both within and outside of the ISB, involves measuring the changes that occur within individual cells as populations of those cells transition from one state to another. We use, as a model system,…
You have to have fun. ISB founder Dr. Lee Hood always reminds staff that it’s important to do great work, and it’s also important to have fun. In that spirit, we feature CatterPlots, a “silly idea” that brought a smile to many scientists. Q: What is CatterPlots and how is it used? David Gibbs: The R programming environment is organized around a large collection of software packages. Many packages are…
Ruth West is a creative catalyst and veteran in the field of art+science integration. Her groundbreaking work Atlas in silico is a physically interactive and immersive virtual reality art+science installation that is driven by data from the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, a survey of marine microbial communities led by the J. Craig Venter Institute. Atlas in silico offers visitors a dream-like and aesthetic experience of the pioneering science of metagenomics….
Communicating basic science research to a broad and diverse audience poses a few challenges. The questions that drive ISB’s communications strategy and tactics concern how best to optimize lean resources in order to convey research milestones in ways that are detailed enough to address our scientists’ standards for specificity and also are accessible enough to connect with our lay audience. We constantly ask ourselves how we can take a given…
Gallery above: Dr. Anne Thompson and research assistant Allison Lee traveled to Station ALOHA in Hawaii on a research cruise to collect water samples and various species of organisms. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE-1558924. What’s the “invisible forest” and what does it have to do with environmental research? Dr. Anne Thompson who was in the Baliga Lab at…
Photo by Hsiao-Ching Chou Dr. Kalli Trachana is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr Lee Hood’s Lab. She recently was featured in the “People in Research” column in the Puget Sound Business Journal (bit.ly/ktpsbj1). She also was accepted into Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program, which takes place over 10 weeks this summer in Mountain View, CA. She will be immersed in incubator-type courses and be surrounded by Silicon Valley tech icons….
Ötzi the Iceman: In a study published in the Jan. 8, 2016, issue of the journal Science, researchers from the Moritz group at ISB collaborated with a worldwide consortia headed by Prof. Albert Zink and Dr. Frank Maixner, of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) in Italy; Prof. Thomas Rattei, of the University of Vienna; and Dr. Rudi Grimm, of University of…
Q: What is your role? A: I am a Research Associate for the Baliga Lab, where I perform genome-wide experiments that feed into the complex, predictive software tools that we create here. One project I work on investigates how microbial communities respond to stressful environmental changes over time. It is challenging research: my model organism—Desulfovibrio vulgaris—is hard to grow at the bench. Desulfovibrio is anaerobic; it likes to grow in…
Q: What is your role as Director of Development? Nick Newcombe: In my role, I plan and implement how and in what ways we are going to deepen our contributor’s connection to ISB and give them the opportunity to further invest in our mission and vision. I empower our science and development/communications staff and volunteers to help carry out this plan. We want our contributors to receive outreach from the…
Q: What is your role as Core Facilities Coordinator? Cora Chadick: In the Molecular and Cell (MC) Core, I train researchers how to use and/or I operate for them lab instrumentation such as flow cytometers, fluorescence microscopes, pipetting robots, NextGen sequencers and other various pieces of equipment. I also assist in planning experiments when core instruments are utilized and preform various administrative duties to keep everything running smoothly. Q: What…
Q: What is your role as the Associate Director for Compliance? CW: I am responsible for providing leadership on complex risk management issues, ensuring program accountability, and driving the Institute’s compliance efforts in a complex, often ambiguous, regulatory environment. Primary areas of responsibility include: human subjects research, investigator conflicts of interest, export control, and responsible conduct in research. Q: Why is it necessary and important for ISB to have this…
From our inception, we at ISB have been committed to knowledge transfer. This profound sense of responsibility to share what we learn serves as the foundation for our signature professional course on systems biology. This year’s course, which takes place July 27-31 in ISB’s conference facility, will offer a few new features, including lightning talks about systems biology technologies and a mini symposium consisting of research vignettes from nine ISB…
From left to right: High school teachers Tami Caraballo and Jennifer Duncan-Taylor work with ISB’s Claudia Ludwig, Baliga Lab Education Program Manager, to learn about ocean acidification, cancer cells, and biofuel. Through the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust’s Partners in Science program, ISB has been able to host two high school science teachers in the Baliga Lab to participate in active research projects. The experience offers teachers valuable insight that textbooks…
Sui Huang is a Professor at ISB. He reflects on this year’s symposium topic, “Tipping Points”: Q: How do you define “tipping point” and why is it important to understand these transitions? Sui: In brief, when a complex system undergoes a sudden jump-like global transition triggered by a subtle, gradual and continuous change within a particular component of it, that system may go through a tipping point or “critical transition.”…
Sui Huang is a Professor at ISB. He reflects on this year’s symposium topic, “Tipping Points”: Q: How do you define “tipping point” and why is it important to understand these transitions? Sui: In brief, when a complex system undergoes a sudden jump-like global transition triggered by a subtle, gradual and continuous change within a particular component of it, that system may go through a tipping point or “critical transition.”…
Alex Kuo was a high school intern during summer 2014. She reflected on her ISB experience: Q: What were your first impressions of ISB? Alex: ISB is a pivotal force in Seattle’s scientific community, especially when it comes to collaboration across multiple disciplines. Given the magnitude and complexities of the research that’s done at ISB, it would seem unlikely that a high school student would be able to participate in…
