ISB News

Illustration of a person using a katana to slash a coronavirus in half

Merck, ISB, Swedish Collaborate In Trial to Understand, Treat COVID-19

ISB and Swedish Medical Center launched a study to follow hundreds of patients who contract COVID-19 to learn why those infected have drastically different outcomes. “Each of the COVID-19 patients has a unique lesson to teach us about how the medical and scientific community can respond most effectively to this pandemic,” said ISB President Dr. Jim Heath, who co-leads the study.

soldier

ISB Researchers Seek a Better Way to Identify Chronic Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has been a frequent injury among U.S. combatants, and blast-related mTBI has been called the “signature injury” from military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. ISB researchers are working to develop new methods to identify molecular changes in the blood of war veterans diagnosed with chronic mTBI.

Dr. Christian Diener, postdoc in ISB's Gibbons Lab.

New Modeling Tool Allows Microbiome Researchers to Map Community Ecology to Ecosystem Function

A promising new open-source metabolic modeling tool provides microbiome researchers a path forward in predicting ecosystem function from community structure. News of the software package, called MICOM, was developed in part by researchers in ISB’s Gibbons Lab, and its uses were published in the journal mSystems.

How Old Are You? Your Body Might Disagree With That Answer

Researchers at ISB harnessed deep molecular and physiological information to determine an individual’s biological age, which they found was reflective of overall health compared to chronological age. The findings were published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series A.

Malaria Researchers’ Findings May Have Implications for Preventing Spread of Deadly Disease

ISB researchers and their collaborators are using systems biology approaches to learn how the malaria parasite is able to transfer to humans via the bite of an infected mosquito. The information they have uncovered may help identify new ways to prevent people from contracting the deadly disease.

New Method to Detect, Analyze Rare T Cells Another Step Toward Personalized Cancer Vaccines

Members of ISB’s Heath Lab and their collaborators have developed a way to sensitively detect and analyze neoantigen-specific T-cell populations from tumors and blood. This promising development may have implications for creating targeted, individual-specific cancer vaccines.

Using Blood to Predict Gut Microbiome Diversity

Predicting the alpha diversity of an individual’s gut microbiome is possible by examining metabolites in the blood. The robust relationship between host metabolome and gut microbiome diversity opens the door for a fast, cheap and reliable blood test to identify individuals with low gut diversity.

Brain health expert Dr. Mary Kay Ross

Brain Health & Research Institute Enters Scientific Partnership with ISB

Brain health expert Dr. Mary Kay Ross announced the creation of the Brain Health & Research Institute (BHRI) in Seattle, and a scientific collaboration with ISB. Through that partnership, BHRI will blend the practical application of medical therapies and treatment protocols with ten advanced scientific analysis now available through personalized medicine and computational biology.

ISB's Dr. Sui Huang Earns Funding to Tackle Cancer's Biggest Questions

ISB’s Professor Sui Huang, MD, PhD, has been announced by Cancer Research UK as a member of a global research team funded through its Grand Challenge competition — an international funding initiative that aims to answer some of the biggest questions facing cancer research.

ISB develops stress test to predict how diatoms will react to ocean acidification

In a study published in Nature Communications and with implications for understanding effects of climate change, ISB researchers show microscopic phytoplankton are more resilient in an acidified environment.

ISB’s Computational Teams Play Central Role in Completion of TCGA’s PanCancer Atlas Initiative

ISB’s computational and bioinformatics teams played a central role in the completion of the PanCancer Atlas Initiative, the final phase of TCGA. The culmination of this work is being published in 27 papers this week across the Cell Press research journals, including “The Immune Landscape of Cancer” in Immunity.

CRI iAtlas

CRI, ISB, Sage Bionetworks Unveil Comprehensive Immunotherapy Tool

Three organizations on the forefront of cancer immunotherapy, systems biology and bioinformatics announced the release of the Cancer Research Institute iAtlas, a comprehensive web-based tool that allows oncologists and researchers to study and analyze interactions between tumors and the immune microenvironment.

Key Strategies for Implementing Proteomics-Based Tests Across Disease States Highlighted in Current Opinion in Biotechnology

ISB, Integrated Diagnostics and Sera Prognostics just announced a paper entitled, “The building blocks of successful translation of proteomics to the clinic,” by Leroy Hood and colleagues published online in Current Opinion in Biotechnology.

Clinical Trial Explores the Effects of Health Coaching on Cognitive Function in Patients with Early-Stage Alzheimer’s

Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is among several organizations conducting a clinical trial testing how health coaching affects the cognitive function of patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and analyzing longitudinal, multi-omic data to explore transitions in cognitive function over time.

Pioneer 100 Study

Institute for Systems Biology and Arivale “Pioneer 100 Study” Establishes Foundation for New Industry of Scientific Wellness

Institute for Systems Biology and Arivale “Pioneer 100 Study” Establishes Foundation for New Industry of Scientific Wellness. Personal, dense, dynamic data clouds enable novel insights into mechanisms of wellness and disease, new approaches to biomarker discovery, and the empowerment of individuals to enhance their own health.

Dr. Jim Heath

Institute for Systems Biology Recruits Technology Pioneer James Heath as President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE >> Renowned scientist, visionary leader from Caltech will join Seattle research community SEATTLE, APRIL 3, 2017 – The Institute for Systems Biology has named James Heath, PhD, as its new president, effective January 2018. Heath is widely recognized as one of the world’s most accomplished scientists, working on fundamental problems at the interface of the chemical, physical, biological, and biomedical sciences, with focus areas of molecular biotechnologies…

Sanger Institute’s COSMIC database expands cancer cloud capabilities at the Institute for Systems Biology

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute released this news on Feb. 20, 2017. See original release… FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s Catalog of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) team announces a new agreement to provide their data to the U.S.-based Institute for Systems Biology (ISB). COSMIC is an expert-curated cancer mutation database, and is the world’s largest and most comprehensive resource for exploring the impact of somatic mutations…

Comprehensive study of esophageal cancer reveals several molecular subtypes, provides new insight into increasingly prevalent disease

The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network recommends clinical trials organizers and drug manufacturers focus on newly discovered molecular subtypes GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Jan. 4, 2017 –– A comprehensive analysis of 559 esophageal and gastric cancer samples, collected from patients around the world, suggests the two main types of esophageal cancer differ markedly in their molecular characteristics and should be considered separate diseases. The study, published today in Nature from The…