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It’s ‘Either/Or’ for Two Common Gut Microbiome Genera, and Switching Teams Is Tougher Than Expected
There is a dichotomy between Bacteroides- and Prevotella-dominated guts — two common gut bacterial genera — and there is a significant barrier when it comes to transitioning from one to the other.
For Cancer Cells, There Is More Than One Path to Drug Resistance
In findings published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers show that cancer cells can take more than one path to reach a drug-resistant cell state. These findings could have promising implications for the future of cancer care.
Unveiling the Guerrilla Warfare Tactics of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
ISB researchers have unveiled new insights on how Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, enters and exits a dormant state in human hosts. About a quarter of the world’s population has latent TB, so these important findings will enable and accelerate the discovery of more effective TB drugs.
Mysteries of Cell Fate Unlocked with New Measurement and Modeling Techniques
In the cellular process of differentiation, information about the concentrations of an important class of proteins residing in a cell’s nucleus has been lacking, a missing link needed for scientists to fully understand how the process works. ISB researchers have quantified this important class of proteins that play a key role in the formation of red blood cells.
Metabolomics Reveals Connection Between Gut Microbiome and Blood
Alpha diversity in the gut microbiome holds many clues to understanding human health. This blog post by Metabolon details how those clues are more accessible because ISB researchers can predict the diversity of an individual’s gut microbiome by examining metabolites in the blood. These findings were recently published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
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.
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.
New Diagnostic Method Predicts Therapy Response in Lung Cancer Patients
By using single-cell analysis to measure metabolic activities in rare disseminated tumor cells taken from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, ISB researchers and their collaborators can accurately predict how patients will respond to various cancer therapies, and how treatments will impact a patient’s physiological performance and survival.
Profiling Pathogen Gene Expression from Infected Host Cells
Researchers at ISB reported a novel method, Path-seq, to profile expression of all MTB genes within infected mice. This study presents the most comprehensive transcriptome profiling of MTB from in vivo infection and a major technical advancement for studying any host-pathogen interaction.
ISB's Kristian Swearingen published in Trends in Parasitology
The November issue of Trends in Parasitology, a Cell Press journal, contains a review by ISB’s Kristian E. Swearingen and his collaborator Scott E. Lindner titled “Plasmodium Parasites Viewed through Proteomics”, along with cover art designed by ISB’s Allison Kudla. The review details the proteomics of malaria parasites and their mosquito vectors.
Reconstructing 'Ötzi' the Iceman’s last meal
Members of the Moritz lab, as part of an international consortium centered in Bolzano Italy, reports this week in Cell, “Current Biology”, a multi-omic approach to identify the stomach contents and microbiome of the 5300 year old Mummy, Oetzi, the Iceman from the Oetzal Alps on the Austrian/Italian border.
Taking Systems Medicine to Heart
“Excessive spending and poor outcomes in health care and drug development necessitate the search for new research paradigms to translate cutting-edge, scientific discoveries of systems medicine into the clinic more quickly and efficiently.” ISB’s Kalliopi Trachana and colleagues, wrote “Taking Systems Medicine to Heart,” which was published in Circulation Research.
‘Pushing Cancer Research Forward:’ Powerful ISB Cancer Genomics Cloud Tool in Spotlight
Institute for Systems Biology, Google and CSRA have jointly created a cloud-based platform that allows researchers to quickly, reliably and securely access massive amounts of data in ways that, until now, haven’t been possible.
ISB Artwork Featured On Cover of Nature Biotechnology
Institute for Systems Biology and Arivale “Pioneer 100 Study” is featured on the cover of August’s Nature Biotechnology. The artwork was created by ISB’s Associate Director of Communications Allison Kudla in collaboration with contributing author John C. Earls, software engineer in Hood/Price Lab.