ISB News

Overall composition of gut microbiome in participants

Variations in the Microbiome Associated with Health, Disease

ISB researchers examined the associations between the gut microbiomes of about 3,400 people and roughly 150 host characteristics. The team looked at diet, medication use, clinical blood markers, and other lifestyle and clinical factors, and found evidence that variations of the gut microbiome are associated with health and disease.

Innovating Forward: 2020 ISB Summer Interns

While other 2020 summer programs were canceled due to COVID-19, ISB’s internship program was not. 2020 ISB Summer Interns Kanwulia Onianwa and Sarah Logman and ISB Education Systems Medicine Program Director Becky Howsmon discuss the importance of this experience — especially during a pandemic.

Keystone Taxa Indispensable for Microbiome Recovery

How can we harness successional ecology to quickly repair antibiotic-damaged gut microbiota? ISB Assistant Professor Dr. Sean Gibbons wrote this commentary for the journal Nature Microbiology detailing recent research that answers that question. Click the link to read the story (link will open as a new window). Illustration by Allison Kudla, PhD / ISB. 

Leroy Hood: Leading the systems biology revolution

ISB Co-founder Dr. Lee Hood won the Lasker Award in 1987. The Lasker Foundation recently published a profile of Hood, writing: “The highlights Hood’s scientific career are like peaks in a mountain range spanning diverse fields, from molecular immunology and engineering, to genomics, to systems medicine.”

Merck and ISB Collaborate to Understand and Treat SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Merck is collaborating with ISB and its partners to analyze blood samples and nasal swabs from Swedish Medical Center patients with SARS-CoV-2. Blood samples will be examined using proteomic, metabolomic, transcriptomics and genetic techniques to evaluate the impact of infection on different organs, and to identify potential biomarkers to predict the risk of severe disease.

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.

Valerie Logan Luncheon emcee Heather Logan

‘Innovation to Impact:’ 8th Annual Valerie Logan Luncheon Shines Light on ISB Education

The 8th Annual Valerie Logan Luncheon celebrated ISB Education’s mission of engaging entire school systems — from principals and administrators to teachers and students — to ensure all students are STEM literate. Nearly 100 people attended the event at ISB, and generously gave more than $100,000 for ISB Education.

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.

Systems Medicine: Integration of Biology, Computation and Technology

ISB Co-founder Dr. Lee Hood spoke with ideaXme’s Ira Pastor about his background; biochemistry, medicine, and his pathway to founding ISB; the model of P4 medicine; the importance of technology transfer and biotech company spinoffs; his views on aging and longevity biotechnology; and much more.

ISB Microbiome Researcher Dr. Sean Gibbons Featured in TIME Article

Freaked out about a “germy” bathroom? You don’t need to be. ISB Assistant Professor and microbiome researcher Dr. Sean Gibbons was featured prominently in an article, headlined “The Germiest Place in your Bathroom Isn’t Your Toilet,” published online by TIME. 

Qiang Tian, MD, PhD

ISB’s Dr. Qiang Tian Joins Shanghai’s National Research Center for Translational Medicine

In the two decades since joining Dr. Lee Hood as a postdoc, Dr. Qiang Tian has made a tremendous impact on ISB’s science and culture. March 31 is his final day at ISB, as he is returning to China and joining Shanghai’s National Research Center for Translational Medicine.

Drs. Monica Orellana and Nitin Baliga

New Study May Provide Knowledge for Increased Biofuel Production from Unicellular Algae

With potential ramifications for increasing biofuel production from unicellular algae, ISB’s Drs. Mónica Orellana and Nitin Baliga, along with colleagues from the University of the Witwatersrand, used the chlorophyte algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to demonstrate the cell’s metabolic and physiological changes of lipid accumulation that occurs during nitrogen depletion.

Ozy’s ‘Future of X’ Podcast Features Drs. Jim Heath, Lee Hood

ISB President Dr. Jim Heath and ISB Co-founder Dr. Lee Hood are prominently featured in a new podcast created by Ozy, the popular news website. The podcast is called “The Future of X.” In the series’ first episode, Heath and Hood discuss cancer immunotherapy, personalized health care, and more.

Nathan Price

Scientific Wellness as Dominant Paradigm of 21st Century Health Care

Dr. Nathan Price, ISB’s associate director and professor, was featured on the “Hyper Wellbeing” podcast on December 10. He discussed scientific wellness becoming the dominant paradigm of 21st century health care, explained how personal, dense, dynamic data clouds will enable both peak wellness and disease avoidance, and much more.

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.

ISB Scientists Have Discovered When and Why a Microbial Community Might Collapse

Researchers in the Baliga Lab at Institute for Systems Biology have developed a framework for assessing the “health” of a microbial community through a stress test that enables them to ask when and why microbial communities collapse under different environmental conditions. The study, published on March 20, 2017, in the journal Molecular Systems Biology, determined that while microbes are equipped to respond to environmental changes, when pushed to the extreme…

ISB Taps Jamie Creola as New VP of Education

SEATTLE, Nov. 17, 2016 – Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) welcomes Jamie Creola as the Vice President of Education, a new position created to build on the strong and robust foundation that ISB has established as a leader in advocating for equitable science education, quality professional development programs for educators, and implementing next generation science standards. Creola has more than 25 years of experience spearheading science education programs at nonprofits…

ISB’s Summer Interns Brightest of the Bright

Photo above: ISB’s high school interns presented their research. Every summer, ISB and ISB’s Center for Systems Biology welcome undergraduate and high school students for internships in our labs. Each student is paired with a mentor and works on research actually taking place in the respective lab. The internships are extremely competitive and we see some of the brightest young minds from across the country.   Read about their experiences…