ISB News

ISB’s Sui Huang is featured in an exploration of how scientists are turning a decades-old metaphor of cellular development into a measurable biological framework. His pioneering research has helped explain how cells acquire distinct identities, with implications for understanding cancer and potentially guiding cells toward healthier states.

ISB’s Mary E. Brunkow leads a roundup of 20 Nobel Prize winners whose discoveries have transformed modern biochemistry. The feature highlights her pioneering co-discovery of the FOXP3 gene, which revealed a critical mechanism for preventing autoimmune disease and opened new possibilities for treating immune disorders and cancer.

ISB researchers Jim Heath and Dan Yuan are featured in coverage of new findings revealing how SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger harmful autoimmune responses. Their research identifies specific immune cells and molecular pathways responsible for producing autoantibodies, offering new insights into Long COVID and potential targets for future therapies.

Forbes named ISB Distinguished Investigator and 2025 Nobel laureate Mary Brunkow to its 2026 “50 Over 50” Innovation list, which recognizes women making significant contributions later in their careers. Brunkow was recognized for her groundbreaking research into regulatory T cells and discoveries with important implications for autoimmune disease and drug development.

ISB’s Jim Heath and Jennifer Hadlock contributed to a multi-authored paper that was highlighted for finding that people with a higher burden of long COVID symptoms tend to be less physically active and exhibit poorer measures of cardiovascular fitness.

A new collaboration between the Dfam and Repbase databases creates the first fully open resource for transposable element research. This story explores how the unified platform will accelerate genome annotation, evolutionary biology, and biomedical research by making decades of expertly curated data freely available to scientists worldwide.