Dr. Sean Gibbons – an expert in microbial ecology and evolution, computational systems biology, the human gut microbiome and its impacts on health, and head of ISB’s Gibbons Lab – has been promoted to Associate Professor. “Sean’s achievements since joining ISB in 2018 as a Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Investigator have been spectacular,” ISB President Dr. Jim Heath said. “With his focus on the microbiome, he brought a whole new…
Sara Calder recently joined ISB as Systems Health and STEM Coordinator, and is our second-ever AmeriCorps member. In this Q&A, Calder shares her education journey, her future plans, and much more.
Scientists for the first time have used CRISPR to substitute a gene to treat patients with cancer. The remarkable findings were published in the journal Nature and presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2022.
The recently completed, ISB-led Coaching for Cognition in Alzheimer’s (COCOA) trial shows that diet and exercise can help people suffering from dementia. Senior Research Scientist Dr. Jared Roach discussed the findings in a Research Roundtable presentation.
ISB is excited to announce the arrival of our newest faculty member, Ling/Obrzut Assistant Professor Dr. Alice Kane. The Kane Lab will investigate the biological determinants of frailty in both males and females. In this Q&A, she discusses her research to date, her areas of interest, and much more.
What are multi-omics? Why does our microbiome matter? What’s the difference between genetics and genomics? What is a digital twin? ISB and Seattle Science Foundation have partnered to create videos answering questions like these and more, showcasing ISB scientists and their work.
Author Meghan O’Rourke recently joined ISB President Dr. Jim Heath for a virtual fireside chat focused on reimagining chronic illness – also the topic of O’Rourke’s New York Times bestselling book. This event was the latest in the ISB-Town Hall Seattle Science Series.
ISB President Dr. Jim Heath talks with Nobel laureate and Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center Dr. Jim Allison and Apricity Health CEO Dr. Lynda Chin. Drs. Heath, Allison and Chin discuss disparities in cancer care and ways to bring state-of-the-art care from big cities and major academic centers to rural and underserved areas.
The NCI awarded ISB a 5-year, $13 million grant to lead a comprehensive cancer center and study sequential combinations of targeted inhibitors and immunotherapies. The program is designed to determine if the treatments yield greater patient benefit when administered in sequence rather than as monotherapies or as simultaneously administered combinations.
Our multi-day microbiome-themed virtual course and symposium is back for the third year! ISB is hosting a two-day course on October 12 & 13, 2022, followed by a symposium on October 14, 2022 on global perspectives in microbiome research. Both events are virtual and free. The intended audience for these events are graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, industry scientists, educators, clinicians, or any other variety of microbiome-curious people from across the globe.
ISB Assistant Professor Dr. Sean Gibbons talked about the science behind statins in our most recent Research Roundtable virtual presentation. His talk was titled “Bugs vs. Drugs: How Our Unique Gut Microbiomes Shape Our Personalized Responses to Statins.”
This year, two deserving scientists were bestowed recognition for giving back to STEM education. Dr. Serdar Turkarslan is the recipient of the JoAnn Chrisman Award for Distinguished Service to STEM Education, and Dr. Christian Diener was awarded the Dr. Christine Schaeffer Award for Exemplary Service to STEM Education.
The fifth cycle of ISB’s Innovator Award Program officially wrapped up this week with the principal investigators of the 2021-22 projects delivering their final presentations. In April, three 2022-23 Innovator Award collaborative projects were announced. The Innovator Award Program was launched in 2017, and has been tremendously successful.
Christopher Lausted and Dr. Danielle Vermaak were featured guests of an ISB Research Roundtable presentation. The husband-and-wife team detailed the planning and rollout of a DNA sequencing curriculum project that was tested in Vermaak’s Lincoln High School science classroom in Seattle.
In this robust roundup from the 2021-22 academic year, we highlight the top projects the team worked on by month.
New ISB research shows that different patient responses to statins can be explained by the variation in the human microbiome. The findings were published in the journal Med, and suggest that microbiome monitoring could be used to help optimize personalized statin treatments.
A just-published study provides new information about which hospitalized COVID-19 patients are most likely to need mechanical ventilation or to die. The ISB-led work shows that vital signs and lab results at the time of hospital admission are the most accurate predictors of disease severity, more so than comorbidities and demographics.
