ISB News

the case for masks

Molecular Biologist Dr. Sui Huang: We Should All Be Wearing Masks

ISB’s Dr. Sui Huang has been a powerful voice in a growing chorus contending that masks are an effective tool to stop the spread of COVID-19. Huang calls guidelines from the CDC and other public health agencies “unfortunate,” as they sweep aside a potentially powerful measure that could help “flatten the curve.”

The Cancer Paradox

ISB’s Dr. Sui Huang uses the theory of complex systems and applies it to cancer research. In this video Q&A, he discusses the cancer paradox and highlights the importance of understanding the mechanism of what cancer treatments can backfire in order to open a new avenue for therapy and treatments.

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.

Dr. Sui Huang

New Principle for Eradicating Cancer: Leave No Dead Cells Behind

Dead cells, or cell debris, generated by treatments intended to eradicate tumor cells actually act as strong stimulators of tumor progression. The findings of ISB cancer biologist Sui Huang, his former mentee and longtime collaborator Dipak Panigrahy at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School were published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

A Mixture of Markers from Two Distinct Cell Types Indicates Poor Prognosis in Breast Cancer

3 Bullets: Identifying the most aggressive cells in cancer (cancer stem cells) is essential for designing effective therapy and predicting patient outcomes. Using single-cell analysis techniques, researchers at ISB and Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine have identified the molecular signatures of two types of malignant breast tissue cells. Researchers found an interesting twist: the two cell types “cooperate” to increase malignancy potential and they promote a third hybrid stem-cell type….

Bio-Fiction Recap

On May 7, ISB hosted the first-ever screening of BIO·FICTION in North America. More than 120 people attended the event, which took place as part of the South Lake Union Art Walk. BIO·FICTION explores the emerging field of synthetic biology from different disciplinary angles including science and engineering, social science, cultural studies, amateur biology, filmmaking, art and design. The original program had presentations, panel discussions, do-it-yourself biology demos, performances, art…

ISB Gets $1.7M to Study Cancer Drug Resistance

Congratulations to the Sui Huang Lab at ISB which has received a five-year $1.7 million R01 award from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute for General Medical Sciences to study cancer sub-population dynamics to understand and develop drugs to inhibit lethal cancer-drug resistance. The project proposal states that the work will: “develop a quantitative and formal framework for describing the temporal evolution of cell phenotype distribution in a…

LAB NOTEBOOK: Evolution Beyond Darwin

(Photo: Dr. Sui Huang presenting during an ISB systems biology discussion group on May 15, 2014.) LAB NOTEBOOK: At ISB, we hold systems biology discussion groups every Thursday during lunch. The topics vary from week to week, but the intention is to inspire exchanges amongst our staff. Today's discussion group was presented by Dr. Sui Huang – our resident theorist, who always poses just the right question to provoke thought…

Results of the steady-state Markov model. The state transition and ‘self-renewal’ probabilities required to reach the steady state, shown as heat map

Cancer Treatment: A Systems Approach

By Sui Huang and Joseph Zhou, ISB Editorial Board Members Cancer cells, for decades regarded as a uniform mass of identical (“clonal”) cells, are not like the soldiers of a traditional army, trained to act and respond in unison. Cancer cells, even within a genetic clone, express enormous individuality akin to guerrilla fighters, each with unique strengths, weaknesses and distinct behaviors. Therefore, they do not respond to an attack from…