SCImago, a research group based in Granada, Spain, generates an annual ranking of research institutions based on the impact of their research. The SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) report for 2012 calculates “Excellence Rates” for each of 3290 institutions based on the percentage of papers cited. ISB ranks fourth in the world.
ISB is proud to announce that Sriram Chandrasekaran, one of our predoctoral scientists in the Nathan Price group, has received one of 10 Harvard Junior Fellowships. This prestigious fellowship grants Sriram the opportunity to pursue an independent research project without the pressure of having to secure funding and with mentoring from faculty at Harvard and MIT. It’s a “sexy way of transitioning to a tenure-track faculty position.” The rigorous interview…
What You Saw in the News: 2012 was the year of the microbiome. Feature stories about the trillions of microbes found in our environment and on/in human bodies appeared in publications such as The Economist, the New York Times, The Scientist, The New Yorker, Wired, Scientific American, and Discover. The NIH’s Human Microbiome Project published a report in Nature. The Earth Microbiome Project held its first international conference, which took…
On Nov. 29, 2012, ISB held its first annual Valerie Logan Luncheon to honor Valerie Logan, Dr. Lee Hood’s wife, and to raise funds for our work related to K-12 science education. The City of Seattle also issued a proclamation for Nov. 29 as “Valerie Logan Leadership in Science Education Day.” We also presented the first Valerie Logan Leadership in Science Education Award to Don McConkey, who is the assistant…
ISB’s Steve Sample loads turkey dinners to deliver to the YWCA. Watch the video about the emotional day. A complete, hot meal is something most of us take for granted. At Thanksgiving, we joke about abundant leftovers and the subsequent “food coma.” But for hundreds of families in Seattle and King and Snohomish counties, a holiday feast that would have been a fantasy became a reality because of the YWCA…
Figure depicting cross-disciplinary collaborations among lab groups and usage of technologies housed in ISB’s core facilities. In August, ISB learned that our National Center for Systems Biology was renewed for $13.7 million over the next five years. This is no small feat given that only two National Centers were funded in this round and that there’s fierce competition for diminishing government grants. Here’s how your tax dollars are being put…
What You Saw in the News: The Pacific Science Center just opened a new permanent exhibit called “Professor Wellbody’s Academy of Health & Wellness.” Here’s a description of the exhibit from the PSC web site: “Seven-thousand square feet of hands-on inventions, gadgets, activities and experiences will present health as a life-long process of balancing exercise, diet, proper rest and hygiene. These tools and resources for managing health and well-being will…
Kai Wang, Ji Hoon Cho and intern Alan Lin, all of Dr. Lee Hood’s group, participated in the IMPROVER Diagnostic Signature Challenge and won first place for the psoriasis sub-challenge. IMPROVER stands for Industrial Methodology for Process Verification in Research; it’s a method for verifying scientific data and concepts in systems biology research.
Juan Caballero, a post doctoral fellow in Dr. Lee Hood’s group, answered an open call through InnoCentive for a solution to combat Citrus Greening Disease, which affects about 18 percent of citrus trees in Florida. He was awarded $10,000 for designing the right RNAi to control the viral disease.
On Nov. 1, ISB and San Diego-based Sapphire Energy announced a strategic partnership to apply systems biology to algae with the goal of significantly increasing oil yield and improving resistance to crop predators and environmental factors in order to further the advancement of commercialized algae biofuel production. “Together, we have complementary expertise that will allow us to understand, reverse engineer and rationally alter the gene networks for fuel production in…
When you see a reference to “cancer research,” you know that it’s important. But do you really know what it means and how complex the research is? Many ISB scientists are entrenched in molecular cancer research. To better appreciate what they’re tackling, let’s talk about The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. In understanding cancers, researchers first have to know what errors in the DNA of tumor cells cause them to…
About 20 years ago, Carole Ellison attended a lecture by Dr. Lee Hood shortly after he had arrived at the University of Washington to start the Department of Molecular Biotechnology. She was impressed by his vision for the future of science and healthcare and vowed to meet him one day. This wish and her lifelong interest in science and human health led her to ISB. This summer, Carole finally was…
What You Saw in the News: The Oct. 9 issue of The New York Times featured a Science Times special section focused on “The Digital Doctor.” The stories ranged from how smartphone apps and electronic medical records are redefining how doctors practice medicine to how dentists can now create a custom crown for patients in less than an hour. Doctors also are engaging in “telemedicine” to reach people in remote…
In June, Dr. Lee Hood, ISB’s president and co-founder, was one of the featured speakers at the Seattle Science Festival’s Science Luminaries event. His co-luminaries were world-renowned physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking and paleontologist Jack Horner. ISB also co-hosted the South Lake Union Science Trek for K-12 students.
In May, ISB welcomed Dr. Robert Lipshutz as our Senior Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Chief Business Officer. Rob came to us after having spent 19 years as an executive at Affymetrix, which develops genetic analysis technology. Rob has a PhD in mathematics and is looking forward to helping ISB expand our reach.
We are happy to announce that ISB has received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, the highest designation from the U.S. Green Building Council, which offers independent, third-party verification that a building was designed with the highest standards regarding human and environmental health. LEED measures an organizations achievements in sustainbility, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, indoor environmental quality and other criteria.
This article by Larry Cheek in the March 18, 2012, New York Times describes the trend of creating open office spaces to encourage creativity, movement and collaboration. The idea is that people need different types of spaces to allow for the full potential of different kinds of work. A one-size-fits-all philosophy doesn't function in this day and age when technology and customer service – and healthcare and science where ISB is concerned…
Recently, the White House posted a call for questions, which the President would then answer via Google Plus Hangout. Three of our young researchers submitted video questions to the White House YouTube page. Check out the videos:
