Molecular Me

Researchers discover that programmed cell death of algae may play an important role in driving the global carbon cycle By ISB News Team May 8, 2013 — Nearly 25 gigatons of carbon is cycled annually through the oceans, replenishing resources for a healthy planet. This process is carried out by interactions among different groups of microorganisms, each performing a different role in a network that has come to be known as the microbial loop. In a study published today in [...]

The network hairball. It’s a common problem when you have too many data points. But, Bill Longabaugh, who’s a senior software engineer at ISB, has created a better way. Called BioFabric, nodes and edges are presented as horizontal and vertical lines. Bill recently created an animation, using characters from “Les Miserables” to demonstrate how BioFabric works. You can see the full-resolution demo at this link. Related Content: ISB Science Report: Combing the Hairball For more info, visit BioFabric.org.

Ilya Shmulevich, PhD, shares this message about our hosting a TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) steering committee meeting at ISB. In the video below, Ilya explains the purpose of the meeting and chats briefly about “pan-cancer” – the effort to find commonalities among multiple cancers. Related content: Read about ISB’s role in TCGA as a Genome Data Analysis Center and about the most recent collaborative paper on endometrial cancer, which was published on May 1 in the journal Nature and [...]

Dr. Lee Hood is a guest on “Four Peaks” is a monthly current affairs show on UWTV and Northwest Cable News. On Four Peaks TV: ISB’s Dr. Leroy Hood discusses predictive, personalized, preventative & participatory health care and and shows off his national medal of science. Tune in at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 4,  and 9 p.m. Sunday, May 5, on NWCN (ch. 2) to hear more about his conversation with host, Hanson Hosein. Four Peaks is a monthly current [...]

Martin Shelton Martin Shelton, a post doc in the Lee Hood lab, just received his first patent. He shared the following explanation with his 10-year-old nephew who’s a burgeoning scientist/inventor/engineer. “We made a small molecule called a peptide (which is a sciency word for a piece of a protein). This peptide blocks a function that is key to the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV, the virus that causes AIDS) within a person by trapping the virus within the [...]

By Aaron Brooks ISB News Team May 1, 2013 — Endometrial cancers affect many women in the United States. In 2012, 47,000 new cases and 8,000 deaths were estimated – making endometrial cancer the fourth most common type of cancer among US women. Accurate diagnosis of endometrial tumors is critical for doctors to determine the best treatment regimen. It turns, out, however, that there are major differences between endometrial cancers — differences lurking at the molecular level. Researchers at ISB [...]

By Dana Riley Black, Director of ISB’s Center for Inquiry Science Healthcare continues to be listed as a “high-demand” field, meaning there continue to be significant and projected employment opportunities in the field.  A recent employment gap analysis by Washington State released on April 3 suggests a projected deficit of 472 healthcare jobs filled annually in the state (see: http://www.wtb.wa.gov/HighDemandFields.asp). As a result, many middle and high schools are turning to curricula that introduce students to careers in the healthcare [...]

By Greg Zornetzer ISB News Team Oceans contain innumerable species of diatom microbes that are responsible for half of the Earth’s oxygen production, as well as CO2 removal, a critical exchange in the web of life. The current understanding of these single-celled organisms is limited. But researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and the University of Washington have made a discovery that offers new insight about the daily life cycle of the diatom, which may lead to a [...]

Researchers Curated Existing Data to Create Lineage Map, Develop Open-Access Web Tool to Enable Further Studies By ISB News Team Scientists at Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), University of Luxembourg, and Tampere University of Technology have created a method that identifies the genetic toggle switches that determine a cell’s developmental fate. This research, published on April 21 in the journal Nature Methods, may lead to new discoveries in disease treatments and tissue-regeneration technologies. “In this elegant work, the authors propose [...]

ISB announced three new board of directors members this morning. The full press release is here. Douglas Howe: Howe is the president and founder of Touchstone Corporation, a Seattle-based commercial real estate company that focuses on the development of urban infill projects and leads the industry in designing and constructing high-performance, sustainable green buildings. More info Craig Mundie: Mundie is the senior advisor to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp. He works on key strategic projects within the company, as [...]