News

Ilya Shmulevich

‘A Life Like No Other:’ Remembering Beloved ISB Professor Ilya Shmulevich

Devoted husband and father. Animal lover. Accomplished pianist. Avid cyclist. Compassionate human. Exceptional scientist. The ISB community mourns the loss of Professor Ilya Shmulevich, PhD, who died on April 13, 2024. He was 54 years old.

Cultivated meat illustration

How Systems Biology Is Helping Advance the Cultivated Meat Industry

The quest to create cultivated meat has been a true multidisciplinary puzzle. It’s biology, engineering, physics, bioinformatics, mathematics, computer science, and more. Enter systems biology. ISB and other organizations are toiling to better understand how to create lab-grown meat in a safe, effective manner that can eventually scale up to compete with traditional meat.

2021 Innovator Awards

Three Collaborative Projects Announced for ISB’s 2021 Innovator Award Program

ISB has kicked off the fifth year of its Innovator Award Program by announcing three collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects. The program was created in 2017 to support early-career scientists working on high-risk, high-reward innovations, and champions interdisciplinary collaboration for non-faculty ISB researchers.

CRI iAtlas

CRI iAtlas Expands to Interactive Analysis of Data on Immunotherapy Treatments

CRI iAtlas is a comprehensive web-based resource that allows oncologists and researchers to study and analyze interactions between tumors and the immune microenvironment. The iAtlas team released immuno-oncology modules that allow investigators to access and work with genomics data from trials of treatment with immune-checkpoint inhibitors. 

Shmulevich-Thorsson

ISB Researchers Among Recipients of AACR Team Science Award

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has recognized The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project with the 2020 AACR Team Science Awards. Award recipients include Dr. Ilya Shmulevich, ISB professor and head of the Shmulevich Lab; ISB senior research scientist Dr. Vésteinn Þórsson; and former Shmulevich Lab members Drs. Brady Bernard and Theo Knijnenburg.

ISB researchers

Unveiling the Guerrilla Warfare Tactics of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

ISB researchers have unveiled new insights on how Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, enters and exits a dormant state in human hosts. About a quarter of the world’s population has latent TB, so these important findings will enable and accelerate the discovery of more effective TB drugs.

Spotlight on Caroline Cannistra, ISB Systems Research Scholar

Caroline Cannistra joined ISB in 2018 as a Systems Research Scholar. The Systems Research Scholars Program provides recent college undergraduates a springboard to become the next generation’s pioneers of interdisciplinary scientific research.

2019 education awards

ISB’s Mónica Orellana, Nyasha Chambwe Honored With Inaugural Education Recognition Awards

At ISB, many of our scientists and STEM professionals give their time and expertise and make profound impacts on our educational programs. Two of our researchers — Dr. Mónica Orellana and Dr. Nyasha Chambwe — were honored with inaugural Education Recognition Awards for their devotion to providing quality STEM education.

TCGA, ISB Researchers Identify Potential Drug Targets for Leading Form of Deadly Liver Cancer

June 19, 2017 Researchers in ISB’s Shmulevich Lab and their colleagues in The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network performed the first large-scale, multi-platform analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma, the predominant form of liver cancer. Study was published on June 15, 2017, in the journal Cell. 3 Bullets: Liver cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. ISB researchers and colleagues from The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network…

ISB Consilience: Museum of Awe

The Museum of Awe is all around us; you just have to find a door. Attendees of the 2017 Consilience event, including ISB’s Dr. Ilya Shmulevich (center), examine a mini “pop-up” experience created by NASA JPL visual strategists Dan Goods and David Delgado. The tank allows people to see particles that have come down to earth from outer space. The experience is designed as a simple reminder of the gift…

ISB Q&A: David Gibbs, Research Scientist

You have to have fun. ISB founder Dr. Lee Hood always reminds staff that it’s important to do great work, and it’s also important to have fun. In that spirit, we feature CatterPlots, a “silly idea” that brought a smile to many scientists. Q: What is CatterPlots and how is it used? David Gibbs: The R programming environment is organized around a large collection of software packages. Many packages are…

William Poole, 2013 undergrad intern

Former Undergrad Intern Publishes Algorithm in PLOS Computational Biology

Posted March 1, 2017 In a study published in PLoS Computational Biology, researchers at Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) have developed a multiscale mutation clustering algorithm (M2C) that identifies variable length regions with high mutation density in cancer genes. The M2C algorithm was developed by William Poole (first author on the paper), who started as a summer intern in 2013 as part of ISB’s Center for Systems Biology internship program….

Sanger Institute’s COSMIC database expands cancer cloud capabilities at the Institute for Systems Biology

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute released this news on Feb. 20, 2017. See original release… FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s Catalog of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) team announces a new agreement to provide their data to the U.S.-based Institute for Systems Biology (ISB). COSMIC is an expert-curated cancer mutation database, and is the world’s largest and most comprehensive resource for exploring the impact of somatic mutations…

Comprehensive study of esophageal cancer reveals several molecular subtypes, provides new insight into increasingly prevalent disease

The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network recommends clinical trials organizers and drug manufacturers focus on newly discovered molecular subtypes GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Jan. 4, 2017 –– A comprehensive analysis of 559 esophageal and gastric cancer samples, collected from patients around the world, suggests the two main types of esophageal cancer differ markedly in their molecular characteristics and should be considered separate diseases. The study, published today in Nature from The…

ISB Gets $3.4M NIH Extension for Cancer Genomics Cloud

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ISB Receives $3.4 Million Extension to NIH Contract to Continue Development of ‘Cancer Genomics Cloud’ with Google and CSRA SEATTLE, Oct. 21, 2016 – Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) has received a $3.4 million, one-year extension to an existing federally-funded contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). This follows the completion of the initial two-year, $6.5 million contract during which ISB developed…

Vice President Biden Gives Cancer Moonshot Update

This week, Vice President Biden delivered an extensive update on the progress of the Cancer Moonshot initiative. ISB was mentioned in relation to the Cancer Genomics Cloud project. Learn more about ISB CGC at isb-cgc.org. Excerpt from the official White House press release: Official White House press release Full Cancer Moonshot Report Puget Sound Business Journal article

A Landscape of Pharmacogenomic Interactions in Cancer

The journal Cell published a study today (July 7) about the integrated analysis of drug response in 1,001 cancer cell lines. This study was undertaken by a large international group of researchers including ISB Senior Research Scientist Theo Knijnenburg. The researchers integrated heterogeneous molecular data of 11,215 tumors and 1,001 cell lines in order to study the drug response of these cell lines to 265 anti-cancer drugs. They uncovered numerous…

Not Just About Collecting Data

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News interviewed ISB’s Dr. Ilya Shmulevich for a feature article on systems biology. “Systems biology is not just about measuring as many things as possible,” says Ilya Shmulevich, PhD, a professor at the Institute for Systems Biology. “It is also about using mathematical and computational modeling to make predictions about the system.” READ THE ARTICLE: http://www.genengnews.com/…/systems-biology-digs-deep…/5775/