Institute for Systems Biology
Encyclopedia
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Leroy Hood
Leroy Hood
Leroy Hood is an American biologist. He won the 2011 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science” and the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventing "four instruments that have unlocked much of the mystery of human biology" by...
co-founded the Institute with Alan Aderem
Alan Aderem
Alan Aderem is a biologist, specializing in immunology and cell biology. Dr. Aderem's particular focus is the innate immune system, the part of the immune system that responds generically to pathogens....
and Ruedi Aebersold
Ruedi Aebersold
Rudolf Aebersold is a Swiss biologist, regarded as a pioneer in the fields of proteomics and systems biology. Prof. Aebersold has primarily researched techniques for measuring proteins in complex samples, in many cases via mass spectrometry...
in 2000.
As its name suggests, the ISB concentrates on systems biology
Systems biology
Systems biology is a term used to describe a number of trends in bioscience research, and a movement which draws on those trends. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, claiming that it uses...
, the study of relationships and interactions between various parts of biological systems. The ISB is also notable for advocating an interdisciplinary approach to biological research.
The ISB has been involved in several high-profile research projects, including the NHLBI Seattle Proteome Center and the Center for Inquiry Science.
In late 2005, the ISB began to emphasize the application of systems biology to P4 medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory), the development of techniques for predicting and preventing disease, possibly before the patient knows they are "sick.".