Since the inception of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, its slogan has been “where science meets society.” This highlights the institute’s deep commitment both past and present to communicate the research and discoveries happening at the IGB with the public, and promote scientific thinking to encourage a new diverse generation of scientists and science-informed citizens. “We established a comprehensive outreach program within a few years of opening the IGB, for several reasons,” said IGB Director Gene Robinson (GNDP).

One of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology’s main goals is fostering partnerships between departments across campus to encourage more trans-disciplinary research. Initiatives provide an avenue for this goal, bringing researchers across departments, study systems, and disciplines together and encouraging collaborative research. Here we highlight the initiatives that the IGB has been involved with during the 15 years since its inception.

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology has hosted numerous research centers over the years, fostering collaboration between researchers at the IGB and external partners, including those of academic, governmental, and industrial nature. The IGB’s centers often work together with multiple institutions and companies, producing interdisciplinary research that is then translated into real-world solutions. Here, we discuss the centers both past and current that the IGB has hosted over the last 15 years.

One of the biggest challenges in traditional laboratory settings is performing countless hours of error-prone lab work: handling reagents, incubating reactions or living cells, synthesizing products, applying treatments, and monitoring outcomes. The Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing was established in 2014 to bypass these cumbersome procedures and support a broad array of research goals.

On February 25^th 2022, the Illinois General Assembly adopted House Resolution 0690, commending the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology on its 15^th year of societal, scientific, and scholarly contributions at the intersection of science and society.

In honor of the IGB's anniversary, we're revisiting some of the history of our institute over the past 15 years with a series of articles highlighting IGB people, projects, and research.

The Illinois General Assembly officially recognized the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) for celebrating fifteen years of genomic research addressing major societal issues in the areas of agriculture, environmental conservation, health, wellness, technology, and society. The IGB houses a broad portfolio of interdisciplinary life sciences research on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.

In honor of the IGB's anniversary, we're revisiting some of the history of our institute over the past 15 years with a series of articles highlighting IGB people, projects, and research.

Improving crop yields in collaboration with RIPE

Scientists having been breeding plants for over a century with the goal of feeding hungry people across the world. To that end, the Green Revolution in the 1960s used new technologies to increase food production in scale with the population growth. Unfortunately, these increases will not be enough in a few decades.