The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology supports biological research that aims to address grand societal challenges. Genomics has proved to be a powerful means to reexamine and reimagine biological systems, opening up promising pathways to address food and fuel security, predict and treat life-threatening disease, and revolutionize biomanufacturing. IGB members work together to innovate in the areas of health and wellness, agriculture and environment, and technology and society. The institute’s broad portfolio of federal, foundation and philanthropic funding allows IGB researchers to scale discovery and innovation to impact.
“Since its inception, IGB researchers have been issued 68 patents, enabling 40 active licenses and kickstarting 23 start-up and small companies,” said IGB Interim Director and Professor of Crop Sciences Lisa Ainsworth (CAMBERS/PFS). “Developing this clear path from curiosity-driven research to translation to real world applications that benefit humanity is a key success story of the institute.”
IGB’s collaborative environment facilitates development of ideas into research projects, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Illinois supports the researchers to embark on a translational pathway. A survey of a few of the entrepreneurial efforts emerging from the IGB gives a sense of how the team science model leads to a broader vision of innovative solutions.
One such effort began when researchers applied the power of chemistry and insights from biology to a challenge in medicine. Chemistry professor Martin Burke (MMG) and collaborators set out to find a safer alternative to a standard antifungal treatment derived from bacteria called Amphotericin B. AmB is effective at killing fungal species that cause sometimes dangerous infections, but the potential side effects are severe, including inflammation, electrolyte imbalances, and even permanent kidney damage.
Working with colleagues including Professor of Veterinary Clinical Medicine Timothy Fan (ACPP/CGD) and supported by National Institutes of Health funding, Burke first focused on asking why and how AmB causes this damage. The group then generated and screened a vast library of variants on the AmB structure until they landed on one that did not display this damaging chemical behavior. Through a startup called Sfunga that was subsequently acquired by Elion Therapeutics, Burke’s years of research have now set this new potential treatment, a compound called EL219, on its way toward safety and efficacy testing with the goal of gaining FDA approval and the chance to save lives.
Tackling intractable medical challenges through novel biological insight is also a driving force of another startup that formed through partnerships at the IGB. Archean Sciences, a company co-headed by mechanical science and engineering professor Mattia Gazzola (M-CELS), originated with research in the M-CELS research theme, which combines cellular biology with engineering to design living systems able to precisely perform microscale tasks. In the theme’s National Science Foundation Expedition grant funded Mind in vitro project and in Archean Sciences, researchers are applying this approach to understanding the brain and leveraging that understanding to build biological processors—computational devices built with living neurons. Their aim is to create testbeds for neurological disease treatment, as well as energy-efficient, truly intelligent computing systems.
To develop a hybrid processor, one in which living neurons interface with an engineered computing platform, takes a truly hybrid team. It also requires the type of adaptable laboratory space that the institute provides to accommodate fabrication of substrates that coax neurons to grow into pre-designed circuits, and the incubation of those neurons in devices that can send and receive signals with the living circuits as they form and strengthen. Archean Sciences recently won the Grand Prize in the Cozad New Venture Challenge, and the Illinois Proof-of-concept award.
Cutting-edge research infrastructure was a key starting condition for another IGB startup, ForgeBee. Former IGB Director Gene Robinson (GNDP), who now leads the Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago, and cofounder Adam Hamilton took advantage of a first of its kind laboratory resource to tackle a pressing agricultural problem. An important sector of agriculture in the United States and elsewhere relies on insect pollination services, but insect pollinators currently face an array of health challenges. In a research effort supported by the Department of Defense, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Robinson and Hamilton innovated a high-throughput method for honey bee rearing that was conceived and tested with the Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing, an automated and customizable synthetic biology platform housed within the IGB.
A barrier to lab-raising honey bees is the difficulty in replacing the constant feeding and care provided by the tens of thousands of worker bees within the hive. Access to laboratory machinery that could replicate this provisioning and fine-tuning of environmental conditions enabled this work to move forward, leading to the formation of ForgeBee. As a result of their methodological breakthroughs, ForgeBee was recently honored with the Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Award by the University of Illinois.
The IGB continues to develop a research environment that supports innovation, providing members with access to the expertise of entrepreneurs through venues including the Fox family lecture series, supporting trainees via the Tracy Undergraduate Training Program and the Early Innovators Program, and connecting researchers with opportunities provided by the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship. Together, these and system-level resources including the Cozad New Venture Challenge and I-Corps program will continue to bring growth opportunities to visionary work emerging from the IGB.