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where science meets society

Where Science Meets Society

Learn More About IGB

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is an innovative research institute using cutting-edge genomic practices to tackle large-scale global challenges currently facing humanity.

Food security for a growing population. Effective therapeutic drugs and antibiotics. Automated synthesis of new molecules and proteins. Using a team-based, collaborative science approach, researchers at the IGB are addressing these and other complex issues. Our main areas of research below are each supported by our strong commitment to fundamental science – the pursuit of discovery.

Health & Wellness

Health +
Wellness

How the genome enhances, affects, or disrupts physical and mental wellbeing.

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Technology & Socety

Tech +
Society

Advancing our capability to shape the world and capacity to understand each other.

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Agriculture & Energy

Ag +
Energy

Sustainably feeding and fueling a planet impacted by a changing global climate.

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Outreach & Public Engagement

Outreach &
Public Engagement

Encouraging the public to understand how genomics affects daily life and society.

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June 2024

Spotlight

Image of the Month

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Featured Stories

Campers practice identifying plants in the Conservatory Greenhouse on campus (left), and imaging plant and insect specimens on the mobile lab bus (top right). The bottom right shows a cicada viewed through a microscope.
Civil and environmental engineering professor Helen Nguyen (left) and pathobiology professor Csaba Vargo (right)
 Two hybrid morphs found at the phenotypic transition zone, where hybrids visually appear more mixed between the two parental species.
First author Saurabh Umrao (left) with images of DNA nets taken using atomic force microscopy imaging.
Zeynep Madak-Erdogan and her colleagues found that stress responses vary between lung cancer patients living in high-violence or low-violence zip codes. These differences likely lead to worse lung cancer outcomes in patients living in violent neighborhoods, the researchers found.  Photo by Jonathan King
 The researchers in a laboratory. Between them is a fish tank with an octopus inside.  Rhanor Gillette, left, and Ekaterina Gribkova developed an AI that can navigate new environments, seek novelty and rewards, and learn in real time. Their research into the neural pathways that drive behavior in sea slugs and octopuses guided the work.  Photo by Fred Zwicky