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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.

Health & Wellness Research

Technology & Socety

Tech +
Society

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

Tech & society research

Agriculture & Energy

Ag +
Energy

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

Ag & Energy Research

Outreach & Public Engagement

Outreach &
Public Engagement

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

Outreach programs

Carl R. Woese Prize in Evolution

Spotlight

Nominations open for the Carl R. Woese Prize in Evolution

Submissions due by November 15, 2026

Featured Stories

Pictured from left: researcher Yi Zhou, Professor Huimin Zhao, researcher Yifei Ge
Diwakar Shukla, right, and graduate student Diego E. Kleiman worked together to map the moving parts of more than 18,000 proteins in the human body in less than two days, a feat that used to take months on a supercomputer. Photo by Fred Zwicky
Pictured left to right: bioengineering professor Fan Lam, postdoctoral researcher Timothy Trinklein, and chemistry professor Jonathan Sweedler / Jenna Kurtzweil
The visual abstract from the paper, entitled “Macrophage-Targeted Quantum Dots with Short-Wave Infrared Emission for In Vivo Breast Cancer Imaging,” published in Bioconjugate Chemistry.
Lizzie Bello is the science writer fellow at the IGB
Plant biology professor Surangi Punyasena, left, former U. of I. Ph.D. student Marc-Élie Adaimé and their colleagues developed deep-learning methods for establishing the composition and diversity of fossil grass pollen samples. Adaimé is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian’s Office of Digital and Innovation. Photo by Fred Zwicky