Chan Zuckerberg Biohub

Michael Clarke, Biohub Investigator and Stanford University professor, recently discovered that the LEFTY1 molecule can fuel the growth of breast cancer cells. If blocked, LEFTY1 may offer a new approach to treating breast cancer, including "triple negative" breast cancers, which don’t currently offer a good target for therapy. To read more about this research, check out the scientific paper in Cell: https://bit.ly/33eDz1R

G-coupled protein receptors are responsible for a number of cellular, organ and whole system functions. These receptors are also the targets of an estimated 50% or more of drugs currently on the market to treat psychological, neurological, metabolic, inflammatory, cardiovascular, viral and cancer diseases. To better understand what happens to the G-coupled protein receptors once they are activated, Brian Kobilka, Stanford University Professor and CZ Biohub Investigator, and his team used NMR spectroscopy to identify specific conformational changes and select binding partners. These findings could impact our understanding of normal and disordered pathways related to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular or immune diseases. It could also lead to the development of more targeted therapies with reduced side effects.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the CLIAhub, one of the U.S.’s leading COVID-19 testing centers that we built in just eight days. Since March, the lab has processed more than 150,000 tests for communities throughout California including nursing homes, prisons, and unsheltered populations. UCSF, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and our public health partners throughout the state were vital in this effort, and of course, the hundreds of UCSF volunteers who stepped up at a critical time. We’re grateful to have provided this service for our community while the California COVID-19 Task Force built up its testing capacity.

Covid-19 and environmental disasters have increased the challenges in producing and supplying plant-based pharmaceutical drugs to patients worldwide. A recent paper in Nature, by Stanford University Professor of Bioengineering and CZ Biohub Investigator, Christina Smolke and her lab used a whole-cell engineering approach to replace, synthesize and scale-up the production of tropane alkaloids and opioids used to treat neurological disorders from Parkinson’s disease to nausea and pain.

#BlackInCardioWeek starts today and will feature daily themed discussions aimed at celebrating, amplifying and supporting Black voices in the Cardiovascular field. Join the conversation by following Black in cardio on Facebook and check out the daily events, including panel discussions, Q&As and a workout challenge, here: blackincardio.com

Congratulations to Steve Quake, CZ Biohub co-president, for being listed on Nature Biotechnology Top 20 translational researchers of 2019 list, which is based on a researcher's Total patents granted in 2019 Top-cited patent over 5 years H-index (impact of published work)

Vera is a low-cost system to collect samples for COVID-19 testing and monitor populations for the disease. CZ Biohub's Steve Quake and Stanford University's Yvonne Maldonado are part of the team that developed the platform and discussed the system with ABC7 News https://abc7ne.ws/2I4xexP

Congratulations to Jennifer A. Doudna, UC Berkeley professor and CZ Biohub Presidents’ Advisory Board member, for winning the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry!

Congratulations to Euan Ashley, who was appointed to Astrazeneca’s board as a non-executive director and a member of its science committee. Dr. Ashley is a CZ Biohub Intercampus Research Awards Project Leader and Associate Dean and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Genetics at Stanford University. His group is focused on the science of precision medicine.

Can Instagram filters influence scientific research? James Zou, assistant professor at Stanford University and CZ Biohub Investigator, and his team of scientists are using machine learning to analyze and quantify cancer based on cell morphology and density changes. Their algorithm, called insta-pathology, labels an image of a tumor with the likely genomic activity of groups of cells based on their appearance, similar to the way an Instagram AR filter adds computer graphics to an image or video. This work may allow standardization of imaging across research institutions and clinical practice for multiple therapeutic areas spanning oncology (cancer) to euroscience.

We can bring scaled testing to communities and industries across the country and leverage that as a tool to start thinking about how we can safely and affordably reopen. - Steve Quake, Stanford University professor and co-president of CZ Biohub, on Vera, a new low-cost system to collect samples for COVID-19 testing and monitor populations for the disease. The ready-to-use software platform was created by Stanford, CZ Biohub and a group of collaborators. The technology enables virtually any organization to create their own broad testing and surveillance programs.

Cell-based therapies are a promising treatment for many diseases, but these same cells hold a risk of going ‘rogue.’ Stanford University Professor of Pediatrics and CZ Biohub Investigator Matt Porteus recently published a paper demonstrating a genetic safety mechanism for these cell-based therapies: the ability to keep them active or turn them off if they become maladaptive. The cells are sensitive to a building block of DNA synthesis, uridine, which can be modulated with dietary supplementation or removal. This technology has the possibility of influencing a range of cell-based treatments for key diseases, including hard-to-treat cancers.

Although advances in HIV treatment and prevention have made significant progress, the disease remains a significant health challenge worldwide. Catherine Blish, CZ Biohub Investigator and Stanford University professor of medicine, and her lab recently published a paper that may be critical to characterizing key targets for HIV protection or novel treatments. The scientists profiled a specific subset of immune cells, called natural killer (NK) cells, in a population of sex workers who are HIV-negative despite repeated exposure to HIV, to identify potential protective characteristics. When comparing healthy controls, they identified enriched and decreased expression patterns and differences in the killing of infected cells. To read more about work, check out the scientific paper: https://bit.ly/3insGjm

Tabula Muris Senis is the first single-cell aging cell atlas and open source reference dataset revealing molecular changes related to aging in cells from diverse mouse tissues. The work is a collaboration between CZ Biohub, Stanford University and UCSF http://bit.ly/tabulamurissenis