CHAN ZUCKERBERG BIOHUB INC

IN 2023 THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG BIOHUB NETWORK (CZ BIOHUB NETWORK) CONTINUED TO EXPAND ITS WORK. IN MARCH 2023, CZI ANNOUNCED THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG BIOHUB CHICAGO (CZ BIOHUB CHICAGO) WHICH CATALYZES COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN TO DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR STUDYING AND MEASURING HUMAN BIOLOGY THAT WILL USE EMBEDDED SENSORS AND PROBES TO COLLECT BIOLOGICAL SIGNALS FROM HUMAN TISSUES WITH UNPRECEDENTED RESOLUTION. CZI ANNOUNCED THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG BIOHUB NEW YORK IN OCTOBER 2023, WHICH BRINGS TOGETHER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY, AND YALE UNIVERSITY TO CREATE NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO CHARACTERIZE AND BIOENGINEER IMMUNE CELLS WITH THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF CREATING DISEASE-SPECIFIC "CELLULAR ENDOSCOPES" THAT CAN DETECT EARLY STAGES OF DISEASE IN CELLS, MONITOR CELL CHANGES, AND RESOLVE DISEASES BEFORE THEY BECOME UNTREATABLE. ALSO IN 2023, CZ BIOHUB CHICAGO HELD A LAUNCH EVENT WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, AS WELL AS CIVIC LEADERS. TOWARDS CZ BIOHUB CHICAGO'S WORK TO CREATE NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO UNDERSTAND INFLAMMATION, IT LAUNCHED ITS FIRST INVESTIGATOR PROGRAM AND ALSO THE SPOKE AWARDS PROGRAM. THE INVESTIGATOR PROGRAM FUNDS SCIENTISTS TO PERFORM HIGH-RISK, HIGH-REWARD RESEARCH ON TOPICS RELATED TO INSTRUMENTED TISSUES AND RESEARCH LINKED TO INFLAMMATION AND THE FUNCTIONS OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. SINGLE AND TEAM PROPOSALS WERE SELECTED AFTER A COMPETITIVE PROCESS THAT LED TO 25 PROJECTS AND 48 INVESTIGATORS. INVESTIGATORS WILL ATTEND QUARTERLY INVESTIGATOR MEETINGS, WHICH PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES TO BUILD COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS BETWEEN PARTNER UNIVERSITIES AND BIOHUB SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS, PRESENT PROGRESS FROM ONGOING WORK, AND INTERACT WITH EXTERNAL SPEAKERS.THE SPOKE AWARDS FACILITATE COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN BIOHUB SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS AND INVESTIGATORS FROM THE THREE PARTNER UNIVERSITIES. PROJECTS WILL DEVELOP INSTRUMENTED TISSUES AND THEIR APPLICATION TO INFLAMMATION AND THE RELATED FUNCTIONS OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. THESE FOCUSED ONE-YEAR PROJECTS WILL ESTABLISH PROOF-OF-CONCEPT FOR A VARIETY OF INSTRUMENTED TISSUES, PRODUCE INITIAL DATA SETS SHOWCASING THE INSTRUMENTED TISSUE APPROACH, AND PURSUE COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR FURTHER MINING AND DISSEMINATION OF DATA.THE CZ BIOHUB NETWORK ALSO EXPANDED TO INCLUDE THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED BIOLOGICAL IMAGING (CHAN ZUCKERBERG IMAGING INSTITUTE), WHICH DEVELOPS IMAGING HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY TO UNDERSTAND COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG IMAGING INSTITUTE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CZI'S SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TEAM, DEVELOPED AND RELEASED THE OPEN SOURCE CRYOET DATA PORTAL TO GIVE BIOLOGISTS AND DEVELOPERS OPEN ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY, STANDARDIZED, ANNOTATED DATA THEY CAN READILY USE TO RETRAIN OR DEVELOP NEW ANNOTATION MODELS AND ALGORITHMS. THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG IMAGING INSTITUTE ALSO PURCHASED AND ASSEMBLED ITS FIRST KRIOS MICROSCOPE. ADDITIONALLY, THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG IMAGING INSTITUTE RELEASED SEVERAL OPEN ACCESS TOOLS ON ITS WEBSITE, INCLUDING ARETOMO2, GCTFFIND, AND MOTIONCOR3. THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG BIOHUB SAN FRANCISCO (CZ BIOHUB SF) CELEBRATED ITS 7TH ANNIVERSARY AS A MEDICAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION. CONSISTENT WITH OUR MISSION, CZ BIOHUB SF CONTINUED TO FOCUS ON LARGE-SCALE SCIENTIFIC INITIATIVES THAT WE ARE UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO SUPPORT AND EXECUTE, EACH ON A MULTI-YEAR TIMELINE:1. INTRAMURAL RESEARCH PROJECTS LED BY CZ BIOHUB SF RESEARCHERS AIMED AT UNDERSTANDING DYNAMIC CELL SYSTEMS ACROSS SCALES IN BOTH HEALTHY AND DISEASED STATES.2. PROGRAMS SUPPORTING SCIENTISTS, PHYSICIANS, AND ENGINEERS AT OUR PARTNER UNIVERSITIES (STANFORD UNIVERSITY; UC SAN FRANCISCO; UC BERKELEY) THROUGH THE CZ BIOHUB SF INVESTIGATOR PROGRAM, PHYSICIANSCIENTIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, AND COLLABORATIVE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM.HIGHLIGHTS:-OUR COMPUTATIONAL MICROSCOPY TEAM ANNOUNCED THEIR "MANTIS" MICROSCOPY PLATFORM. WHEN COMBINED WITH CZ BIOHUB SF-CREATED SOFTWARE PACKAGES SHRIMPY AND VISCY, THE SYSTEM ENABLES RAPID HIGH-DIMENSIONAL IMAGING OF MOLECULAR DYNAMICS IN THE CONTEXT OF CELL MORPHOLOGY.-LEVERAGING CELL BIOLOGY, DATA SCIENCE, MASS SPECTROMETRY, GENOMICS, AND VIROLOGY, THE INTRACELLULAR ARCHITECTURE GROUP MAPPED THE SUBCELLULAR LOCALIZATION OF VIRTUALLY ALL CELLULAR PROTEINS. WITH THIS APPROACH THEY WERE ABLE TO SHOW HOW A SARS-RELATED CORONAVIRUS CONSCRIPTS CELLULAR MACHINERY, RELOCATING OVER 600 PROTEINS FROM ONE CELLULAR ORGANELLE TO ANOTHER TO SUPPORT VIRAL REPLICATION.-MEMBERS OF THE ORGANISMAL ARCHITECTURE GROUP TRAVELED TO KRAKOW, POLAND, TO PRESENT CZ BIOHUB SF'S ZEBRAHUB PROJECTAN ATLAS OF EARLY ZEBRAFISH DEVELOPMENT THAT COMBINES STATE-OF-THE-ART LIGHT-SHEET IMAGING AND SINGLE-CELL TRANSCRIPTOMICSAT THE 12TH EUROPEAN ZEBRAFISH MEETING. ZEBRAHUB WAS CITED IN A "METHOD OF THE YEAR" ROUNDUP IN THE JOURNAL NATURE METHODS.-CZ BIOHUB SF INVESTIGATOR CHRIS LOWE, ALONG WITH GRADUATE STUDENT LAURENT FORMERY, PUBLISHED A STUDY IN NATURE THAT UPENDED THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED THEORY OF SEA STAR EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT, PROVIDING A NEW SOLUTION TO A LONG-STANDING PUZZLE IN EVOLUTIONARY/DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY. THE WORK WAS COVERED IN THE WASHINGTON POST, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, AND MANY OTHER OUTLETS.-OUR RAPID RESPONSE TEAM HOSTED RESEARCHERS FROM THE MAHIDOL-OXFORD TROPICAL MEDICINE RESEARCH UNIT IN BANGKOK FOR SCHOLARLY EXCHANGE AND TRAINING IN NEXT-GENERATION METAGENOMIC SEQUENCING TECHNIQUES FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIAGNOSIS AND SURVEILLANCE.-CZ BIOHUB SF SENIOR INVESTIGATOR PETER KIM OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY DESIGNED A NOVEL, SHELF-STABLE, LOW-COST COVID-19 NANOPARTICLE VACCINE THAT SUCCESSFULLY NEUTRALIZED ALL SARS-COV-2 VARIANTS OF CONCERN, AND ELICITED AN ANTIBODY RESPONSE 100-FOLD GREATER THAN THAT SEEN WITH MRNA-BASED VACCINES.-OUR PRESIDENT, JOSEPH DERISI, AND COLLEAGUES PUBLISHED A PAPER REPORTING THAT NITROXOLINE, A WELL-TOLERATED DRUG APPROVED IN EUROPE FOR URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS, SUCCESSFULLY TREATED A PATIENT INFECTED WITH BALAMUTHIA MANDRILLARIS, A "BRAIN-EATING AMOEBA." B. MANDRILLARIS INFECTIONS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS FATAL, BUT DERISI SHOWED IN A 2018 SCREENING STUDY THAT NITROXOLINE WAS EFFECTIVE AGAINST THE PARASITE IN THE LAB.