Innovative Genomics Institute

millet field

With new funding from the Gates Foundation, IGI's Venkatesan Sundaresan & Myeong-Je Cho, will develop new self-cloning mustard and millet in collaboration with researchers in India. Learn more: innovativegenomics.org/news/expandi... #AgResearch #FoodSecurity

Coming up today at 2 PM Pacific!

Promotional banner for IGI seminar on using structured phenotypes to explore clinical heterogeneity and variant effects by Jennifer Posey.

Coming up tomorrow, Columbia University's Jennifer Posey on assessing genotype-phenotype relationships in rare genetic disease. Join us in person on the UC Berkeley campus or on Zoom! Learn more and get location details: https://ow.ly/WRQl50Y7KNK

Out today in Science Magazine, IGI’s Ben Williams is taking a novel approach to studying human aging and epigenetics: using the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, which completes its lifecycle in just seven weeks. Read more: https://ow.ly/fP9A50Y5BqB

Jonathan Braverman

New research from IGI's Jonathan Braverman, on modifying doxorubicin to circumvent multidrug resistance in #cancer. Read here: https://ow.ly/43MZ50Y42yY

Sundar in lab handling plants

New from IGI's Venkatesan Sundaresan, a review of synthetic #apomixis: https://ow.ly/KzeN50Y428V

Today in Nature Communications, a team of IGI researchers from The Banfield Lab and Pam Ronald's labs uncover a new way to reduce methane emissions from rice by influencing the activity of rice paddy soil #microbes. Read more: https://ow.ly/45j150Y3WsI

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With new support from Google.org's AI for Science Fund, IGI's Spencer Diamond, Rohan Sachdeva, Yun Song & Matthias Hess, have launched a new project to develop a #ML framework that can predict #microbiome behavior in animal agriculture. Learn more: https://tinyurl.com/y7xctpp7

Illustration showing various DNA structures, genetic sequences, and cellular components with arrows indicating biological processes.

Did you know that the illustrations in our resources like CRISPRpedia are free to use for non-commercial, educational purposes? Check out our Science x Art page to see a selection of the amazing work from our designers and artists. https://innovativegenomics.org/science-x-art/ #SciArt

A new preprint from The Banfield Lab looks at mobile genetic elements with single-cell precision. Read here: https://ow.ly/hFBX50Y0nQA

#microbiology

Exciting to see updates on this research, which Kelsey Hern started in 2023 as an entrepreneurial fellow at IGI! #microbiome

A new preprint on expanding the genetic code, from IGI's Jill Banfield, Peter Penev, and collaborators across the country: https://ow.ly/HiYO50XVNXR

This is shaping up to be one of the top conferences on microbiome editing!!

A new review from the Doudna Lab lab on tissue-targeted in vivo delivery of gene editors: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-025-02945-w

#CRISPR #delivery

Victoria Gray

Check out the latest episode of Rewriting the Code, featuring Jennifer Doudna and #SickleCell patient pioneer Victoria Gray who was cured with a #CRISPR-based treatment in a groundbreaking clinical trial: https://ow.ly/t6FY50XVNO7

CRISPR is used in landmark treatment to correct genetic misspelling of a single patient In a world first, scientists used CRISPR to fix a baby's unique genetic mutation. The report offers hope for personalized treatments of rare diseases.

As 2025 comes to an end, we look back at some of our favorite uplifting stories from the year.
Starting off:
For the first time, scientists say they have reached into the genome of a severely ill child and rewritten the unique misspelling in his DNA. www.statnews.com/2025/05/15/c...

Targeted delivery of genome editors in vivo - @doudna-lab.bsky.social @innovativegenomics.bsky.social go.nature.com/4qKp6Tb

hands knitting DNA instead of thread

Did you know that the illustrations in our resources like CRISPRpedia and our illustrated scientific glossary are free to use for non-commercial, educational purposes? Check out our Science x Art page to see amazing work from our designers and artists: https://innovativegenomics.org/science-x-art/

Flor is an @pcronald.bsky.social @ucdavisplants.bsky.social lab alum, so she's been a long-time IGI member. We're thrilled to keep her on the team in this new role!

Flor smiling in front of a tree with yellow flowers.

A warm welcome to Flor Ercoli, our newest IGI Investigator! Flor is starting a lab at @ucriverside.bsky.social e.bsky.social
where she will focus on #plant-#microbe interactions. Learn more about her path to science and what keeps her motivated every day: ow.ly/HyLi50XSKtg

During my postdoc in @therubinlab.bsky.social, @leosong.bsky.social and I aimed to make CRISPR-associated transposons more efficient for editing bacteria.

Couldn’t have done it w/o a CAST of characters at IGI and beyond @innovativegenomics.bsky.social, @cresslab.bsky.social, @doudna-lab.bsky.social

Three blue chairs and one yellow chair against a blue and orange background with text about hiring a Director of Intellectual Property.

We're looking for a Director of Intellectual Property to help us realize our vision of making genome editing technologies available to all who may benefit from them. Learn more and apply here: https://ow.ly/XyQt50XScem

Fig. 5. Phylogenetic distribution of VchCAST activator and inhibitor genes. The phylogenetic distribution of 11 E. coli regulatory genes was mapped across 80,789 representative bacterial genomes from 92 phyla in Genome Taxonomy Database, release 214.0 (GTDB version 214.0) (72, 73), with at least 10 members. Homologs were identified using AnnoTree (60) and confirmed with the eggNOG database (70).

New in Science Magazine Science Advances from the Doudna Lab, Rubin Lab and Cress Lab —Identification of proteins influencing #CRISPR-associated #transposases for enhanced #GenomeEditing. Read here: https://ow.ly/U0s450XS82n

Moi holding a tray of arabidopsis plants

"I wanted to be an ecologist and protect nature — that was always my dream."

IGI's Moi Expósito-Alonso on his path to running a research group at Berkeley, studying plant adaptation to climate change. Read here: https://ow.ly/8BuU50XAjpe

Plant synthetic biology explained in 101 seconds, featuring IGI Investigator Patrick Shih! Watch here: https://youtu.be/yf8Zt4LHnhI?si=6MGoC71CdZTfom7N

Collage of scientists and researchers working in labs, analyzing data, and collaborating on experiments in a modern research environment.

The world of genome editing is moving at a fast pace, and the IGI is right in the middle of the action. Here’s a look back at some of our most exciting news stories you don't want to miss from 2025. Read here: https://ow.ly/Z1n650XJXGS

#CRISPR

The biggest scientific breakthroughs of the last 25 years—and a few to watch From decoding the human genome to exploring the universe, science has made huge strides in the 21st century.

National Geographic names CRISPR among the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the last 25 years and gives @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social @innovativegenomics.bsky.social the last word on what's next.
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Bruce Conklin in lab

Neurons are trickier to edit than most other cell types. A study from IGI's Bruce Conklin sheds lights on why, which could impact how new brain-based editors are designed. Read here: https://ow.ly/J0Aj50XAjLr

Congrats to #BioEGSB affiliate scientist Ben Rubin and team on publication of @therubinlab.bsky.social's first lead paper!

ICYMI: #CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna joins @euanashley.bsky.social on Episode 3 of The Future of Medicine for a deep, wide-ranging conversation about how #GeneEditing is reshaping the landscape of modern medicine. Watch on our YouTube or stream here: https://bit.ly/43LGRZv