Seattle biotech hub secures $75M to bring AI to human cell

Seattle is about to welcome a new health science research center, the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology.

• Hub History: The center, set to open in January, is a collaboration between prestigious institutions: the Allen Institute, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the University of Washington. The center's scientific objective is to transform cells into recording devices, capturing their experiences within the genome.

• Achievements from the Field: Synthetic biology, a field that engineers biological parts to perform novel functions, has seen significant growth in Seattle over the last decade. The idea of engineered cells is similar to a smartwatch. These cells can record body changes such as infections, enabling researchers to review these changes at the cellular level. This technology could revolutionize health history recording, making it less dependent on medical records or patient memory.

• Leading the Charge: Dr. Jay Shendure, a UW professor of genome sciences, is at the helm of the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology.

• Future Utility: Potential applications include a better understanding of the effects of chronic diseases, aging, and climate change at the molecular level. While the technology is initially intended as a research tool, there's potential for it to be used in clinical settings for diagnoses and interventions.

The project's partners, the Allen Institute and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, each contribute up to $35M for the new center's establishment.