ICB News | Institute for Collaborative Biotechnology (ICB)

The ICB Announces Leadership Transition

June 30, 2020

As ICB Co-Director Professor Scott Grafton steps down, we are pleased to announce that Professor Barry Giesbrecht has been appointed to succeed Grafton as new ICB Co-Director. Giesbrecht has been leading research projects with the ICB for more than a dozen years and has been co-leader, alongside Grafton, of the ICB research focus area—Cognitive Neuroscience.

ICB Synthetic Biologist Enoch Yeung Wins W.M. Keck Foundation Award

June 23, 2020

ICB Project Leader Enoch Yeung and his UCSB colleague Omar Saleh have won a three-year, $1 million award from the W.M. Keck Foundation to develop a synthetic, autonomous, gene-regulated 'cell'. With this award, the researchers will not only be able to investigate some of the fundamental aspects of cellular processes, but also to develop a synthetic system that exploits genetic feedback to create dramatic structural outputs, phase transformations and perhaps even movement.

New Academic Initiative: Mind and Machine Intelligence

February 27, 2020

Two ICB researchers launch a new Mellichamp Academic Initiative, Mind & Machine Intelligence. William Wang and Miguel Eckstein are bringing together computational scientists studying the human mind with computer scientists and engineers to create new ways of looking at fundamental problems in science, engineering, and humanities that are highly relevant to modern society.

Douglas Lauffenburger has been elected as fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

November 26, 2019

The ICB's MIT Program Leader, Douglas Lauffenburger, Ford Professor of Biological Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Biology at MIT, has been elected as fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

Pope Francis Appoints Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold to Papal Think Tank

November 8, 2019

Frances Arnold, ICB Project Leader, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at Caltech, has been named to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a scientific academy under the auspices of the pope and based in Vatican City. The announcement was made by the Vatican on October 24, 2019.

Katharina Ribbeck Shows How Molecules in Mucus Subdue Microbes Rendering Them Harmless

October 14, 2019

New research published in Nature Microbiology shows one of mucus’s unexpected beneficial properties: mucus contains sugars that can interfere with bacteria’s communication and behavior, effectively stopping the formation of dangerous, tough biofilms and making them harmless.

Megan Valentine and Michael Chabinyc are elected fellows of the American Physical Society

September 27, 2019

On September 19, 2019, both Megan Valentine and Michael Chabinyc were elected fellows of the American Physical Society. They have been recognized by their peers for their “exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise in physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education,” they join 166 fellow scientists and engineers “selected and recognized for their contributions to science.”

Barry Giesbrecht's ICB Research Challenges Longstanding Assumptions About Alpha-band-based Recall Processes

September 9, 2019

A new study funded by the ICB and under the leadership of Barry Giesbrecht suggests the possibility of a dual process for recall coding in oscillatory brain activity. The study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience.

David Tirrell Wins ACS 2019 National Award for Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry

April 5, 2019

Caltech Provost and McCollum-Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech David Tirrell is the recipient of the 2019 American Chemical Society's (ACS) Ronald Breslow Award for Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry. Tirrell has been with the ICB since its inception and we are honored to have this association as he is recognized for his outstanding contributions to the development of artificial proteins and noncanonical amino acids.

ICB Neuroscientist Thomas Sprague Receives Early Career Sloan Research Fellowship

February 21, 2019

In recognition of promising early-career achievements,Thomas Sprague, ICB project leader and assistant professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UCSB has received a fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Each year the foundation selects fellows from a diverse group of researchers nominated by their peers.