Message from Co-Directors
Dear CSB Community,
While 2025 brought its share of challenges, it ultimately became a year of remarkable growth and momentum for the Center—made possible by the strength, creativity, and dedication of our extraordinary community. Together, we reaffirmed the vital role of science in addressing the world’s most pressing problems, while continuing to advance high-impact research, expand transformative educational opportunities, and launch ambitious, collaborative initiatives.
This fall, we were proud to launch a year-long celebration of CSB’s 10-year anniversary—an opportunity to honor our past achievements, showcase the vibrant work of our present, and boldly envision the future we are building together. The celebration will continue throughout 2026 and culminate in our 10th Anniversary Celebration & Retreat this May, where we look forward to welcoming alumni, collaborators, friends, members of the broader scientific community, and—most importantly—you. We hope you will join us to celebrate a decade of impact and innovation.
As we close the year, we wish you a restful holiday season and are looking forward to all we will accomplish together in 2026!
Danielle Tullman-Ercek and Julius Lucks
Research Highlights
CSB had $6.4M in active research funding in 2025, with projects spanning multiple foundations and federal agencies. With 18 active research collaborations and 450 publications since 2020, CSB researchers continue to make impactful discoveries to advance synthetic biology.
A few research highlights from 2025 include:
Education and Community
With more than 300 trainees, 24 faculty across three Northwestern schools, and 8 staff, CSB celebrates its talented community. In 2025, CSB hosted 30 community events including seminars, workshops, ethics conversations, and social events, as well as a public conversation with acclaimed journalist and author Michael Grunwald and the national Cell-Free Systems Conference.
A few community highlights include:
Last spring, CSB launched our new Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, welcoming five early-career researchers to pursue innovative projects in synthetic biology. Our NSF-funded National Research Traineeship program has now trained a total of 25 NRT PhD students across four cohorts. This summer, we hosted eight undergraduate REU students from across the country to conduct synthetic biology research in our labs, thanks to generous support from Walder Foundation and NSF. We also welcomed a new cohort of DeFeo Family Scholars, expanding Northwestern’s vibrant community of emerging synthetic biology researchers.
A few education highlights from 2025 include:
Translation and Impact
Towards translating knowledge into the world, CSB researchers have collectively filed 82 patents and patent applications through 2025. In addition, the CSB Biofoundry celebrated 1 year as a NU core, serving academic labs and synthetic biology startups to accelerate discovery and scale innovation.
As we continue celebrating CSB’s 10-year anniversary, we look forward to the discoveries and innovations 2026 will bring.
Happy Holidays from your
