From elucidating the underlying mechanisms of lupus and field testing a device to diagnose disease in crops in Kenya to proposing a new method for teaching synthetic biology , CSB’s researchers broke new ground in 2024 uncovering new ways to apply synthetic biology to big challenges in human health and the environment.
Research Highlights
CSB labs secured $2M in research funding in 2024. With 11 active research collaborations from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, CSB researchers published 435 journal articles in the area of synthetic biology.
A few of our 2024 research highlights include:
Education and Community
With more than 300 members including 24 faculty across three Northwestern schools and over 300 students, postdocs, and researchers , CSB celebrates its talented community. This year, more than 225 people combined attended both our in-person annual retreat and CSb-hosted Central US Synthetic Biology Workshop to exchange pioneering approaches and ideas to budding science and a better world.
Our NSF-funded National Research Traineeship program has a total of 14 NRT PhD students from 7 graduate programs across 2 cohorts . This summer CSB hosted 11 undergraduate students from across the country to conduct synthetic biology research in our labs. In 2024, CSB hosted 24 community events including seminars, workshops, ethics conversations, and social events, as well as the annual Central US Synthetic Biology Workshop in Evanston.
Translation and Impact
Towards translating knowledge into the world, CSB researchers collectively filed 65 patents and patent applications in 2024. In addition, CSB launched the CSB Biofoundry, a new resource that arms academic research laboratories and synthetic biology startups with state-of-the-art liquid- handling robotics, high-throughput screening systems, and biological characterization platforms to enable rapid and efficient experimentation and accelerate new discoveries.
Building on 2024’s stellar success, we hope your goals for 2025 are aiming for the stars!
Happy Holidays from your
