Accomplishments

Accomplishments

The accomplishments of the Biodesign Institute encompass operational successes and contributions to a well-prepared workforce as well as significant research strides.

The Institute has met or exceeded all of the five-year business goals set in mid-2003 and endorsed by the Arizona Board of Regents. Biodesign has attracted more than $300 million in external funding since inception, including competitive grant awards and support from philanthropic sources. Download the five year report (PDF)

The launch of Biodesign was made possible largely thanks to support from a voter- approved tax increase that created Arizona’s Technology Research Initiative Fund (TRIF). Given the current investment to date of $82 million, the income generated  represents a 3-fold return on this investment.  This return is expected to increase as  we continue to reduce reliance on TRIF.

We have dramatically increased ASU's innovation pipeline, disclosing 279 inventions generating 178 provisional patents and 57 patent filings.  To date, 18 patents have been issued.

The Institute also educates future scientists, developing a home-grown workforce through hands-on laboratory training.

To date, we’ve employed/trained 188 postdoctoral researchers and 301 graduate students; more than 170 have entered the workforce to date. We’ve also provided research experiences for 403 undergraduates, 95 high school students and 36 high school teachers.

 Select Research Accomplishments

With more than 460 new scientific findings documented in peer-reviewed journals over the past five years, the research community at Biodesign is both dynamic and innovative.

The following represent some of the Institute's recent technical accomplishments that have attracted attention at the national and international level.

2008

  • Designed a system that uses salmonella bacteria to deliver immunizing antigens to the body. This new way of delivering vaccines for both humans and animals could combat a variety of disease-causing pathogens. Lead: Roy Curtiss, PhD
  • Demonstrated that the active ingredients of antibacterial soaps are harming the environment and possibly human health. Determined how to safely remove these from drinking water and agricultural soils. Lead: Rolf Halden
  • In a study with the Mayo Clinic, examined the role played by bacteria found in the human gastrointestinal tract in regulating weight and in contributing to the development of obesity. Lead: Bruce Rittmann
  • Developed the world’s first gene detection platform made entirely from self-assembled DNA nanostructures. This could have broad implications for gene chip technology. Lead: Hao Yan
  • Advanced a new technology to detect proteins or molecules in an individual’s blood or serum as a predictive snapshot of one’s health, which could enable disease to be detected before symptoms appear. Lead: Stephen Johnston

2007

  • Participated in history’s largest comparative DNA analysis of higher organisms, which involved assembling complete genomes from a dozen different fruit fly species to understand the differences between species at the DNA level. This could aid development of new understanding of the human genome. Lead: Sudhir Kumar
  • Launched an ASU initiative to enable the rapid advance of an environmentally friendly, high-energy source of biofuel using photosynthetic bacteria. ASU’s production processes are expected to have a much higher yield than alternatives such as corn-based ethanol, won’t compete with food production and offers other benefits. Leads: Neal Woodbury, Willem Vermaas, Bruce Rittmann, Roy Curtiss, Deirdre Meldrum
  • Helped launch of the $45 million Arizona-based Partnership for Personalized Medicine, including the Biodesign Institute’s Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics. The center is advancing ways to diagnose and manage diabetes, In June 2008, the Partnership secured its first major international collaboration with the government of Luxembourg to develop novel diagnostics for lung cancer. Lead: George Poste
  • In the first study of its kind on board space shuttle Atlantis, demonstrated that microbes could be affected by spaceflight, increasing the ability of these organisms to cause disease. Lead: Cheryl Nickerson
  • Advanced efforts to develop a preventive vaccine against breast cancer based on findings related to the protein signatures that tumors produce. This could allow development of vaccine containing bits of these proteins to create a protective immune response. Lead: Stephen Johnston
  • Developed methods to rapidly evolve new proteins that do not exist in nature and which could have multiple applications including the development of proteins with new, more effective medical treatments. Lead: John Chaput
  • Discovered key insights into the protein mechanism responsible for photosynthesis that could help engineers improve the efficiency of existing solar technology or develop new, organic-based solar technology. Lead: Neal Woodbury
  • Developed new fuel cell components to more efficiently generate electrical power for renewable energy applications and the fledgling hydrogen economy. Lead: Don Gervasio
  • Demonstrated the feasibility of plant-based production of new antidotes against nerve agents. Lead: Tsafrir Mor