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where science meets society

Where Science Meets Society

Learn More About IGB

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is an innovative research institute using cutting-edge genomic practices to tackle large-scale global challenges currently facing humanity.

Food security for a growing population. Effective therapeutic drugs and antibiotics. Automated synthesis of new molecules and proteins. Using a team-based, collaborative science approach, researchers at the IGB are addressing these and other complex issues. Our main areas of research below are each supported by our strong commitment to fundamental science – the pursuit of discovery.

Health & Wellness

Health +
Wellness

How the genome enhances, affects, or disrupts physical and mental wellbeing.

Health & Wellness Research

Technology & Socety

Tech +
Society

Advancing our capability to shape the world and capacity to understand each other.

Tech & society research

Agriculture & Energy

Ag +
Energy

Sustainably feeding and fueling a planet impacted by a changing global climate.

Ag & Energy Research

Outreach & Public Engagement

Outreach &
Public Engagement

Encouraging the public to understand how genomics affects daily life and society.

Outreach programs

Mobile Science Learning Lab

Spotlight

Mobile Science Learning Lab

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Featured Stories

Cecilia Leal, professor of materials science engineering at Illinois, is an expert in how actual biomembranes work and in the tools to characterize them.
EZSpecificity combines extensive new enzyme-substrate docking data and a new machine learning algorithm to predict the best pairing for making a desired product, with up to 91.7% accuracy. Illinois professor Huimin Zhao led the study
Left image: First author of the study Xuenan Mi received an award in 2024 for her work on LassoESM. Right image: Professor Doug Mitchell, Professor Diwakar Shukla, and Susanna Barrett
The 2024-2025 Tracy Undergraduate Team Science Training Program cohort, with Mark Tracy (back, center) and Tracy Parish (back, right).
IGB Director Gene Robinson (left) and Professor Chrishantha Abeysena, Minister of Science and Technology, Sri Lanka, sign the MOU between the institutes.
 Joseph Irudayaraj      Founder Professor in Bioengineering