Program areas at The Morgridge Institute for Research
Regenerative biology: understanding and directing cellular fates to improve health- create physiologically stable, safe and functional cells to better understand The human body.- apply knowledge about celluar generation for application in prevention and treatment of degenerative diseases.- apply knowledge to develop and tailor drugs for specific needs.
Virology: unlocking The secrets of virus-host interactions to better protect human health- advance practical understanding, prevention and treatment of viruses and their diseases.- enhance understanding of The biology of healthy cells and tissues.- develop new tools derived from viruses for use in biotechnology, nanotechnology and medicine.
Biomedical imaging: advancing technologies to better diagnose, treat and prevent disease- transient lighting for surgery: development of a rapid-switch lighting system that provides full light in The operating room, while protecting light-sensitive fluorescence images of use to surgeons.- better ct images: developing a multi-source x-ray tube for computed tomography (ct) - one of The most widely used tools to image disease - to enable faster imaging, dose reduction, and improved image quality.- improved breast cancer tracking: creating an imaging system to track breast cancer based on alignment of collagen fibers, which are biomarkers for breast cancer metastasis.
General science:- bioethics: addressing emerging ethical issues and building a culture of responsible science.- hemostasis: initiation and regulation of protease cascades, which govern a variety of essential physiological processes from blood clotting to mechanisms of cell death.
Outreach & education: - engage The community in science education.
Research computing: expending computing power to address new questions in biology - develop a cyber-infrastructure that provides high throughput computing and fosters collaborative work with The medical science partners. - develop software assurance marketplace that aids open source software developers and software assurance tools that developers can create a more secure cyberinfrastructure by offering The capacity needed to continuously test and "rebuild" The code underlying critical infrastructure applications.
Metabolism: - elucidating The chemistry of life and its disruption in human disease- mitochondria and disease: unlocking function of The mitochondria, or "cellular powerhouse," to understand its role in more than 150 diseases, including parkinson's, diabetes, and cancer. - orphan proteins: establishing a Research platform to study The more than 100 proteins - nearly one-quarter of The mammalian mitochondrial proteome - that have a yet undiscovered biochemical function.- coenzyme q: integrating various biochemical, genetic and structural biology approaches to further elucidate The steps of coenzyme q, whose deficiency is associated with multiple human diseases.