Cells don't just exist in the present. We’re learning how to record and reconstruct everything they experience as they develop into organisms.

Traditional biology works in snapshots, capturing a frozen moment in a cell or organism's life. But disease doesn't emerge in a single moment. It's a process, unfolding over time through countless molecular and cellular decisions. To truly understand disease, you need to understand that entire process.

The Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology—a landmark collaboration between the Allen Institute, the University of Washington, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative—is engineering cells to record their histories as they divide, differentiate, and mature. Scientists can capture a complete chronicle of millions of cells at once, in whole organisms, creating datasets that will power AI models and open entirely new doors in disease research.

Scientist in white lab coat using purple pipette in bright laboratory setting with equipment

By engineering cells to write their own histories into their DNA, we're aiming to build the most detailed picture to date of how biology changes over a lifetime.

meet our teams and partners/

Shendure Lab‍
This team is working to develop and apply new technologies and methods for genetics, genomics and molecular biology. Research by the Shendure Lab focuses on next-generation DNA sequencing to measure biological phenomena.

Trapnell Lab
The Trapnell Lab at the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences studies how genomes encode the program of vertebrate development and how that program goes awry in disease.

Pepper Lab
Investigating antigen specific adaptive immune cells to better design vaccines and therapeutics.

Pinglay Lab
We are a laboratory of biological tinkerers at the intersection of DNA synthesis, protein design and single-cell sequencing.

Hamazaki Lab
We use and develop a stem-cell based embryo model that allow us to test out the synthesized DNA circuit in physiologically relevant context and to understand human developmental diseases.

Brotman Baty Institute
The Brotman Baty Institute operationalizes and administers the University of Washington (UW) portion of the SeaHub project, and provides single-cell sequencing support to SeaHub teams in the Shendure, Trapnell, Pepper, Pinglay and Hamazaki labs at UW.

Write Team
We take the barcodes from the Sense Team and create a permanent record (DNA Tape) in the cellular DNA. These records are stored in sequential order, enabling us to understand the relative timing of different cellular events.

Sense Team
We develop sensors that convert cellular events into barcodes that can then be written into DNA.

Read Team
The team develops computational pipelines and methods to analyze sequencing data, characterize transgenic mice, and characterize lineage relationships and biological signaling between cells across various tissues.

In Vivo Team
The In Vivo Team develops mouse models incorporating the technologies developed by the Build, Sense, and Write teams to record cellular events in genomic DNA during mammalian development and homeostasis.

SeaBridge
SeaBridge is a program to translate the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology’s cutting-edge technologies into real-world applications. We integrate a postdoctoral fellowship training program (SeaBridge Fellowship Program) with a translational research center (LaunchPad) to train the next generation of scientists while advancing the potential of Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology’s unique genome engineering platform.

Riza Daza (Operations and Platform Scientist) creating a 96 well primer plate for NGS sample preparation using the Liquidator 96.

synthetic biology news

news

Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology launched by Allen Institute, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the University of Washington will turn cells into recording devices to unlock secrets of disease

First-of-its-kind research initiative will develop technologies to reveal how changes in cells and genes over time influence human health and...