2017 Winter News

To learn more about Information is Power or to order a test, visit hudsonalpha.org/information-is-power.

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HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology announced the continuation and expansion of the Information is Power initiative Nov. 8 to a sell-out crowd of 1,300 at the ninth annual Tie the Ribbons luncheon for breast and ovarian cancer research. Information is Power, a collaboration between HudsonAlpha and Kailos Genetics, offers free and re-duced cost genetic cancer risk testing for women and men in North Alabama. Redstone Federal Credit Union (RFCU) will generously sponsor the initiative for an-other year. Through November 7, 2018, free testing will be avail-able to women and men 28 to 32 years of age who reside in Madison, Jackson, Limestone, Marshall or Morgan County. If you do not fall within that age range, the test is available at a discounted price for people 19 and older living in those counties. The test screens for mutations in the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, as well as additional genes linked to other diseases including colorectal and pros-tate cancer. “Since its launch in 2015, Information is Power has provided answers to more than 2,500 women and men. Many have tested positive, some of whom reported no family history of cancer,” said Neil Lamb, PhD, vice president for educational outreach at HudsonAlpha. “We appreciate RFCU’s continued support of this ini-tiative and recognizing that information truly is power.” Joseph Newberry, president and CEO of RFCU, said

HudsonAlpha to expand Information is Power initiative in 2018

sponsoring the initiative is a way to help build healthy and strong communities. “Taking this test could be a very important milestone in caring for yourself,’’ Newberry said. “Redstone is proud to help support HudsonAlpha with Information is Power and know this past year has made a positive impact through-out our communities.” Tie the Ribbons supports the Breakthrough Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Team, a group of scientists committed to the goal of using genomic science and Hud-sonAlpha’s state-of-the-art technology to make new dis-coveries in breast and ovarian cancers.

Professionals and students

offer high-tech solutions to

biotech problems

HudsonAlphaTech Challengeattracts nearly

100 participants

Research

2 Winter 2017 HudsonAlpha

Elective genomic sequencing, cancer and autism were HudsonAlpha highlights of the 2017 American Society of Human Ge-netics (ASHG) annual meeting in October. David Bick, MD, HudsonAlpha faculty investigator and clinical geneticist, pre-sented a poster on Insight Genome, a pro-gram that offers clinical whole genome sequencing on an elective basis. Adam Hott, EdD, clinical applications lead at HudsonAlpha, discussed Genome Gateway™, an online application to facili-tate communication between patients and clinicians, or between participants and clinical researchers. Matthew Neu, a graduate student in the Greg Cooper, PhD, lab; presented an ongoing research project exploring the genetic causes of autism spectrum disor-der. The lab is performing whole genome sequencing on more than 500 individuals. Michelle Thompson, PhD, and Candice Finnila, PhD, also from the Greg Cooper lab, discussed secondary findings from the Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Re-search (CSER) project and genomic re-analysis for children. Nick Cochran, PhD, a postdoctoral re-searcher in the Rick Myers lab, presented a new genetic disorder in cats that has implications for neurological disease in people. Brittany Lasseigne, PhD, also from the Rick Myers lab, presented her poster on chromosomal instability and DNA methylation instability in kidney can-cer, characterizing their relationships to each other and to clinical phenotypes.

NIMH awards researchers $2 million to study psychiatric diseaseHudsonAlpha was awarded a two-year, $2 million grant by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to research how transcription factors – key proteins that regulate the expression of genes – function in the brain. An important emphasis will be in understanding how these proteins are related to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. “Ultimately, we hope the data from this transcription factor analy-sis will allow us to understand basic molecular functions in human brains and eventually to better understand the differences between people with and without psychiatric disease,” said Greg Cooper, PhD, HudsonAlpha faculty investigator. “These data may point to genes or pathways with diagnostic, prognostic or therapeutic value.” Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute Of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01MH110472.

Candice Finnila, PhD, received a Reviewer’s Choice Award for her poster at ASHG 17.

HudsonAlpha teams up with CHDI Foundation for Huntington disease projectHudsonAlpha and CHDI Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to Huntington disease research, announced a new collaboration to study the huntingtin (HTT) gene that, when mutated, causes Hun-tington disease. Rick Myers, PhD, president and science direc-tor at HudsonAlpha is leading the project along with senior scientist Brian Roberts.

A thorough understanding of the molecular network that regulates the HTT gene could eventually lead to thera-peutic interventions for individuals suffering from the disorder,” Myers said. “And ultimately we’re optimistic that we can help untangle the genetic pathways that cause this devastating disease.

– Rick Myers, PhD, president & science director for HudsonAlpha

Researchers present new findings, projects at ASHG

Plant sequencing project reveals drought-resistant genes

HudsonAlpha faculty investigators Jeremy Schmutz and Jane Grim-wood, PhD, contributed research to a plant sequencing project identify-ing a common set of genes that help plants survive in semi-arid condi-tions. This discovery could play a significant role in creating drought tolerant crops.

3Xpressions

Genomic Medicine

What if the medication you take isn’t working, but you don’t know it? What if you carry potentially devastating diseases that could be passed down to your children? What if you have an increased risk of cancer? HudsonAlpha debuted a new program called Insight Genome in March 2017. Insight Genome decodes an individual’s DNA to look for answers that could help predict future health and help people make decisions about their care. It is an elective medical test, but eventually the belief is that it will be a standard test. The more genomes that are sequenced, the more the science improves and in time, a patient’s DNA will become that patient’s “blueprint.” “This is a single test for all current and future genetic tests that are or will become available. No other screening test offers something for everyone over a lifetime. There is no other medical test like it,” said David Bick, MD, faculty investigator at Hudson-Alpha and clinical geneticist at Smith Family Clinic for Genomic Medicine The pilot phase of the program found that 30% of participants were found to have a variant that may relate to their phenotype (condition/symptoms). The pharmacogenomic panel that accompanies the whole genome sequencing, yielded information about at least one drug in 100% of participants. “This information is meaningful. By identifying variants linked to phenotype or variants that may be significant, we can provide answers to some of the questions they have been asking. These patients also now know the diseases that they are not carrying, which can provide a measure of comfort in some cases,” said Dr. David Bick.

Insight Genome is available at two clinical sites: The Smith Family Clinic on the HudsonAlpha campus in Huntsville, Ala., and the Genetics clinic at UAB Medicine in Birmingham, Ala. You must be 19 years of age or older.

Smarter Every Day, an educational video series created by Huntsville native Destin Sandlin, featured HudsonAl-pha in its latest video about DNA sequencing. Smarter Every Day is a nationally-renowned series whose epi-sodes are viewed by more than 700,000 people. Sandlin interviewed Neil Lamb, PhD, vice president for Educational Outreach, in the video. Dr. Lamb explained the difference between DNA sequencing and genotyp-ing, and the uses of each type of technology.

Clinical geneticist David Bick, MD, and Meagan Cochran, a genetic counselor at HudsonAlpha and The Smith Family Clinic, hosted two workshops at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in September. More than 350 educational sessions took place at the national conference. Bick and Cochran hosted, “Genomic Medicine for Non-Clinicians,” which explored the importance of genetic testing and its place in the pediatric practice. In addition, they hosted, “Genetics, Genomics and Pediatric Dis-ease,” where attendees discussed the role genetics plays in pedi-atric disease, distinguished different types of results generated through genetic testing, including positive, negative, and variants of uncertain significance (VUS).

Insight Genome: Genomics for the rest of us

To learn more, visit smithfamilyclinic.org/insight-genome.¥

To learn more about upcoming Smith Family Clinic events and conferences, visit smithfamilyclinic.org/events.

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‘Smarter Every Day’ features HudsonAlpha

Clinic team presents at pediatrics conference

HudsonAlpha receives $71,000 Boeing charitable grant for STEM workforce development

Educational Outreach

HudsonAlpha received a three-year, $71,000 Boeing charitable grant to fund the Launching As-piring Biotechnology Scientists (L.A.B.S.) program. Established in 2014, L.A.B.S. equips students from disadvan-taged and underrepresented populations with the basic skills and knowledge that are essential

in the STEM workforce. The program was revamped in 2016 and is now a two-year commitment for participants who are selected via an application process. When selected, students participate in after-school, lab-based experiences that illustrate and reinforce key math and science concepts. “The L.A.B.S. program is a great way for students to dive into the biotech field and inspire them to pursue a career in STEM,” said Dasi Price, K–12 student experiences lead at HudsonAlpha. “Boe-ing’s support is helping us provide a rich opportunity that has the potential to change their lives.” “I really enjoyed the first semester of the L.A.B.S. program at HudsonAlpha,” said L.A.B.S. participant Alex Lewis. “Not only did it give me the opportunity to build on my previous lab skills, but also to learn new lab skills and put those into place. L.A.B.S is a great opportunity for students to get plen-ty of hands on experience.” The award is one of Boeing’s “Our Future: Tomorrow’s Innova-tors,” grants, which target increased STEM diversity, proficiency and interest among K-12 students. Anchored by local and regional employee-engagement activities, Boeing charitable grants are geared toward developing tomorrow’s innovators through invest-ment in the skills required in today’s modern workplace. “Every student is going to enter into a world where science is important,” said Neil Lamb, PhD. “Thanks to Boeing’s continued support, we can provide the necessary tools to help them navigate through that world.” Boeing supports a number of HudsonAlpha’s Educational Out-reach programs and projects, including the development of the Biology Compendium, a “field guide” for the new Alabama Course of Study: Science. In addition, Boeing funded the first Genetic Technologies for All Classrooms (GTAC) session, a professional development experience that prepares science educators to ad-dress high school-level genetics, genomics and biotech content.

To learn more about L.A.B.S., visit hudsonalpha.org/education/labs

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Stay up-to-date on the latest from Educational Outreach and subscribe to the Learners e-newsletter, hudsonalpha.org/learners

Educational programs reach 1.5 million in a single year

HudsonAlpha’s Educational Outreach programs impacted more than 1.5 million students, educators, clinical profession-als, patients and members of the public in the 2016-2017 aca-demic year, an increase of nearly 500,000 people from last year.

Each year, after the Educational Outreach team collects their audience data, they fill a glass jar with beads represent-ing individual impacts made by HudsonAlpha’s educational programming. “The tiniest beads in this year’s jar are little more than the size of a grain of sand. I am hopeful that either I need to find much larger jars moving forward, or microscopic beads,” Lamb joked.

We’re excited to see the impact of Education-al Outreach at HudsonAlpha grow every year, from a little more than 22,000 people in the 2009-2010 academic year to the million and a half in the last year.

– Neil Lamb, PhD, vice president for Educational Outreach at HudsonAlpha

Two rooms at The Smith Family Clinic are now named after HudsonAlpha support-er Jan Smith and Huntsville company Dynetics. Smith, founder of Huntsville technical solutions company S3, Inc., supports many Huntsville community organizations with her philanthropy. The conference and training room is named in her honor. “If you only have research and you don’t use that research for the betterment of the community, you research in a vacuum,” said Jan Smith. “The beauty of HudsonAlpha and the clinic is they have a purpose to educate – they do the research and they share it to improve the quality of life.” A visiting physicians office at the clinic is named in honor of Dynetics, headquartered in Huntsville, Ala. “We are very excited about what is going on at HudsonAl-pha and the Smith Family Clinic,” said David King, Dynetics chief executive officer. “It has already had a huge impact on the state of Alabama and we are thankful that this team is here in our community.

9

The Foundation

HudsonAlpha hosted the ninth an-nual Tie the Ribbons luncheon Nov. 8 at the Von Braun Center to a capac-ity crowd of 1,300. Attendees heard about new work and discoveries from HudsonAlpha’s breast and ovarian cancer research team. The event itself sold out before of-ficial invitations could be mailed. “I’m thrilled with the turnout for Tie the Ribbons. Our community is so supportive and clearly interested in this topic,” said Rick Myers, PhD, president and science director of HudsonAlpha. Tie the Ribbons supports the Breakthrough Breast and Ovar-ian Cancer Research Team, a group of scientists committed to the goal of using genomic science and HudsonAlpha’s state-of-the-art technology to make new discoveries in breast and ovarian cancers. “It takes a team to do anything, especially in this field. Our scien-tists, utilizing the technologies available on genomics, are poised to make advances such as early detection and whether you are going to respond to a drug or not,” said Myers. Joy Agee McDaniel, PhD, a postdoc at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was the special guest speaker at Tie the Ribbons. Before joining MD Anderson, McDaniel was a gradu-ate assistant trainee in the Myers lab at HudsonAlpha where she, and collaborators, discovered a new gene signature regulated by a specific transcription factor – proteins that switch genes on and off – that is involved in regulating processes active in triple nega-tive breast cancer. “My research is not only important to me because of my personal connection to breast cancer,” McDaniel said, “but also to men and women around the world because learning more about the basic biology of triple negative breast cancer will put us one step closer to developing better therapies and saving lives.” The event also paid special tribute to Kimberly Strong, PhD, a HudsonAlpha faculty investigator who lost her battle to breast cancer in March of this year. She courageously shared her own struggle with cancer at HudsonAlpha’s annual Tie the Ribbons luncheon in 2015 and 2016. She also led the Information is Power initiative. In addition, select blind draw pieces from jewelry designer Ken-dra Scott were available to attendees for a $50 donation to the HudsonAlpha Foundation to benefit breast and ovarian cancer re-search at HudsonAlpha.

HudsonAlpha Tie the Ribbons luncheon sells out weeks before event

To support HudsonAlpha’s Breakthrough Breast and Ovarian Cancer team hudsonalpha.org/breakthrough-breast-cancer.

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Stay up-to-date on the latest from the HudsonAlpha Foundation and subscribe to the Engage e-newsletter, hudsonalpha.org/engage

HudsonAlpha Foundation recognizes donors with clinic namings

UAH fraternities support HudsonAlpha FoundationMembers of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) presented a $8,250 gift to the HudsonAlpha Foundation in August to support cancer research. The donation is from the Battle of the Buffalo, an annual chicken wing festival held at Huntsville’s Big Spring Park. In addition, the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity hosted its annual golf tournament and donated a percentage of the proceeds in support of HudsonAlpha’s Alzheimer research. Thank you for your support!

David Bick, MD, David King, Dynetics chief executive officer

Alpha Tau Omega with Rick Myers, PhD

Phi Kappa Psi with Nick Cochran, PhD

Economic Development

HudsonAlpha hosts Tech Challenge

EDPA honors Jim Hudson for innovation in Alabama

HudsonAlpha hosted the inaugural HudsonAlpha Tech Challenge Nov. 4-5. More than 100 registered to collaborate on life sciences chal-lenges applying computer science skills such as machine learning, blockchain and virtual reality. Winning “Best in Show,” Team AlphaTek tackled blockchain technol-ogy to make medical record and genomic data accessible to clinicians. The requirements of the challenge included allowing a patient to in-put their own health records, storing those data securely and allowing physicians to view any record as needed. This had to be done without violating HIPAA or risking patient data security. Using a genomic sequence, AlphaTek generated a public key and private key that could be distributed to patients. “We wanted to create a unique structure that allows for a private key to be held by an individual and a public key provided to the physi-cian that can be exchanged back and forth so that we [patients] can keep our private key, and use all of the benefits of the blockchain,” said Jonathan Heath, AlphaTek team member. First and second place prizes were also awarded to high school and college/professionals teams: • ForensX : 1st place, High School • GeneView: 2nd place, High School • Secure Record Hive: 1st place, College/Professionals • Double Helix VR: 2nd place, College/Professionals HudsonAlpha vice president for economic development, Carter Wells, said the Tech Challenge was a great way to introduce students and the coding community to genomics, genetics and biotechnology career opportunities in both HudsonAlpha’s nonprofit institute and its life sciences resident associate companies. “The HudsonAlpha labs and the biotech companies on campus need this type of talent. Aside from a competitive and exciting weekend, a primary goal was to continue to build a workforce that is combining biology and genomics with computer science,” said Wells. The Tech Challenge was a collaboration between HudsonAlpha and Urban Engine, a Huntsville-based nonprofit that accelerates innova-tion through programs and resources including CoWorking Night and 32/10. Maynard Cooper & Gale, a national law firm with a focus on in-novative companies, was the presenting sponsor for the event.

The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) presented HudsonAlpha co-founder Jim Hudson with a Life-time Achievement in Innovation

award at the “imerge” event Aug. 23 in Birmingham, Ala. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman headlined the evening. Equal parts scientist and businessman, his ideas have helped Alabama become a world leader in the life sci-ence and biotech industry. Hudson was also recognized for his contributions to the arts in Huntsville, particularly with Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment Center, the largest privately owned arts facility in the U.S. “I was honored to be amongst so many entrepre-neurs at the ‘imerge’ celebration,” said Hudson, “And I am truly humbled by the Lifetime Achievement in In-novation award. I want to thank EDPA for its commit-ment to economic development in Alabama.”

Stay up-to-date on the latest from HudsonAlpha economic development and associate companies and subscribe to the Busness e-newsletter, hudsonalpha.org/business

Photo Credit: Daniel Horton

Governor Kay Ivey visits HudsonAlpha

Governor Kay Ivey made HudsonAlpha the first stop on her Huntsville “Listen, Learn, Help and Lead Tour,” in August, which is a series of visits to cities and towns in Alabama. HudsonAlpha president and science director Rick Myers, PhD, led a tour of HudsonAlpha and provided an overview of its four missions. Neil Lamb, PhD, vice president for Educational Out-reach, discussed his team’s various projects in coun-ties and school systems across the state. “What you are doing is so important for our stu-dents,” said Governor Ivey. The governor also learned about genomic medi-cine, and the ways in which HudsonAlpha is directly impacting clinical care through the Smith Family Clinic, the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Lab, and research programs such as Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) and the Alabama Genomic Health Initiative (AGHI).

7Xpressions

Associate Company

iCubate® earns FDA clearance and CE Mark for bloodstream infection detection testiCubate, Inc. announced in August that it has earned U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its platform, the iC-System™, and its first clinical assay, the iC-GPC Assay™, which detects pathogenic bacteria associated with bloodstream infection (BSI). The iC-GPC Assay™ is the first of the company’s portfolio to earn FDA

clearance. iCubate can now market, sell and distribute the cleared products to U.S. clinical laboratories. iCubate is the first company on the HudsonAlpha campus to have a product earn FDA clearance. The iCubate platform and assay provides results up to 48 hours faster than conventional methods. “Improved patient treatment through personalized diagnostics is the key mission of iCubate,” said Jian Han, MD, PhD, founder and chief scientific officer of iCubate. “The iCubate assay provides a new tool to physicians that will allow for improved patient management through the rapid identification of bacteria and resistance markers, which accomplishes that goal.” In addition, the platform and clinical assay received CE Mark, making it available for European clinical laboratory use. “Obtaining CE Mark for iCubate’s platform and initial assay achieves one of the company’s primary goals and opens the door to market the product in the European Union,” said Carter Wells, chief executive officer of iCubate. “The entire iCubate team is excited about providing a new product to clinical laboratories that produces important diagnostic data for improving patient management.”

iXpressGenes awarded million dollar Department of Defense contractiXpressGenes (iXG) was awarded a $1 million Phase II Department of Defense (DoD) Small Business Innovation contract to develop extremo-phile-derived antibiotics to protect soldiers from biowarfare agents and “superbugs.” Selection was based on achievements during the Phase I project to now continue development and maturation of discovered antibiotic candidates. Novel chemical class antibiotics are desperately needed to combat the growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis. AMR pathogens kill approximately 700,000 people per year globally. “Nature has long been the best provider of antimicrobials, we’re happy to expand the field by harnessing the full potential of understudied extremophilic microbiomes with our unique platform,” said Joe Ng, PhD, iXG president.

Diatherix named Corporate Innovator of the Year by EDPADiatherix was honored as Corporate Innovator of the Year (large company, 50+ employees) at the EDPA ‘imerge’ event for its groundbreaking pathogen detection technology, which enables healthcare providers to determine more accurately the cause of an infection and determine multiple infection sources. The name “imerge” represents a rebranding of the EDPA’s annual conference, which celebrates innovation, entrepreneurs and startups in Alabama. “Diatherix is proud to be named a Corporate Innovator of the Year and join the ranks of some of the most influential minds that strengthen Alabama’s economy,” said Dennis Grimaud, chairman of Diatherix. “It’s great to have the support of organizations like EDPA as we continue to grow and build a life sciences hub in Huntsville.”

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