Arc Research Institute

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is a nonprofit research organization founded on the belief that many important scientific programs can be enabled by new organizational models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley. Arc gives scientists no-strings-attached, multi-year funding, so that they don't have to apply for external grants, and INSTEAD CAN invest in the rapid development of experimental and computational technological tools. As individuals, Arc researchers collaborate across diverse disciplines to study complex diseases, including cancer, neurodegeneration, and immune dysfunction. As an organization, Arc strives to enable ambitious, long-term research agendas. The Gilbert lab's expertise is in synthetic biology, functional genomics and cancer biology. We build CRISPR epigenetic editing tools to turn genes on and off and to perturb gene regulatory elements. We are developing CRISPR functional genomics approaches to map individual genes or sets of genes that regulate phenotypes of interest in vitro and in vivo. We are focused on utilizing our expertise to tackle big problems in deadly human cancers such as metastasis and drug resistance. The Hsu Lab works at the intersection of synthetic biology and genomics to invent new biotechnologies for improving human health. The Konermann lab develops and applies next-generation functional genomics to understand the cellular and molecular pathways underlying the neuronal system and neurodegenerative disease, with the long-term goal of developing rationally targeted therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders. At the Li Lab we combine chemistry, biochemistry, immunology, and physiology to uncover basic mechanisms in innate immunity and, in parallel, develop therapeutic hypotheses and lead molecules. Innate immune pathways as the first line of defense against pathogens present many exciting opportunities for scientists from many disciplines. These pathways are a rich source of novel chemistry: they involve diverse molecular patterns in pathogens, little-explored second messengers, and drugs with poorly understood mechanism. Activation of innate immunity is a proven therapeutic strategy for vaccination, viral infection, and cancer, while inhibition is a strategy for treating autoimmune diseases and neurodegeneration. To date, however, most modulators of innate immunity are broad, non-specific, and poorly characterized, such as killed bacteria, alum crystals, and steroids. The Li lab seeks to improve understanding of these pathways and facilitate the development of more precise drugs for preventing or treating specific diseases.