Health

Accelerating science from lab to lifesaving solutions

The landscape of 21st century health care is undergoing a transformative shift, transitioning from a population-based approach to highly personalized medicine. With recent breakthroughs in unraveling the intricate workings of proteins, mapping the human genome and plotting the gut microbiome, new information is now at our fingertips — information that will lead to earlier detection of disease, precision treatments and the possibility of cures.

Serving a community in crisis

As COVID-19 threatened lives, livelihoods and wellbeing around the world, ASU met the challenges with speed, agility and teamwork. As part of ASU’s effort, Biodesign researchers, faculty, staff and students sprang into action, joining forces with the state, health care agencies, businesses and nonprofits in the epic battle against COVID-19.

Together, we quickly stood up a clinically approved and certified COVID-19 testing lab and developed the first saliva-based COVID-19 PCR test publicly available in the southwestern U.S. We set up hundreds of testing sites throughout the state and partnered with state agencies to deliver more than 1 million vaccines. Biodesign scientists sequenced the virus’s genome and tracked variants, providing key data to monitor and predict the pandemic’s spread.

Though the initial shock of thepandemic may be behind us, researchers continue to tackle challenges that still lie ahead, from improving vaccines and tracking viral variants to understanding and treating long COVID.

Revolutionizing X-ray science

With support from the National Science Foundation, ASU is building the world’s first compact X-ray free electron laser, or CXFEL. This oneof-a-kind, room-sized X-ray laser instrument will allow researchers to explore complex matter at atomic scale, providing high-speed movies of chemical reactions and molecules in action. To do this, the CXFEL will produce X-ray beams of incredibly short pulse durations — less than one millionth of a billionth of a second.

Because the CXFEL is a fraction of the size and cost of existing XFELs, more scientists will have access to this powerful tool. The facility will be available to national and international investigators from a wide range of scientific disciplines.

The applications for CXFEL technology cut across semiconductor design, quantum materials, medicine and more. For example, the CXFEL’s ability to make images and movies on a molecular scale could reveal how viruses attack cells or how drugs bind to target proteins. This paves the way for safer, more effective pharmaceuticals that could help fight both emergent and longstanding diseases.

Featured capabilities:

• Developing diagnostics to enable earlier detection of disease, including the identification of biomarkers and methods and devices to measure them.

• Revolutionizing health care with cutting-edge nanotechnologies designed to address health issues at their source within the human body.

• Creating new vaccines and therapies to battle and treat infectious diseases.

• Identifying new ways to fight many types of cancer.