b'C olorado has one of the best talentCU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE pools in the United States, top- DEPARTMENT OF BIOINFORMATICS: tier research institutions, a majorENGINEERING SERENDIPITY international airport, a favorable tax climate,Casey Greene, Ph.D., Founding Chair of theI feel like its a a mountain-enhanced quality of life, and sup- CU School of Medicines newest department portive organizations committed to growingand Director for the Center of Health Artificialplace where you this ideal environment for life sciences.Intelligence, sees himself and colleagues as The state attracts mavericks and trailblazersbeing in the business of engineering seren- can dream big, who are dauntless in their exploration of noveldipity, as he puts it.health innovation. They are forging a new fron- Greenes Department of Biomedical Informaticsbut not forget tier for patients, with a dizzying array of highlylaunched on July 1, 2022. Its faculty use specialized diagnostics, therapeutics, medicalmachine learning, artificial intelligence, andthe why.devices, digital tools, and more over thea host of other computing technologies to years. They pulled in more than $550 millionimprove medical research and clinical care in federal grants and raised $1.6 billion lastCASEY GREENE, Ph.D.by connecting immense, diverse data sets toFounding Chair, CU School of Medicine Departmentyear. They employ more than 38,000 people. of Biomedical Informatics provide new insights as to how to treat indi- Director, CU School of Medicine Center for Health AI Every Colorado companyand every aca- vidual patients or come up with new uses forCU Anschutz Medical Campusdemic research projecthas a story. Theexisting medicines.following stories highlight the diversityExamples of serendipity leading to medical-sci- 29 public databases to connect compounds, of early-stage companies and academicence breakthroughs are many, from penicillindiseases, genes, anatomies, pathways, biolog-endeavors that are forging the life sciencesto Viagra to various psychotropic drugs. If, asical processes, molecular functions, cellular frontier in Colorado.Louis Pasteur put it, Chance favors the pre- components, pharmacologic classes, side At the University of Colorado Anschutz Medicalpared mind, bioinformatics might be a way toeffects, and symptoms. The ultimate goal is Campus, the CU School of Medicines newvastly boost the odds of such chance. to use relationships no human brain could Department of Bioinformatics harnessesGreene points to Het.io as an example. Hekeep straight to determine whether existing artificial intelligence (AI) and other tools tocollaborated on the project, which is nowdrugs might help fight diseases unrelated to aid researchers in using existing medicationsavailable to researchers around the world. Itstheir traditional uses.for new diseases. LumenAstra uses technolo- principal creator, Daniel Himmelstein, nowTo illustrate, Greene enters metformin and gies bred in radio astronomy to help measureworks at Denver-based bioinformatics startupthen types in breast cancer. Metformin is internal body temperature in a new way forRelated Sciences. Its a hetnet, which stands fora well-characterized drug, but for diabetes. safer surgeries. PharmaJets needle-free injec- heterogeneous information network. In layper- Sure enough, het.io returns 484 molecular tion systems help immunize millions againstsons terms, that means a network of all sortspathways, sorted by statistical significance, polio. And Umoja Biopharma is betting bigof different data types that historically wouldthrough which metformin might impact breast that its novel approach to a proven cancerhave been fiendishly difficult to interweave. Butcancer. A cancer researcher might take that immunotherapy can vastly expand the poolnew tools enable that, and so het.io combinesinsight and run with it in a laboratory, and if of patients who might benefit from it.2023-2024 BIOSCIENCE COLORADO 7'