Today, led by David Engelthaler, Ph.D., the division uses cutting-edge tools and technologies to gain what Engelthaler refers to as genomic intelligence on a host of pathogens and other microbes.

In early 2020 when COVID-19 hit, the team at TGen North pivoted to emergency response mode and worked side-by-side with northern Arizona’s public health and healthcare officials. That effort involved testing, tracking and tracing the novel coronavirus in an effort to combat the pandemic on the local front.

Having worked closely with Arizona’s health care, public health and tribal communities for years allowed the team to address the early patient testing and viral genomic analysis needs of COVID-19.

“We put our heads down and went to work,” Engelthaler said. “At the time we didn’t know COVID would become a pandemic or the scale to which it would grow. Our only goal was to apply our expertise toward providing actionable information to this novel virus emerging from the other side of the globe.”

Shortly after that, TGen became Arizona’s reference lab for COVID-19 viral genome sequencing and analysis throughout the first half of the pandemic and then worked with other sequencing laboratories, as they came on board, to coordinate findings and share results.

Beyond COVID, TGen North faculty have achieved success in multiple areas, including identifying the Haitian cholera outbreak sourced to U.N. peacekeepers; investigating the deadliest medical product contamination case in U.S. history; genomically analyzing the source of a fast-growing, flesh-eating fungus that killed five people following a massive tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri; and developing next-generation tools to detect the earliest emergence of drug resistance in tuberculosis, the former number one infectious disease in the world, prior to COVID.

“It’s important to remember, however,” Engelthaler said. “These pathogens live in their own universe—their own ecosystems—called the microbiome. And that’s where the second half of our Division’s name comes fully into play.”

To that end, TGen North has been part of microbiome science since the very early days. And armed with the latest genomic sequencing technologies they’re able to study the microbial ecosystem at depths far greater than ever before.

“Through the work of our faculty and staff in the TGen Integrated Microbiome Center we’re beginning to understand and tease apart that ecosystem to fully understand what it all means in terms of the biology of that ecosystem itself and what it means for human health,” Engelthaler said.

By sequencing their genomes, scientists at TGen North are digitizing these microbial ecosystems, where knowledge, i.e., intelligence, can be gained on the interaction of these microbes during health and disease. A great example of this is TGen North’s work with City of Hope studying patients who are going through cancer treatments and the impacts those have on their microbiome. By working closely with clinicians and researchers at the City of Hope they are able to provide a greater understanding of those changes that are taking place and how this information may help achieve a healthier state for their patients.

“This is a big data science and it does take these big data approaches for us to even ask the right questions and now really begin to understand and answer those questions,” Engelthaler said.

Beyond the science, however, is the role TGen North plays in the local economy. Today, more than 60 faculty and staff members work at the TGen North location and consider Flagstaff home. The team consists of microbiologists, genomicists, epidemiologists, computational biologists, immunologists, ecologists and many more that make the science happen.

“We have a motto at TGen North: ‘We have the ability; therefore we have the responsibility.’ We take that motto to heart,” Engelthaler said.