Skip to main content

Illinois IGB

Sergei Maslov

Model suggests how ancient RNA may have gained self-cutting ability essential for life

March 27, 2024

Scientists have long pondered the beginnings of life on Earth. One theory is that RNA, which is ubiquitous across all domains of life, played a central role in early life. Similar to DNA, RNA possesses the ability to store genetic information. However, to initiate life's processes, early RNA must have also possessed the capability to self-replicate and catalyze biochemical reactions independently, without the assistance of specialized enzymes.


March 27, 2024


Related Articles

Predicting the response of fungal genes using FUN-PROSE

November 20, 2023

Signals from the environment set off a cascade of changes that affect different genes in different ways. Therefore, traditionally it has been difficult to study how such signals influence an organism. In a new study, researchers have developed a machine learning approach called FUN-PROSE to predict how genes react to different environmental conditions.


November 20, 2023


Related Articles

Researchers design AI method to predict metabolomic profiles of microbial communities

April 1, 2023

Human bodies contain trillions of microbes, so much that the number of microbes rival the number of human cells in a body. These microbes help shape many of our biological functions. For example, microbes in the gut break down food into small molecules called metabolites, many of which are important for human health. Measuring species composition of the microbial community using metagenomics has become a quick and automated process, while measuring the concentrations of metabolites produced by those microbes, a process called metabolomics, is much more difficult and expensive.


April 1, 2023


Related Articles

New IGB center dedicated to machine learning and predictive modeling

September 26, 2022

A new Center for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling will be established at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. It will be led by Sergei Maslov (CABBI), a professor of bioengineering and Bliss Faculty Scholar and Olgica Milenkovic (BSD/CGD/GNDP), a Donald Biggar Willett Scholar and Franklin Woeltge Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The goal of CAIM is to provide biological groups with appropriate expertise in computational sciences.


September 26, 2022


Related Articles

15 Years of IGB: SHIELDing the Illinois community against COVID-19

May 11, 2022

During the earliest months of 2020, COVID-19 seemed like an innocuous event that was too geographically distant to affect the Illinois community. In fact, by March 10th there were only 19 confirmed cases. Nevertheless, Nigel Goldenfeld (BCXT leader/GNDP), former Swanlund Endowed Chair and professor of physics, and Sergei Maslov (BCXT/CABBI), a professor of bioengineering and Bliss Faculty Scholar, were worried. The news from China and Italy was concerning and in four days a significant portion of students, faculty, and staff were going to leave for spring break.


May 11, 2022


Related Articles

Large US firms have lower product diversity, study finds

March 16, 2022

Many aspects of economic productivity, including gross domestic product measurements, have been steadily rising over the past three decades. Although one would assume that the products that are available in the economy have become more diverse, a recent study has suggested otherwise. The results may help economists rethink how they measure the health of the economy.


March 16, 2022


Related Articles

New model accurately describes COVID-19 waves and plateaus

December 14, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has gone on much longer than many predicted in its earliest months. The world has closely watched its progression, with infection rates measured out on graphs in large waves that sometimes taper to extended plateaus, rather than disappearing as traditional epidemiological models would have suggested they should. Meanwhile, scientists have been working to better understand the factors governing the wave and plateau dynamics of the spread of COVID-19, to be able to better forecast future outbreaks in this pandemic and future epidemics.


December 14, 2021


Related Articles

10 IGB members receive Presidential Medallion

August 23, 2021

August 23, 2021


Related Articles

COVID-19 peaks reflect time-dependent social activity, not herd immunity

April 14, 2021

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have developed a new mathematical model for predicting how epidemics such as COVID-19 spread. This model not only accounts for individuals’ varying biological susceptibility to infection but also their levels of social activity, which naturally change over time. Using their model, the team showed that a temporary state of collective immunity—which they termed “transient collective immunity”—emerged during the early, fast-paced stages of the epidemic.


April 14, 2021


Related Articles

Subscribe to Sergei Maslov