News Archive

[ 2020-03 ] Please note due to travel restrictions, our Distinguished Public Lecture has been postponed. We will reschedule and announce the new date when it is available. Do fruit flies…

[ 2020-03 ] Neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis affect millions of people worldwide and yet, there exist no known cures. Multiple…

[ 2020-02 ] Roughly 80% of people with myotonic dystrophy – a common form of muscular dystrophy – experience dangerous heart ailments, and heart rhythm defects are the second-leading cause of…

[ 2020-02 ] With a new CRISPR gene-editing methodology, scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign inactivated one of the genes responsible for an inherited form of…

[ 2020-02 ] Komorebi is a Japanese word that describes how light filters through leaves—creating shifting, dappled “sunflecks” that illustrate plants’ ever-changing light environment. Crops…

[ 2020-02 ] As part of a campus-wide initiative to increase diversity, a collaboration with Fisk University was recently approved for an additional five years of continued financial support…

[ 2020-02 ] For Martha Loustaunau, the University of Illinois will always be known as a stop on her walk of life where she met late husband Joaquin Loustaunau, with whom she later shared an…

[ 2020-02 ] Five years ago, a team of computer scientists, biomedical researchers, and bioinformaticians set out to bring the power of collective knowledge to genomic research. Their new…

[ 2020-01 ] University of Illinois Provost Andreas C. Cangellaris held the investiture of Stephen P. Long as the Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences on Jan…

[ 2020-01 ] A new research center at the University of Illinois directed by Donald Biggar Willett Professor in Engineering Brian Cunningham aims to revolutionize diagnostics and personalized…

[ 2020-01 ] Scientific and public appreciation for microbes—and the key role their communal actions play in environmental health, food production, and human wellness—has grown in recent years…

[ 2020-01 ] Human beings have around 10 trillion cells in their bodies, resulting in about 10 billion miles of DNA - almost twice the diameter of the solar system. Coordinated Science Lab…

[ 2020-01 ] As a result of intersecting research interests in women’s health, a new collaboration was forged between Zeynep Madak-Erdogan (GSP/ONC-PM), Assistant Professor in Food Science and…

[ 2020-01 ] Scientists have developed new drug compounds that thwart the pro-cancer activity of FOXM1, a transcription factor that regulates the activity of dozens of genes. The new compounds…

[ 2019-12 ] University of Illinois researchers achieved the highest reported rates of inserting genes into human cells with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, a necessary step for…

[ 2020-01 ] Handling very soft, delicate items without damaging them is hard enough with human hands, let alone doing it at the microscopic scale with laboratory instruments. Three new…

[ 2019-12 ] A fast, inexpensive yet sensitive technique to detect cancer markers is bringing researchers closer to a “liquid biopsy" – a test using a small sample of blood or serum to detect…

[ 2019-12 ] Genomic research has unlocked the capability to edit the genomes of living cells; yet so far, the effects of such changes must be examined in isolation. In contrast, the complex…

[ 2019-12 ] Microbial communities can be found everywhere – from lakes to the soil on the ground, they are omnipresent yet invisible to the naked eye. Within those environments there exist…

[ 2019-12 ] Herbicides are an integral component of modern farming. However, glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the United States and the main ingredient in formulations like…