News Archive
Pollen Power concludes its first online camp
Ananya Sen
The Pollen Power camp, which takes place over the summer, targets 6th-8th grade students from underrepresented populations in STEM with the goal of training them to observe…
Some birds steal hair from living mammals
Diana Yates
Dozens of online videos document an unusual behavior among tufted titmice and their closest bird kin. A bird will land on an unsuspecting mammal and, cautiously and stealthily…
iGEM 2021: Designing better enzymes to break down plastic
Ananya Sen
Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is a type of plastic that is widely used for packaging food and beverages, including soft drinks, juices, and water. Although PET is the…
$2.4M NIH grant will develop biomaterials to repair skulls, promote regeneration
Claire Benjamin
A new research project led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to develop biomaterials that are strong, malleable, and support stem cell growth to transform…
Should the government implement a vaccine passport system?
Phil Ciciora
Vaccine passports strike the right balance between letting life go on for those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 while still being realistic about the ongoing public…
New approach eradicates breast cancer in mice
Diana Yates
A new approach to treating breast cancer kills 95-100% of cancer cells in mouse models of human estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers and their metastases in bone, brain,…
How does the structure of cytolysins influence their activity?
Ananya Sen
Although Enterococcus faecalis is usually an innocuous member of the bacterial community in the human gut, it can also cause several infections, including liver disorders. The…
New grant awarded to develop better in vivo DNA-editing techniques
Ananya Sen
The National Institutes of Health have awarded a $2.2 million grant to researchers at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. The four-year grant will be used to…
U.S. corn and soybean maladapted to climate variations, study shows
Marianne Stein
U.S. corn and soybean varieties have become increasingly heat and drought resistant as agricultural production adapts to a changing climate. But the focus on developing crops…