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where science meets society

Where Science Meets Society

Learn More About IGB

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is an innovative research institute using cutting-edge genomic practices to tackle large-scale global challenges currently facing humanity.

Food security for a growing population. Effective therapeutic drugs and antibiotics. Automated synthesis of new molecules and proteins. Using a team-based, collaborative science approach, researchers at the IGB are addressing these and other complex issues. Our main areas of research below are each supported by our strong commitment to fundamental science – the pursuit of discovery.

Health & Wellness

Health +
Wellness

How the genome enhances, affects, or disrupts physical and mental wellbeing.

Health & Wellness Research

Technology & Socety

Tech +
Society

Advancing our capability to shape the world and capacity to understand each other.

Tech & society research

Agriculture & Energy

Ag +
Energy

Sustainably feeding and fueling a planet impacted by a changing global climate.

Ag & Energy Research

Outreach & Public Engagement

Outreach &
Public Engagement

Encouraging the public to understand how genomics affects daily life and society.

Outreach programs

Mobile Science Learning Lab

Spotlight

Mobile Science Learning Lab

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Featured Stories

Illinois professor Ying Diao led a multi-institutional study that positions synthetic polymers as a potential alternative to expensive, unsustainable minerals for use in semiconductors and other electronic devices. Photo by Brian Stauffer
A diagram from the lab's published paper in JACS.
Photorespiration bypass soybean field trials at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Energy Farm / Katherine Meacham-Hensold
Twelve Illinois scientists rank among world's most influential
Erik Nelson (left) and Postdoctoral researcher Natalia Krawczynska
In human breast cancer cells treated with the preclinical drug ErSO (shown), or with doxorubicin, the cellular protein FGD3 causes another protein, calreticulin (in red on the right), to display on the cancer cell surface, attracting and activating immune cells. Micrographs by Junyao Zhu