Pablo Perez-Pinera

The COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers across the globe to embrace remote learning. Although adapting existing materials was relatively easy for lecture-based courses that revolved around theory, teaching laboratory classes remotely presented a formidable challenge. In a new paper, researchers from the Department of Bioengineering demonstrate the implementation of a remote laboratory activity to teach students about enzyme kinetics.

The NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) awarded University of Illinois bioengineering professors Thomas Gaj (BSD) and Pablo Perez-Pinera (ACPP) a five-year, approximately $4.8 million translational research grant to develop an optimized gene therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a severely debilitating and fatal neurological disorder. 

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 develop more precise genome editing technologies for gene therapy applications.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced instructors to adapt their courses for online learning. Laboratory courses were particularly difficult due to lack of access to specialized equipment for remote learners. To overcome this challenge, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign designed a laboratory exercise to teach students how to use micropipettes, through remote learning, using at-home kits.

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 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – a debilitating and fatal neurological disease for which there is no cure. The novel treatment slowed disease progression, improved muscle function and extended lifespan in mice with an aggressive form of ALS.

Whether healthy or diseased, human cells exhibit behaviors and processes that are largely dictated by growth factor molecules, which bind to receptors on the cells. For example, growth factors tell the cells to divide, move, and when to die—a process known as apoptosis.

In a new study in cells, University of Illinois researchers have adapted CRISPR gene-editing technology to cause the cell’s internal machinery to skip over a small portion of a gene when transcribing it into a template for protein building. This gives researchers a way not only to eliminate a mutated gene sequence, but to influence how the gene is expressed and regulated.