Welcome
At the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, we study the mechanisms of how cells grow and divide, assemble and function to form multicellular organisms. Using multidisciplinary approaches, we investigate the fundamental biological questions relating to chromatin structure and dynamics; gene regulation; proteostatis; RNA biology; signal transduction in mammalian cell growth and differentiation; cytoskeletal organization and cell adhesion; mechanisms of cell determination, repair, regeneration and developmental patterning. Extensive collaboration with physicists, chemists and engineers have made it possible to investigate the internal workings of cells, and how cells respond to external cues. Our mission is to train and educate undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows in the areas of modern molecular and cellular biology, cancer biology, developmental biology and neuro-cognitive sciences.
Supriya Prasanth, Head
CDB News
Kannanganattu V. Prasanth, professor of
cell and developmental biology, and members of his lab investigate the regulation of gene expression and RNA biology with a focus on cancer. In a new article published in
eLife, “The S-phase-induced lncRNA
SUNO1 promotes cell proliferation by controlling YAP1/Hippo signaling pathway,” Prasanth and fellow researchers detail the role of long noncoding RNAs in cell cycle progression.
Proximity labeling of cell structures followed by mass spectrometry has become an increasingly popular proteomics approach to identify what proteins localize to different cell structures. In practice, however, results are typically confusing, with long lists of hundreds of proteins identified, among which only a small fraction are bona fide components of the target cell structures.
URBANA—University of Illinois professor Andrew Belmont has received two new grants from the National Institutes of Health that will advance his work in understanding nuclear structure and dynamics and gene expression.
New research from University of Illinois professor
William Brieher has uncovered new insights on actin disassembly.
