2024-10-31
- The School of Molecular & Cellular Biology is pleased to welcome Joe Boise as our new MCB Facilities and Lab Safety Assistant. We sat down with Joe recently to learn more about him and his role in the school.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What led you to this position?
I was led to this position by my interest in environmental biology. In 2020, I earned a master’s...
2024-10-28 - The human gut is a diverse and densely populated environment filled with bacteria and other microbes in fierce competition for resources. One major colonizer in the human colon is Bacteroides, a genus of bacteria that can break down a wide variety of complex carbohydrates indigestible by humans. Researchers from the lab of ...
2024-10-24 - A new mouse model mimicking the liver symptoms of myotonic dystrophy type 1 — the most prevalent form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy — provides insight into why patients develop fatty liver disease and display hypersensitivity to medications, making treatment difficult. The new model opens avenues for screening new medications for liver toxicity prior to patient trials, University of...
2024-10-22 - New vaccinations against influenza and the virus that causes COVID-19 are available and arriving at physician offices and pharmacies. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign microbiology professor Chris Brooke is a virologist who studies respiratory viruses. He sat down with News Bureau biomedical sciences editor Liz...
2024-10-15 - The School of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology are pleased to welcome Dr. Jason Climer as an assistant professor of molecular and integrative physiology. We recently spoke with him about his research and teaching interests and how he spends his time...
2024-10-15 - The School of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Department of Biochemistry are pleased to welcome Dr. Diana Ranoa as assistant professor of biochemistry. Dr. Ranoa joins us in November 2024. Tell us about your lab and your research focus, including how you...
2024-10-11 - As an MCB major at the University of Illinois, Dr. Paul Donlin-Asp was an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Andrew Belmont’s lab and went on to pursue his PhD at Emory University. A former researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research’s Department of Synaptic Plasticity, he is now the Group leader (ESAT Fellow) at the Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain at Centre for Discovery...
2024-10-10 - Investigators from the University of Illinois have created a whole-genome map that charts the occupancies of RNA polymerase enzymes in humans, discovering unexpected patterns in the process. Their findings appear in Molecular Cell. DNA transcription — the process of copying sequences of DNA into RNA molecules —...
2024-10-08 - Preclinical research is an important step of the drug and treatment development process that ensures the safety of a potential treatment modality for human testing. But until recently, most preclinical research studies in animals were only conducted on one sex: typically, male. This tendency to exclude female subjects in preclinical studies had implications for clinical trials and for...
2024-10-04 - Ricardo Diaz still remembers the night chemistry professor Joaquin Rodriguez-Lopez walked into a room full of kids and told them to throw ketchup on a volunteer wearing a special shirt. Soon the room was enveloped in ketchup, laughter, and gasps as they watched the shirt magically repel everything they threw at it. In an instant, they grasped...
2024-10-01 - It is with sadness that the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology share news of the passing of Professor emeritus Sandy Helman. Dr. Helman, an ion-transport physiologist and biophysicist, died on July 14, 2024, at home with his family. Remembered fondly as a kind and caring colleague, Dr. Helman was on the faculty at the University of...
2024-09-30 - Kameno Bell knows that fumbling is inevitable — in football, and in life. Bell (BS, ’92, biology; MD, ’01), a former fullback for the Fighting Illini, has excelled in the classroom and on the gridiron, playing two seasons of professional football for the Miami Dolphins before launching an ongoing career in emergency medicine. In recognition of his accomplishments, Bell was the invited...
2024-09-18 - Adding to the continued success of our School of Molecular & Cellular Biology students, biochemistry major Ben Shapiro was recently selected for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2024 Homecoming Court. Congratulations! We sat down with him to discuss his experiences at Illinois and learn...
2024-09-18 - Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will develop a radically new platform to manufacture tumor models and expand their availability for medical research and personalized medicine, thanks to a $21 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whose mission...
2024-09-17 - For typical illnesses, the body’s immune system is a robust, pathogen-killing machine. It provides a general defense against harmful germs while also adapting and producing antibodies that target specific bacteria or viruses. After fighting off an infection like the flu, the body produces regulatory T cells, also known as Tregs. These cells send signals to slow down the immune system, usually an...