2015-02-25
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Disassembly of actin filaments is important for many processes that involve rapid reorganization of cell shape such as cell movement and division. Cofilin is a vital disassembly protein however one limitation of cofilin is that it can stabilize filaments at saturating concentrations. Nadkarni and Brieher showed that the amount of cofilin in thymus extract is too high to allow disassembly...
2015-01-23 - An interdisciplinary research team, including molecular and integrative physiology professors Benita Katzenellenbogen and Milan Bagchi, has developed a new approach to treating endometriosis. Their research appears in Science Translational Medicine.
2014-12-09 - Associate Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Jongsook Kim Kemper, post-doctoral researcher, Dong-Hyun Kim, and their colleagues discovered that the function of a key metabolic transcriptional regulator, FXR, is modulated by an acetyl/SUMO switch, which is dysregulated in obesity. Elevated acetylation of FXR at Lys-217 in diet-induced obese mice inhibits its SUMOylation at Lys-277...
2014-12-05 - From left, University of Illinois graduate research assistant Manuel A. Ortega, chemistry professor Wilfred van der Donk, graduate student Yue Hao, biochemistry professor Satish Nair, and postdoctoral researcher Mark Walker solved a decades-old mystery into how a broad class of natural antibiotics are made.
2014-11-19 - Large-scale simulations will develop a greater understanding of cellular membrane transporters, which could allow drug developers to design more targeted drugs for major pathophysiological conditions such as psychological disorders, cancer, and multi-drug resistance.
2014-11-13 - Autophagy or “self-eating” is the breakdown and recycling of cellular components and is essential for cellular survival under starvation but must be suppressed upon feeding. Acute regulation of preexisting autophagy machinery by protein phosphorylation is well defined, but longer-term regulation of the synthesis of these proteins is not. The team found that feeding-activated FXR and fasting-...
2014-11-07 - Graduate student Sheena Smith and Professor David Kranz of the Department of Biochemistry have developed an approach to discover T cell receptors that could be therapeutically useful against different cancers. In collaboration with graduate students Yuhang Wang and Javier Baylor and Professor Emad Tajkhorshid, molecular dynamics simulations revealed plausible mechanisms for the “switch” in...
2014-10-30 - "Lowell created an environment where creativity was fostered, scientific standards were high and doing science was fun. He left his mark on the department that remains to this day."
2014-10-02 - Biochemistry professor David Shapiro, M.D.-Ph.D student Neal Andruska, graduate student Xiaobin Zheng and their colleagues discovered a new mechanism by which estrogen contributes to the pathology of breast cancer. The findings are published in the journal Oncogene.
2014-09-03 - The Prasanth laboratory, with post-doctoral associate and lead author, Arindam Chakraborty, have shown that mammalian NDR kinase mediates the hinge specific phosphorylation of HP1α preferentially at the G2/M phase of the cell cycle in Nature Communications.
2014-08-26 - A Team led by Martha Gillette, professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Neuroscience and Bioengineering, has been awarded a BRAIN EAGER grant from NSF for a project titled “Multiscale dynamics and emergent properties of suprachiasmatic circuits in real time.”
2014-08-22 - Dr. Hastings was a biochemistry faculty member at the University of Illinois from 1957 to 1966. His groundbreaking research focused on communication among bacteria. An endowed chair his name, donated by George and Tamara Mitchell, is currently held by Professor Robert Gennis.
2014-08-20 - One of the fascinating things about this world are organisms that live (and thrive) in extreme conditions. Dr. Robert Gennis leads an NIH-funded team that is studying membrane protein from thermophiles.
2014-08-06 - Dr. Claudio Grosman has been named a Richard and Margaret Romano Professorial Scholar. The three-year appointment recognizes outstanding research achievement and campus leadership through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
2014-07-31 - Professor Colin A. Wraight passed away July 10, 2014 at the age of 68 after a long and heroic struggle with cancer. Professor Wraight employed biochemical and biophysical methods to understand how the structure of membrane proteins allowed them to catalyze the transfer of electrons and protons in biological energy conversion, processes fundamental to life on this planet.