Researchers from the University of Illinois School of Molecular & Cellular Biology have discovered that functions of a new motorized organelle challenge the existing model of epithelial homeostasis. The project, six years in the making, was led by Vivian Tang, Research Assistant Professor...

Inflammasomes play a critical role in the innate cellular immune response to pathogen infection. The inflammasome, a cytosolic multiprotein complex, recognizes substrates produced during infection or tissue damage, and triggers an inflammatory response by releasing the proinflammatory cytokine IL-...

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,...

Recent work from the Laboratory in Cell and Developmental Biology was featured in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Many epithelial tissues are classified as being squamous, cuboidal, or columnar based upon the height of their lateral membranes. CDB researchers Yuou Wang and Bill Brieher identified a protein known as CD2AP as a key factor necessary for building up the lateral membrane.