Meet MCB: Microbiology professor Paola Mera

Paola Mera smiles for headshot outside with a background of trees.
The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute spotlights microbiology assistant professor Paola Mera and shares how she discovered her passion for research. Mera's research aims at filling the gaps in knowledge to control the life cycle of bacteria so that they can design better ways to enhance...

Circadian rhythm and the blood-brain barrier

Wide exterior shot of the Beckman Institute on a summer day.
Beckman faculty members Martha Gillette and Hyunjoon Kong received an NIH/DOD grant to study how circadian rhythm affects the blood-brain barrier’s permeability to small molecules and susceptibility to blood leakage. Their team will design a microfluidics-based chip from human stem cells to model...

Meet MCB: Temirlan Shilikbay, cell & developmental biology PhD student

PhD student Temirlan Shilikbay, wearing a U of I mask, holds up a slide and observes it.
The School of MCB is proud to highlight our graduate students, including Temirlan Shilikbay, now in his third year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is a PhD candidate in professor Stephanie Ceman's lab in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. The lab's goal is to study...

Study identifies key regulator of cell differentiation

Research team members pose together in the School of MCB's CLSL atrium, where banners for each department hang in the background. The research team includes, from left, undergraduate student Darya Asoudegi; graduate students Neha Chetlangia and Fredy Kurniawan; and Supriya Prasanth, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the U. of I. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer.
Embryonic stem cells and other pluripotent cells divide rapidly and have the capacity to become nearly any cell type in the body. Scientists have long sought to understand the signals that prompt stem cells to switch off pluripotency and adopt their final functional state.

'Molecular Velcro' enables tissues to sense, react to mechanical force

Deborah Leckband smiles for camera while sitting at workspace in lab.
The Velcro-like cellular proteins that hold cells and tissues together also perform critical functions when they experience increased tension. A new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study observed that when tugged upon in a controlled manner, these proteins – called cadherins – communicate...