Graduate College welcomes first cohort of career exploration fellows

Two headshots side by side of Sneha Das, Microbiology, and Nicole Godellas, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
The Graduate College is excited to announce the first cohort of fellows participating in its Career Exploration Fellowship Program. The program connects doctoral students with university administrative units for substantive, mentored work experiences where they can develop skills and explore...

Meet MCB: Yumi Iwadate, PhD

Yumi Iwadate smiles with a green background
Dr. Yumi Iwadate is a postdoctoral fellow in the Slauch Lab in the Department of Microbiology and serves as one of two postdoctoral advisors for the Microbial Early-Career Researchers Association (MicroERA). She is featured in this month’s Microbial Systems Initiative researcher...

Scientists discover a small immune system that packs a big punch

Headshot of Asma Hatoum-Aslan
A recent study by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has discovered a unique immune system in bacteria composed of a single enzyme that destroys a broad range of bacterial viruses (known as phages). Their findings were published in Cell Host & Microbe.

Meet MCB: Undergraduate researcher Neha Arun

Neha Arun reviews imaging of host-pathogen interactions in a darkly lit room, with her face illuminated by the screen.
MCB major Neha Arun shares her experiences working as an undergraduate researcher in Professor Collin Kieffer's lab in the Department of Microbiology, as well as a look at life outside the lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Brenda Wilson: Turning the Tables on Toxins

Brenda Wilson
Wilson’s lab works, among other things, to elucidate the structure and function of bacterial toxins, to understand how they interact with host cells, and to develop post-exposure toxin therapeutics.

Study tracks COVID-19 infection dynamics in adults

SHIELD Team workers assist students, staff and faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign take a saliva-based COVID-19 test that was developed at the U. of I. as a way to detect cases of COVID-19 early and prevent community spread. Unlike conventional nasal testing, saliva samples are collected non-invasively, without the need for healthcare workers and with minimal use of PPE.
A team led by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tracked the rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva and nasal cavities of people newly infected with the virus. The study was the first to follow acute COVID-19 infections over time through repeated sampling and to compare...

Mining microbial genomes to discover natural products

Image of plants with graphics of molecular compounds overlayed.
The world around us contains many chemicals that are useful for medicines, crop protection, and animal health. These chemicals—known as natural products—have typically been discovered by sheer luck. Unsurprisingly, traditional techniques often find the same products, like antibiotics, repeatedly...