Songbird genome sings of the communicating brain

"There is a functional developmental parallel between the way a bird learns to sing and a human learns to speak," said David Clayton, a professor of neuroscience and cell and developmental biology at the University of Illinois who led the group that proposed and organized the genome sequencing effort. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
Professor of Neuroscience and Cell and Developmental Biology David Clayton and colleagues have analyzed the genome of the Australian zebra finch, deriving clues to its use of song in vocal communication.

Benita Katzenellenbogen Receives 2009 Komen Brinker Award

In a black and white photo, Benita S. Katzenellenbogen smiles for camera while sitting in lab.
Swanlund Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Molecular and Integrative Physiology Benita Katzenellenbogen has received the 2009 Susan G. Komen for the Cure Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction for her work investigating breast cancer treatments.

Martha Gillette cited by NIH

Martha Gillette
Alumni Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Martha Gillette is cited in an article about circadian rhythms published by NIH News in Health, a publication of the National Institutes of Health.

Meet MCB: Stephanie Ceman

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Stephanie Ceman knew when she was in sixth grade that she wanted to go to college. Her parents, on the other hand, were not so sure. "My parents really resisted. They were afraid I'd turn into a hippie," she says. Ceman's goal was not to become a hippie, but rather to become a doctor. It seemed the...

Meet MCB: Martha Gillette

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Martha Gillette brings her biochemical understanding of how cells signal one another to examining the body's biological clock in rats. The clockwork, it turns out, drives not only circadian rhythms of sleep and wakefulness, but almost every function in any living organism, including such functions...