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Cell & Developmental Biology (CDB)

Meet MCB: Undergraduate student awarded Boren Scholarship

Three students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been awarded David L. Boren Scholarships, including MCB major Brendan Rattin. The National Security Education Program selects students to add international and language components to their education by studying overseas in world...

Prasanth lab uncovers new insights into the role of Orc6 in the maintenance of genome integrity

New research from Supriya Prasanth’s lab at the University of Illinois provides tremendous insight into the role of the smallest subunit of the human ORC, Orc6. Although the ORC is conserved in all eukaryotes, Orc6 is the most evolutionarily diverged. In a recent study published in PNAS, the...

Researchers determine Pol III “identity” as important regulatory mechanism and likely disease factor in cancer

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a link between RNA polymerase III subunit composition and transcription, an advancement that has potential implications for future cancer research. Their findings were published in...

'New player in town:’ Researchers uncover new organelle and its role in epithelial homeostasis

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 in...

Decoding the molecular clock that controls neurogenesis in visual center of Drosophila

The nervous system is made up of diverse cells that arise from progenitors in a specific time-dependent pattern. In a new study, published in Nature Communications, researchers have uncovered the molecular players involved and how the timing is controlled.

Circadian rhythm and the blood-brain barrier

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

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

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.

Meet MCB: Professor Brian Freeman brings molecular chaperone expertise to Illinois

Brian Freeman, a professor of cell and developmental biology and Cancer Center at Illinois scientist, has focused his research on the study of molecular chaperones (MCs) since the beginning of his career as a graduate student when chaperones were thought to have no medicinal purpose. Now, the...

Brian Freeman elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Fourteen University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty members, including Brian Freeman, professor of cell and developmental biology, have been elected 2021 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).