Molecular & Integrative Physiology (MIP)

Erik Nelson, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, has been named the 2020-2021 Gunsalus Scholar by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for his work on cholesterol metabolism and cancer.

Autophagy or “self-eating” is a fundamental biological process by which cells digest and recycle cellular components for survival of the cells under nutrient-deprived conditions. Autophagy must be tightly controlled since deficient autophagy is associated with many diseases and aging, while...

ChBE professor Hyunjoon (Joon) Kong recently received two grants from the NSF to fund interdisciplinary research at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, including a look at how neurons and muscle cells communicate with each other and also to develop a drug delivery system for...

In biology, it is generally believed that a protein’s sequence determines its structure, which in turn determines its function. However, in the case of membrane proteins, the reality is more complicated than this simple statement. “In recent years, the importance of a protein’s local environment...

Scientists have developed new drug compounds that thwart the pro-cancer activity of FOXM 1, a transcription factor that regulates the activity of dozens of genes. The new compounds suppress tumor growth in human cells and in mouse models of several types of human breast cancer.

Professor Daniel Llano is a neurologist at the Carle Neuroscience Institute and has been a faculty member in the MIP department since 2010. He obtained his BS, PhD, and MD at UIUC before moving to Massachusetts to pursue his clinical training at Harvard Medical School. He later became a post-...

Professor Lori Raetzman joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005. Since joining, the Raetzman group has produced highly impactful work regarding the development and function of both the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus. Over the past 14 years, students from the Raetzman lab...

Graduate Student Daphne Eagleman in Dr. Nien-Pei Tsai’s lab has been awarded a 2-year Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association. This fellowship will support her thesis project to decipher the role of a ubiquitin E3 ligase Nedd4-2 in cellular stress-induced neuronal degeneration...

Catherine Christian (Molecular and Integrative Physiology) has been awarded a 2020-2021 Center for Advanced Study Fellowship. The Center for Advanced Study sheds light on interdisciplinary thought that starts conversation, inspires action, and transforms the world. Read more about the Center for...

In response to seizures, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a network of flattened tubes in the cell that packages and transports proteins, triggers a stress response that reduces brain activity and seizure severity. The new findings, reported by Nien-Pei Tsai (Assistant Professor in Molecular and...