Image
The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is dedicated to transformative research and technology in life sciences. Team-based themes tackle grand societal challenges in food security, energy, health, technology, and environmental conservation. Its facilities include a microfabrication lab, plant growth facility, and a microscopy suite.
Bacteria show their metal: An evolutionary path to survival
An investigation of two closely related proteins from a pathogenic bacterium has illustrated for the first time how evolution can shape the use of essential metals by enzymes.
Image
University of Illinois partners with Carle Health and the state to increase COVID-19 testing
Back in early March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began shuttering businesses and schools across the United States, Chris Brooke wondered how he’d teach his classes online. As the virus spread with astonishing speed, however, and it became frighteningly clear that COVID-19 threatened something far...
Image
Infection Genomics for One Health: Where Research Realms Collide
“Between the realms of agriculture, nature, and humans, the unifying factor is the microbes that exist in each and the specific genes those microbes carry.The IGOH theme at the IGB allows research to be contextualized, and to exist in a space where lab work becomes immediately relevant and...
Image
The Next Gold Rush: Mining Microbial Genomes
“Microbes are king of the world. If human beings ceased to exist, microbes wouldn’t even notice [except those in the human microbiome], but if microbes ceased to exist today, human beings would cease to exist tomorrow.”
Image
Study: Damaged liver cells undergo reprogramming to regenerate
New research conducted by biochemists at the University of Illinois has determined how damaged liver cells repair and restore themselves through a signal to return to an early stage of postnatal organ development. The findings are reported in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
Image
Study: Kidney stones have distinct geological histories
Using a suite of techniques both common and new to geology and biology, researchers, from left, M.D./Ph.D. student Jessica Saw, geologist and microbiologist Bruce Fouke, microscopy expert and plant biologist Mayandi Sivaguru and their colleagues made new discoveries about how kidney stones...
Image
Science Image by Rajashekar Iyer, Gillette Lab, featured by NSF
This image was part of the seventh annual Art of Science exhibit at the University of Illinois Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB). Learn more about the Art of Science program. (Date image taken: 2017; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: ) (Date image taken: 2017; date...
Image
Social experience tweaks genome function behavior
What changes in the brain of an animal when its behavior is altered by experience? Research at the University of Illinois led by Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Lisa Stubbs is working toward an answer to this question by focusing on the collective actions of genes. In a recent ...
Image
In Memoriam: Abigail Salyers
During her 40-year career, Abigail Salyers revolutionized how we think about the bacteria that live in the human intestinal tract, helped design antibiotic drugs, and provided a voice of reason in discussions on bioterrorism, transgenic plant safety, antibiotic resistance in medicine and...
Image
Using Genomics to Look at Microbial Evolution
Most microbiologists sequence genes in order to determine what a given gene does. Rachel Whitaker, a member of the biocomplexity theme at IGB and assistant professor of microbiology, studies gene sequences to answer other kinds of questions. She would like to know, for example, "How do microbes,...