The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) is a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that covered biological, physical, and social sciences. 

 

Illinois researchers test nicotinic hypothesis of COVID-19

Authors Nicole Godellas, Gisela Cymes, and Claudio Grosman sit together in a row outside, smiling.
Although researchers have learned much about SARS-CoV-2, the vast array of unexplained symptoms associated with acute and post-acute ("long") COVID-19 warrants the search for additional biochemical pathways involved. On the basis of amino-acid sequence analyses and computational approaches, it has...

Study identifies key regulator of cell differentiation

Research team members pose together in the School of MCB's CLSL atrium, where banners for each department hang in the background. The research team includes, from left, undergraduate student Darya Asoudegi; graduate students Neha Chetlangia and Fredy Kurniawan; and Supriya Prasanth, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the U. of I. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer.
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.

'Molecular Velcro' enables tissues to sense, react to mechanical force

Deborah Leckband smiles for camera while sitting at workspace in lab.
The Velcro-like cellular proteins that hold cells and tissues together also perform critical functions when they experience increased tension. A new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study observed that when tugged upon in a controlled manner, these proteins – called cadherins – communicate...