Cells communicate with each other by sending, receiving, and decoding signals. Signals that cannot cross the cell membrane directly – such as ions, water-soluble small molecules, and peptides – need to be detected by receptor proteins on the cell’s outer surface.

Alumni Professor of MicrobiologyJohn E. Cronan at the University of Illinois recently published work on the biotin synthesis pathway and its role in mycobacterium and tuberculosis. Cronan’s lab primarily works on lipid metabolism and fatty acid synthesis. In his recent publication, Cronan takes a...

Nearly two percent of pregnant women will face recurrent miscarriages, defined as the spontaneous loss of three or more consecutive pregnancies. Of that two percent, half of those miscarriages cannot be explained. Scientists assume genetic factors may play a role, but to date they have not been...

A method known as CAR-T therapy has been used successfully in patients with blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. It modifies a patient’s own T-cells by adding a piece of an antibody that recognizes unique features on the surface of cancer cells. In a new study, researchers report that they...

Epithelial cells use an adhesion molecule known as E-cadherin to help build extensive cell-cell adhesive contacts leading to cohesive sheets of cells that separate two different environments. But what happens if the adhesive bonds holding the cells together fail? CDB researchers John Li, Vivian...

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...

The Tajkhorshid lab used computational microscopy to investigate how lipids can influence the structure and function of protein channels in cells. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Discovery provides deeper insight into DNA and the fight against cancer.

The Cronan lab recently published a paper in PNAS titled “Protein moonlighting elucidates the essential human pathway catalyzing lipoic acid assembly on its cognate enzymes.”

The study's findings were recently published in PNAS.