News Archive
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Recent events, especially the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and all too many others, have left us outraged. Black Lives Matter protests against racism…
Group genomics drive aggression in honey bees
Diana Yates
Researchers often study the genomes of individual organisms to try to tease out the relationship between genes and behavior. A new study of Africanized honey bees reveals,…
Volunteers at Illinois produce supplies for 200,000 COVID-19 tests
Therese Pokorney and Dave Evensen
A collaborative effort at the University of Illinois to support COVID-19 testing is winding down, but not before it produced enough materials to support some 200,000…
Engineered immune cells recognize, attack solid-tumor cancer cells
Diana Yates
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…
IGB 2019 Annual Report Now Available
Nicholas Vasi
Part of our mission at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology is to help provide every person the opportunity to join the conversation on how genomics influences our…
Pattern analysis of phylogenetic trees could reveal connections between evolution, ecology
Alisa King
In biology, phylogenetic trees represent the evolutionary history and diversification of species – the “family tree” of Life. Phylogenetic trees not only describe the evolution…
New approach drives bacteria to produce potential antibiotic, antiparasitic compounds
Diana Yates
Researchers have developed a method to spur the production of new antibiotic or antiparasitic compounds hiding in the genomes of actinobacteria, which are the source of drugs…
Cowbirds change their eggs’ sex ratio based on breeding time
Ananya Sen
Brown-headed cowbirds show a bias in the sex ratio of their offspring depending on the time of the breeding season, researchers report in a new study. More female than male…
Undergrad-led study suggests environment modifications could maximize productivity
Amanda Nguyen
The crops we grow in the field often form dense canopies with many overlapping leaves, such that young “sun leaves” at the top of the canopy are exposed to full sunlight with…
Simulated sea slug gets addicted to drug
Diana Yates
Scientists built a computer model of a simple brain network based on that of a sea slug, taught it how to get food, gave it an appetite and the ability to experience reward,…
Research Finds Multiple COVID-19 Strains Can Co-Exist in Patients
Aaron Seidlitz
A workgroup including Illinois Computer Science professors Mohammed El-Kebir (IGOH) and Jian Peng (CABBI), as co-principal investigators, produced a …
Gene Robinson named interim dean of the College of LAS
Dave Evenson
Gene Robinson, IGB director and a professor of entomology, has been named interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
Starting July 1, Robinson…