News Archive
Researchers establish long-sought source of ocean methane
Anne Trafton, MIT News Office, and Claudia Lutz
An abundant enzyme in marine microbes may be responsible for production of the greenhouse gas.
The following is a modified version of an article that originally appeared on MIT…
BIomarker Vol. 11 Now Available
Biomarker, the annual IGB magazine, is now available! Featuring selected articles on the research, outreach, faculty and accomplishments from the past year, a copy can be…
Team receives funding to study bacterial community dynamics
Bioengineering communications office
There is still much to understand about the dynamics of bacterial communities in the human gut, as well as how bacteria behave en masse in a biofilm, a collective of…
Viruses share genes with organisms across the tree of life
Diana Yates
A new study finds that viruses share some genes exclusively with cells that are not their hosts. The study, reported in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, adds to the…
In microbe populations, bioengineers find balance of opposing genomic forces
Claudia Lutz
Sergei Maslov, a professor of bioengineering and physics at the University of Illinois, sees a “universe in a grain of sand.” His research seeks to explore that universe by…
A new way to do metabolic engineering
Emily Scott
A novel method developed by a group of IGB researchers could change the way metabolic engineering is done.
Researchers from the IGB’s Biosystems Design theme, including…
Cancer drug starts clinical trials in human brain-cancer patients
Diana Yates
A drug that spurs cancer cells to self-destruct has been cleared for use in a clinical trial of patients with anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare malignant brain tumor, and…
Light green plants save nitrogen without sacrificing photosynthetic efficiency
Claire Benjamin
The top leaves of crops absorb far more light than they can use, starving lower leaves of light. Scientists designed plants with light green leaves with hopes of allowing more…
Theory: Flexibility is at the heart of human intelligence
Diana Yates
Centuries of study have yielded many theories about how the brain gives rise to human intelligence. Some neuroscientists think intelligence springs from a single region or…
Expanding the potential of metabolic engineering
Emily Scott
For decades, scientists have used the natural processes in cells to create useful products such as chemicals and biofuels.
This process, known as metabolic…
Five Illinois researchers rank among world’s most influential
Five faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2017 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list (previously known as the…
Genomic study explores evolution of gentle 'killer bees' in Puerto Rico
Diana Yates
A genomic study of Puerto Rico's Africanized honey bees - which are more docile than other so-called "killer bees" - reveals that they retain most of the genetic traits of…