News Archive
Jumping genes shed light on how advanced life may have emerged
Emily Scott
A previously unappreciated interaction in the genome turns out to have possibly been one of the driving forces in the emergence of advanced life, billions of years ago.
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Illinois team wins bronze at 2018 iGEM competition
Emily Scott
The Illinois iGEM team won a bronze medal at the 2018 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition for their work on the relationship between lactic acid…
Scientists debunk potential link to crop cold tolerance
Claire Benjamin
When temperatures drop, the enzyme Rubisco that fuels plant growth and yield gets sluggish. Many crops compensate by producing more Rubisco; however, scientists speculated that…
Global Effort to Sequence All Complex Life on Earth Launches
The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a global effort to sequence the genetic code, or genomes, of all 1.5 million known animal, plant, protozoan and fungal species on Earth,…
May Berenbaum Named PNAS Editor-in-Chief
Diana Yates
University of Illinois entomology professor and department head May Berenbaum, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and longtime editorial contributor to the…
Novel quantum dots enhance cell imaging
Laura Schmitt
A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mayo Clinic have engineered a new type of molecular probe that can measure and count RNA in cells…
Illinois study provides whole-system view of plant cold stress
Lauren Quinn
When temperatures drop, plants can’t bundle up. Stuck outside, exposed, plants instead undergo a series of biochemical changes that protect cells from damage. Scientists have…
Hong-Yan Shih wins 2019 APS GSNP Dissertation Award
Siv Schwink
Dr. Hong-Yan Shih, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Physics and at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-…
Stem cell proliferation controlled directly by nervous system
Lauren Quinn
Somatic stem cells are microscopic workhorses, constantly regenerating cells throughout the body: skin and the lining of the intestine, for example. And to University of…
IGB Director Gene Robinson elected to National Academy of Medicine
Diana Yates
Entomology professor and director of the IGB Gene Robinson, an international leader in honey bee research, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine “for pioneering…
Classifying microbes differently leads to discovery
Emily Scott
Changing the way microbes are classified can reveal similarities among mammals’ gut microbiomes, according to a new study.
The study, published in mBio, proposed an…
Success is sweet: researchers unlock the mysteries of the sugarcane genome
Claudia Lutz
For centuries, sugarcane has supplied human societies with alcohol, biofuel, building and weaving materials, and the world’s most relied-upon source of sugar. Now, researchers…