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News Archive

IGB partners with AfricaBP for inaugural cohort of leadership program

Katie Brady

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology recently hosted its first scholar cohort as part of the African Biodiversity Fellowship for Emerging Genomics Leaders program,…

Left to right: Shaimaa Reda, Tshepo Mafokwane, Tracy Parish, Ntanganedzeni Mapholi, (Mafokwane’s advisor at University of South Africa); Victor Ezebuiro, Sarah Schwartz, and Ichrak Hayah. / Angie Patrick

Research, Outreach, DEI

IGB Profile: Seemesh Bhaskar

Katie Brady

"Without photons, there would be absolutely no knowledge of anything,” said Seemesh Bhaskar between sips of coffee at the Etc. Coffeehouse—a place he frequents for a break from…

Brian Cunningham (left) wrote the foreword for IGB Fellow Seemesh Bhaskar’s (right) recently published book, “Nano-engineering at Functional Interfaces for Multidisciplinary Applications.” / Isaac Mitchell

Profile

Scientists and faith leaders discuss gender at Genomics for Faith

Katie Brady

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology recently hosted its latest workshop in the Genomics for Faith series. Supported by the Wayfarer Foundation, Genomics for Faith…

Regional Outreach Program Manager Dan Urban led discussions regarding gender at the latest Genomics for Faith workshop.

Outreach

Gene editing tool reduces Alzheimer’s plaque precursor in mice

Liz Ahlberg Touchstone

A new gene editing tool that helps cellular machinery skip parts of genes responsible for diseases has been applied to reduce the formation of amyloid-beta plaque precursors in…

A new gene editing tool helps cells skip gene regions with problematic mutations. From left, graduate student Shraddha Shirguppe, Professor Pablo Perez-Pinera, and graduate student Angelo Miskalis led a team that applied the tool to reduce proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease in mice. / Fred Zwicky

Research

Rubisco's role in global food security

David Hong

As global food demand continues to grow, researchers are exploring multiple strategies to boost crop productivity. While engineering plant enzymes and biochemical pathways that…

As part of the Tansley Review, the trio discuss their own research in increasing Rubisco in sorghum, as shown in these 2023 field trials. The authors believe improving rubisco could be part of short-term, and long-term efforts to meet the growing global food demand. Credit: Coralie Salesse-Smith

Research

Climate-ready crop: RIPE team shows increase in food mass through photorespiratory bypass in elevated temperatures

Allie Arp

A team from the University of Illinois has engineered potato to be more resilient to global warming, showing 30% increases in tuber mass under heatwave conditions. This…

Katherine Meacham-Hensold led work looking to improve the photorespiratory bypass of potato as a postdoctoral researcher in Don Ort’s lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Research

Study offers insight into chloroplast evolution

Diana Yates

One of the most momentous events in the history of life involved endosymbiosis — a process by which one organism engulfed another and, instead of ingesting it, incorporated its…

From left, postdoctoral researcher Bidhan Chandra De, chemistry professor Angad Mehta and their colleagues found evidence indicating that chloroplasts may have originated as energy-generating organelles and later evolved to support carbon assimilation in plant cells. Photo by Fred Zwicky

Research

Timothy Fan Awarded BEAT Cancer Grant to Mitigate Cancer Recurrence and Metastasis

Chloe Zant

The Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) recently embarked on the first year of its Breakthrough Engineering and Advanced Treatment (BEAT) Cancer Initiative—a collaboration with…

A newly established partnership between the OSF Healthcare Cancer Institute in Peoria, IL and the Cancer Center at Illinois, called Breakthrough and Advanced Treatment of (BEAT) Cancer Initiative, facilitates collaboration to improve cancer diagnostics, treatment, and prevention. Dr. Timothy Fan, fourth from left, is shown here at the BEAT Cancer kickoff, hosted by the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Research

IGB researchers leverage team science to develop InSTAnT Toolkit

Katie Brady

In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology report a new, robust computational toolset to…

Spatial transcriptomics data from osteosarcoma cells. Left) A spatial map of the transcriptome segmented into individual cells using machine learning, with each dot representing a RNA transcript and each color indicating a different gene. Right) Genes associated with cytoskeleton and robunucleoprotein complexes are frequently colocalized.

Research