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Research advances understanding of how hydrogen fuel is made
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Oxygen may be necessary for life, but it sure gets in the way of making hydrogen fuel cheaply and abundantly from a family of enzymes present in many microorganisms. Blocking oxygen’s path to an enzyme’s production machinery could lead to a renewable energy source that would generate only water as its waste […]
Molecular research suggests shift needed in how drugs are created
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The first close-up look at a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule involved in immune response in mammals suggests that researchers “should rethink what they are doing” in creating drugs based on a fruit-fly model, scientists say. Reporting in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology, researchers at the University of Illinois at […]
U. of I. researchers to play key roles in study of how life emerged on earth
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Three scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have leading roles in a multi-institution quest funded by the National Science Foundation to determine how life emerged on Earth. A second grant, from the U.S. Department of Energy, will allow the Illinois researchers to go a step farther: They will seek to […]
Researchers zero in on estrogen’s role in breast-cancer cell growth
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Why do estrogen dependent breast-cancer cells grow and spread rapidly? Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say it may be because estrogen virtually eliminates levels of a vitally important regulatory protein. In a paper that will appear in the Sept. 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of […]
When cave crickets go out for dinner, they really go, researchers say
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Cave crickets travel farther from their homes to forage – by about double – than their previously reported range, researchers have discovered. In Texas, that means protective buffer areas around caves may need to be extended to protect endangered invertebrate species that live inside and depend on the crickets. Reporting in the […]
Cells direct membrane traffic by channel width, scientists say
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – For a glycerol molecule, a measly angstrom’s difference in diameter is a road-closed sign: You can’t squeeze through unless you are a sleek, water-molecule-sized sports car, say scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The roadway is in aquaporins, a class of proteins that form trans-membrane channels in cell walls in […]
Comparative chromosome study finds breakage trends, cancer ties
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Breakages in chromosomes in mammalian evolution have occurred at preferred rather than random sites as long thought, and many of the sites are involved in human cancers, an international team of 25 scientists has discovered. The researchers, reporting in the July 22 issue of the journal Science, also found that chromosomal evolution […]
Cultural mindset a factor in forming responses to challenges
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – When faced with a challenging situation, a bicultural person may decide how to respond based on the cultural mindset that is active at the time, researchers have concluded. College students in Hong Kong, for example, who were prompted ahead of time with icons of Chinese culture were more likely to cooperate with […]
Technique provides new look on response of diseased canine heart
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Using newly available biological technology, researchers have developed the first molecular portrait of multiple gene activity in diseased heart tissue taken from dogs near death from a devastating disease. The discovery sheds new light on the heart’s response to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease of large-breed dogs. New microscopic technology allows researchers […]
Chemist Kenneth L. Rinehart dies at 76
CHAMPAIGN -Kenneth L. Rinehart, a chemistry professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was internationally known for his research on organic compounds involved in biological activity, died Monday at his Urbana home after a long illness. He was 76. Rinehart’s research led to the development of a procedure involving mutasynthesis to prepare new […]
Logging changed ecological balance for monkeys, damaged health
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Twenty-eight years after intense selective logging stopped in the region now known as Uganda’s Kibale National Park, the red-tailed guenon (Cercophithecus ascanius) is a primate still in decline. The logging practice, scientists report in a new study, changed the ecological balance for these monkeys, leading to behavioral changes and opening the door […]
Mount St. Helens: 25 years later
Twenty-five years ago today Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state, prompting U. of I. graduate David Johnston of the U.S. Geological Survey to report “Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it” from inside his monitoring-station trailer. Johnston’s body and trailer were never found; he was among 57 fatalities that day. Susan W. Kieffer, now a Charles […]