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Engineering Life sciences Two researchers stand in suits while a shadowed research subject performs a motor task while wearing a sensor on their hand.

Wearable sensors for Parkinson’s can improve with machine learning, data from healthy adults

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Low-cost, wearable sensors could increase access to care for patients with Parkinson’s disease. New machine-learning approaches and a baseline of data from healthy older adults improve the accuracy of the results from such sensors, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers and clinical collaborators found in a new study.  “This study demonstrates that the expansion […]

Life sciences Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo

Perinatal women of Mexican descent propose solutions to pandemic-related stressors affecting Latinos

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Public policies blocked many families of Mexican descent living in the U.S. from accessing vital services such as food and mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though these communities experienced some of the highest infection and mortality rates. Thirty-eight perinatal women and mothers of young children were interviewed about the […]

Expert viewpoints Carl Bernacchi stands in front of a large image of a solar eclipse.

What can researchers learn about ecosystems and the environment during the total solar eclipse?

Scientists across the U.S. and Mexico are engaging in a one-day data-gathering operation to record how the 2024 total solar eclipse affects various aspects of life on Earth. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, crop sciences and plant biology professor Carl Bernacchi and his colleagues will focus on atmospheric and ecosystem-scale responses to the eclipse. […]

Expert viewpoints Photo of LaKisha David in a stairwell

Can genetic genealogy restore family narratives disrupted by the transatlantic slave trade?

Some political figures seek to remove references to slavery from the study of American history, adding to the vast knowledge gaps that stem from the transatlantic slave trade. To better understand these histories, scholars and individuals are turning to genetic genealogy to discover and retrace descendant-family lineages. In a recent paper published in the journal […]

Veterinary medicine A bulldog on a veterinary table with a stethoscope at its nose

Veterinary expert: Spare flat-faced pets the respiratory distress

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The demand for bulldogs and other flat-faced pets is at an all-time high. According to the American Kennel Club, from 2006-2016, the number of registered bulldogs and French bulldogs in the U.S. increased by 60% and 476%, respectively. In 2023, the French bulldog topped the AKC’s most popular breeds list.  But as […]

Engineering Public domain of plants growing in laboratory designed to be used in space.

Study brings scientists a step closer to successfully growing plants in space

New, highly stretchable sensors can monitor and transmit plant growth information without human intervention, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Device.  The polymer sensors are resilient to humidity and temperature, can stretch over 400% while remaining attached to a plant as it grows and send a wireless signal to a remote monitoring […]

Life sciences Two researchers sit with an image of an atomic-level simulation of DNA, shown in red, packed into a viral capsid, shown in blue

First atom-level structure of packaged viral genome reveals new properties, dynamics

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A computational model of the more than 26 million atoms in a DNA-packed viral capsid expands our understanding of virus structure and DNA dynamics, insights that could provide new research avenues and drug targets, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report in the journal Nature. “To fight a virus, we want to know […]

Life sciences Two researchers stand next to equipment onto which an image of neuron scans is projected in the Tsai Lab at Burrill Hall.

Earliest-yet Alzheimer’s biomarker found in mouse model could point to new targets

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A surge of a neural-specific protein in the brain is the earliest-yet biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers studying a mouse model of the disease. Furthermore, the increased protein activity leads to the seizures associated with the earliest stages of neurodegeneration, and inhibiting the protein in the mice […]

Life sciences Illinois scientists Erik Nelson, Kelly Swanson and Brett Loman

Mice study suggests metabolic diseases may be driven by gut microbiome, loss of ovarian hormones

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The gut microbiome interacts with the loss of female sex hormones to exacerbate metabolic disease, including weight gain, fat in the liver and the expression of genes linked with inflammation, researchers found in a new rodent study. The findings, published in the journal Gut Microbes, may shed light on why women are […]

Life sciences Image of the logo for the 41st Insect Fear Film Festival featuring an ant.

Insect Fear Film Festival features ‘Ant-Men’ – movies about humans shrunk to size of ants

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The 2024 Insect Fear Film Festival will bring its audience a bug’s-eye view of the world. The festival’s theme is “Ant-Men,” and it will feature films in which humans are shrunk to the size of ants and participate in ant societies. The 41st annual festival is Feb. 24 at Foellinger Auditorium at […]

Engineering Flooded farm field draining into stream

Study: ‘Legacy’ phosphorus delays water quality improvements in Gulf of Mexico

The same phosphorous that fertilizes the thriving agriculture of the Midwest is also responsible for a vast “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi Delta. Efforts to reduce the amount of phosphorus that enters the Mississippi River system are underway, but research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests that remnants […]

Life sciences Photo of Yong-Su Jin in the laboratory

Microbial division of labor produces higher biofuel yields

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have found a way to boost ethanol production via yeast fermentation, a standard method for converting plant sugars into biofuels. Their approach, detailed in the journal Nature Communications, relies on careful timing and a tight division of labor among synthetic yeast strains to yield more ethanol per unit of plant sugars […]

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