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In The News

Miscanthus Genome
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, May 15) – U. of I. crop sciences professor and Energy Biosciences Institute program leader Stephen Moose and his colleagues have mapped the Miscanthus sinensis genome, a first step toward a full genome sequence of a plant with a promising future in the production of biofuels.
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Infant Nutrition
News-Medical . net (Sydney, May 15) -- A new study led by U. of I. nutrition and health professor Sharon Donovan might explain the role of a little-understood component of breast milk in helping babies develop. The research shows that human milk oligosaccharides produce short-chain fatty acids that feed a beneficial microbial population in the infant gut.
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Also:
Daily Ledger (Canton, Ill., May 17)
The Times of India (Mumbai, May 15)

Author File - Taekjip Ha
Nature Methods -- During DNA repair and replication, various enzymes form a team of highly coordinated players. For Taekjip Ha, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the best way to learn the rules of the game is to watch individual molecules. “You can learn so much about the protein that you couldn't have otherwise,” he says.
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Genetic Engineering
Mother Nature Network (Atlanta, May 4) -- Sorghum and sugarcane are both widely used crop plants that produce a small amount of oil, but they are mostly farmed for food purposes rather than used for fuel. The U. of I. is looking to change that. Stephen Long, a genomics biology professor at the university, heads the project, and the goal is to enhance the oil-producing qualities of sorghum and sugarcane so that they produce more oil than sugar or starch. This would make these varieties of sorghum and sugarcane into major oil crops, which could provide a significant source of fuel for the U.S.
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Anthropology
Nature (London, May 2) -- Ripan Malhi, a professor of anthropology at the U. of I., questions whether recent genetic testing results accurately prove the geographic origins of the first prehistoric settlers to the Americas. He is one of an emerging group of researchers combining modern genetic technology with archaeological investigation to answer questions about the origins of human inhabitation.
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Award
Phys Org . com (Urbana, Ill., May 1) -- Harris Lewin has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), it was announced today. Lewin, an emeritus faculty member in the Department of Animal Sciences and founding director of the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), was recognized for research he conducted during his 27 years at the University of Illinois. He is now vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Davis, where he earned his doctorate in 1984.
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Entomology
The Register-Mail (from GateHouse News Service; Galesburg, Ill., May 1) -- A profile and interview with U. of I. entomology professor Gene Robinson.
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Soybeans
Crop Life (Willoughby, Ohio, April 27) -- Sudden death syndrome caused by a fungus has plagued soybean growers in Illinois since the 1980s, according to U. of I. plant pathologist Carl Bradley.
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Crops
WICD 15 (Urbana) -- About 10 people are working on a grant funded project at the University of Illinois that would genetically engineer certain crops in order to produce more oil per acre. Stephen Long says, "We're looking at crops that can be grown on poorer land than soy and yet yield more oil per acre."
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Sprouts
The Packer (Lenexa, Kan., April 26) -- Research has again proven that the 1999 government recommended process for sanitizing sprout seeds is ineffective. However, there is agreement among many academics and growers about basic food safety measures they say would virtually eliminate the chance of pathogen-laden sprouts entering the supply chain. “It is too late if the seeds are not clean,” says Hao Feng, a U. of I. researcher in food and bioprocess engineering.
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The Plight of Bees
Minnesota . Publicradio . org (April 25) -- Professor Gene Robinson, director of the Institute for Genomic Biology and the University of Illinois Bee Research Facility, joins Marla Spivak, director of the Bee Lab at the University of Minnesota, to discuss the plight of bees on The Daily Circuit. An audio file of the show is available via the link.
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Genomics
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, April 25) -- A new technique U. of I. researchers developed to sequence the genomes of two champion bulls may provide for faster and less costly methods to breed genetically elite cattle.
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3-D Imaging
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., April 24) -- Real-time, 3D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery and ophthalmology. A new computational technique developed by researchers at the Beckman Institute, led by Stephen Boppart and Scott Carney, both professors of electrical and computer engineering, could provide faster, less-expensive and higher-resolution tissue imaging to a broader population of users.
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Also:
News Medical . Net (Sydney, April 24)
e! Science News (Quebec City, April 23)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., April 23)

May Berenbaum
Scientific American (April 16) -- A brief profile of renowned U. of I. entomology professor May Berenbaum, how she chose her field of study, and her views on the common attributes among good scientists and good journalists.
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Guggenheim
Green Bay Press-Gazette (from USA Today; Wisconsin, April 13) -- Huimin Zhao, the Centennial Chair Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Illinois, has received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to continue his work studying human diseases. Zhao works to engineer proteins used in drug discovery and gene therapy as well as industrial biotechnology and bioenergy.
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Ethanol Costs
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., April 12) -- A new U. of I. study concludes that learning-by-doing, stimulated by increased ethanol production, played an important role in inducing technological progress in the corn ethanol industry. The study, co-written by Madhu Khanna, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics, and Xiaoguang Chen, of the U. of I. Energy Biosciences Institute, quantifies the role that factors such as economies of scale, learning-by-doing, induced technological innovation as a result of rising input prices and trade-induced competition played in reducing the processing costs of corn ethanol in the U.S. by 45 percent while also increasing production volumes seventeen-fold from 1983 to 2005.
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Illinois engineering professor awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
University of Illinois professor Huimin Zhao has received a 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually on the basis of achievement and exceptional promise. Zhao, the Centennial Chair Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is one of 181 distinguished scholars chosen from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants.
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New antibiotic could make food safer and cows healthier
Food-borne diseases might soon have another warrior to contend with, thanks to a new molecule discovered by chemists at the University of Illinois. The new antibiotic, an analog of the widely used food preservative nisin, also has potential to be a boon to the dairy industry as a treatment for bovine mastitis.
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Team discovers how bacteria resist 'Trojan horse' antibiotic
A new study describes how bacteria use a previously unknown means to defeat an antibiotic. The researchers found that the bacteria have modified a common “housekeeping” enzyme in a way that enables the enzyme to recognize and disarm the antibiotic.
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Entomology
The China Post (Taipei, Taiwan, April 2) -- U. of I. entomology professor May Berenbaum comments on two new studies indicating a common pesticide may be implicated in the die-off of honey bees.
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Bees
The New York Times (March 29) -- In Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, two teams of researchers published studies suggesting that low levels of a common pesticide can have significant effects on bee colonies. One experiment, conducted by French researchers, indicates that the chemicals fog honey bee brains, making it harder for them to find their way home. “I thought it (the French study) was very well designed,” said May Berenbaum, an entomologist at Illinois.
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Also:
CBS News (from The Associated Press, March 29)

Research Tools
The Scientist (Philadelphia, March 29) -- The Broad Institute and Sanger Institute announced two new cancer cell line databases, the largest such repositories of genomic and drug profiling data to date that will provide researchers with a powerful new set of tools. “I think having two independent resources is a good thing,” says Jian Ma, IGB faculty member and U of I bioengineering professor who did not participate in the research. “If two different groups have the same result for one cell line, it would be more reliable.”
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Antibiotic
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, March 19) -- Food-borne diseases might soon have another warrior to contend with, thanks to a new molecule discovered by chemists at Illinois. The new antibiotic, an analog of the widely used food preservative nisin, also has potential to be a boon to the dairy industry as a treatment for bovine mastitis.
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Also:
Dairy Reporter (Montpellier, France, March 20)
Feedstuffs (Bloomington, Minn., March 21)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., March 19)
Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., March 19)

Bacteria
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, March 19) -- A new U. of I. study describes how bacteria use a previously unknown means to defeat an antibiotic. The researchers found that the bacteria have modified a common “housekeeping” enzyme in a way that enables the enzyme to recognize and disarm the antibiotic.
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Also:
Health Canal (Melbourne, Australia, March 21)

Lifelong Learning
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) is a campus program that offers classes, study groups, lectures and other educational opportunities to area residents older than 50. Membership in OLLI enables the students to engage in learning for the joy of it – which can include anything from courses in the arts and humanities to explorations of science and technology.
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DNA
Science 360 (Washington, D.C., March 13) -- The “RNA world” hypothesis, first promoted in 1986 in a paper in the journal Nature and defended and elaborated on for more than 25 years, posits that the first stages of molecular evolution involved RNA and not proteins, and that proteins (and DNA) emerged later, said U. of I. crop sciences and Institute for Genomic Biology professor Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, who led the new study. “I’m convinced that the RNA world (hypothesis) is not correct,” Caetano-Anollés said. “That world of nucleic acids could not have existed if not tethered to proteins.”
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Also:
BioTechniques (New York City, March 12)

iGEM
NSTA Reports (March 12) -- “I got involved in iGEM five years ago. It was our first team at the [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)]. I was introduced to Aleem Zafar, a brilliant and very motivated undergrad [who] was interested in synthetic biology and had heard about iGEM,” recalls Courtney Fuentes Evans, laboratory supervisor for the Mining Microbial Genomes for Novel Antibiotics Theme at the Institute for Genomic Biology. “I knew nothing about iGEM, but I was really motivated by the students...They developed a project and won a gold at the competition.”
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Sensors
Chemical & Engineering News (Washington, D.C., March 12) -- Researchers led by Samie R. Jaffrey at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have developed a new sensor, based on RNA instead of protein, that can use fluorescence to image small molecules and proteins in living cells. This “alternative approach to image and study small-molecule metabolites is an important piece of work and will potentially have broad applications,” says U. of I. physics professor Taekjip Ha.
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Honeybees and Genetics
The New York Times (March 9) -- Some honey bees are known to be thrill-seeking adventurers. Known as scouts, they fearlessly leave their hives and search for new sources of food and new hive locations for the rest of the colony. Now, a new study suggests that these scouts have genetic brain patterns that set them apart from other bees. “We found massive differences in brain gene expressions between scouts and nonscouts,” said Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist and geneticist at Illinois, as well as an author of the study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Science.
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Also:
ArsTechnica (Boston, March 11)
Daily Mail (London, March 12)
Deccan Herald (from Indo-Asian News Service, New Delhi; Bangalore, India, March 11)
Discovery News (March 8)
Entomological Society of America (Lanham, Md., March 8)
Live Science (New York City, March 8)
Medical News Today (Bexhill-on-Sea, England, March 10)
Montreal Gazette (from Agence France-Presse, Paris; March 9)
Punjab Newsline (Chandigarh, India, March 11)
Red Orbit . com (Dallas, March 11)
Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., March 8)
Scientific American (March 8)
The Epoch Times (New York City, March 12)
The Huffington Post (March 9)
The New Zealand Herald (Auckland, March 13)
The State (Columbia, S.C., March 11)
Time (March 9)
Wired (San Francisco, March 9)

Honeybees
Science News (Washington, D.C., March 8) -- That honey bee lazily probing a flower may actually be a stealth explorer, genetically destined to seek adventure from birth. To test the notion of whether bees have personality, scientists led by entomologist and geneticist Gene Robinson at Illinois focused on scout bees that embark on reconnaissance missions for food.
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Also:
Mother Nature Network (Atlanta, March 9)
MSNBC (March 8)
Science Now (Washington, D.C., March 8)
The Atlantic (March 8)

Cancer-Sniffer
BusinessWeek (March 1) -- Metabolomx, a 12-person company in Mountain View, Calif., appears on the fast track to bringing a cancer-sniffing device to market. Much of the technology behind the Metabolomx machine came from research done by co-founder Kenneth Suslick, a professor of chemistry at Illinois.
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Biofuel
Chicago Tribune (from The Associated Press, March 2) -- With the support of a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers led by scientists at Illinois will take the first steps toward engineering two new oil-rich crops. They aim to boost the natural, oil-producing capabilities of sugarcane and sorghum, increase the crops’ photosynthetic power and – in the case of sugarcane – enhance the plant’s cold tolerance so that it can grow in more northerly climes.
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Also:
Muscatine Journal (Iowa, March 2)
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, March 1)
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill., March 2)

Technology
Scientific Computing (Rockaway, N.J., Feb. 29) -- U. of I. crop sciences professor Michael Gray and colleagues conducted a survey of corn and soybean pests in 47 counties in Illinois from late July to early August in 2011, and found densities of some key insect pests to be at zero or near zero in many counties. “I’ve never seen anything like it in 22 years of doing this kind of research,” Gray said. “From an insect diversity perspective, it’s a biological desert in many of those fields.”
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Also:
Innovations Report (Bad Homburg, Germany, March 1)
Laboratory Equipment (Smithtown, N.Y., March 1)
ScienceNewsline . com (Feb. 29)

Illinois supercomputers, expertise to help determine winner of genomics prize
Beginning in January 2013, teams will compete to accurately sequence the genomes of 100 healthy centenarians within 30 days for less than $1,000 per genome. A $10 million prize will be either awarded to a single winner or divided among successful teams. The Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Medco is intended to inspire breakthroughs in genome sequencing that will lead to the creation of a "medical grade" genome that can be used to improve patient diagnosis and treatment.
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Lemelson-MIT $30,000 Illinois Student Prize Finalists Chosen
Announced today are the five finalists for the Lemelson-MIT $30,000 Illinois Student Prize for innovation. Finalists were chosen by a distinguished panel of entrepreneurs as well as faculty members and professionals from across Illinois campus. The Lemelson-MIT $30,000 Illinois Student Prize is funded through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, which has awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to outstanding student inventors at MIT since 1995. Administered by the Technology Entrepreneur Center in the College of Engineering, the prize is awarded to a student who has demonstrated remarkable inventiveness and innovation.
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Photosynthesis
BBC (London, Feb. 22) -- A group led by U. of I. professor of crop sciences Stephen Long, the deputy director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at Illinois, is trying to improve the ability of plants to harness energy from the sun. And they’re using the processing power of the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications to do it.
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Speciation
e! Science News (Quebec City, Feb. 21) -- Researchers led by U. of I. microbiology professor Rachel Whitaker have evidence of sympatric speciation – whereby one organism divides into two divergent species while living in the same environment.
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Also:
Discover Magazine (Feb. 22)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Feb. 21)

Biofuel
Ecoseed (New York City, Feb. 21) -- A hybrid of temperate and tropical maize developed by U of I. crop sciences professor Frederick Below can be a potential contender in biofuel production.
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Also:
Phys Org . com (Isle of Man, Feb. 20)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Feb. 21)

Land Use
Environmental Research Web (Bristol, England, Feb. 20) -- Land-use change such as deforestation could cut crop yields by up to 17 percent by affecting the amount of moisture reaching key agricultural areas, according to U.S. scientists. That’s on top of the yield drop of the same magnitude it’s predicted that climate change may cause. “Nearly all of the moisture that falls as precipitation over these ‘breadbasket’ regions ultimately originates from and returns to the ocean,” says Justin Bagley, of the Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois.
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Drug Development
MedCity News (Cleveland, Feb. 6) -- A newly formed U. of I. spinoff company could be on to something good with a new drug treatment for cancer that targets an enzyme commonly found in various tumor types. U. of I. chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother and a handful of other co-founders of Vanquish Oncology are developing compounds that selectively kill cancer cells by targeting procaspase-3, an enzyme that spurs reactions that kill the cancer cell when it’s activated. Procaspase-3 is present in many brain, breast, lung and colon tumors, Hergenrother said.
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Biofuel
Business Insider (New York City, Feb. 4) -- What makes seaweed special is that compared with land-based biofuels such as corn and sugar cane, it can produce up to four times as much ethanol per unit. Yong-Su Jin, of the U. of I. Institute for Genomic Biology, cautions, however, that “we still face a huge technical gap for large-scale cultivation.” Costs would have to come down five-fold before the process for converting seaweed could become commercially competitive with ordinary fossil fuels.
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Neurological Reserach
e! Science News (Quebec City, Jan. 25) -- A study led by U. of I. physiologist Rhanor Gillette has found a neurological circuit linking hunger with fear to be at the heart of quick decision-making by a simple form of sea life.
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Also:
Labspaces . net (Iowa City, Iowa, Jan. 25)
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Jan. 25)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Jan. 25)

Nutrition and Cognition
Food Processing.com (Itasca, Ill., Jan. 24) -- The U. of I. and Abbott Laboratories have established the first multi-disciplinary nutrition and cognition research center, which will be located in Urbana.
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Miscanthus
ACES News (Jan. 19) -- Concerns about the worldwide energy supply and national, environmental and economic security have resulted in a search for alternative energy sources. A new University of Illinois study shows Miscanthus x giganteus (M. x giganteus) is a strong contender in the race to find the next source of ethanol if appropriate growing conditions are identified.
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Phylogeny and beyond: Scientific, historical, and conceptual significance of the first tree of life
PNAS (Jan. 18) -- In 1977, Carl Woese and George Fox published a brief paper in PNAS that established, for the first time, that the overall phylogenetic structure of the living world is tripartite. We describe the way in which this monumental discovery was made, its context within the historical development of evolutionary thought, and how it has impacted our understanding of the emergence of life and the characterization of the evolutionary process in its most general form.
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Biofuels
Red Orbit . com (Dallas, Jan. 18) -- A team of U. of I. researchers has developed a computer model that could get biofuel crops to refineries more quickly and more efficiently. Agricultural and biological engineering professors K.C. Ting, Alan Hansen and Luis Rodriguez are cited, as is research professor Yogendra Shastri.
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Also:
Bioscience Technology (Rockaway, N.J., Jan. 17)
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Jan. 17)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Jan. 17)

Archaeology 
Science Magazine (Washington, D.C., Jan. 13) -- Ripan Malhi, a professor of anthropology at the U. of I., questions whether recent genetic testing results accurately prove the geographic origins of the first prehistoric settlers to the Americas.
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Solar Energy
Phys Org . com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Jan. 16) -- U. of I. plant biology professor Donald Ort and a team of scientists have devised a new way to more accurately compare how efficiently plants and photovoltaic, or solar, cells convert sunlight into energy, which could ultimately help researchers improve plant photosynthesis, a critical first link to enhancing the global supply of food, feed, fiber and bioenergy.
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Biofuels
Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri, Jan. 14) -- Miscanthus is a perennial grass that has seen its use as a biofuel rise in Europe, where fields have been known to return annually for decades. But the hybrid is sterile and does not produce seeds, so establishing it is expensive because the rhizomes were scarce. Tom Voigt, a professor of crop sciences at Illinois, has been studying the plant for years and pointed to Europe’s experience growing it and other studies that indicate a low risk for invasiveness. He said it could be possible for Miscanthus to spread, but because it is sterile it would do so slowly and could be controlled. “Boy, I’ve been growing it for more than 20 years, and I have never seen it in a place in my plantings where I did not plant it or want it to grow,” he said.
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Molecular Oxygen
News Bureau (Champaign, Jan. 11) -- University of Illinois crop sciences and Institute for Genomic Biology professor Gustavo Caetano-Anollés and his colleagues identified an oxygen-generating enzyme that likely was a key contributor to the rise of molecular oxygen on earth.
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Land Use
News Bureau (Champaign, Jan. 9) -- University of Illinois plant biology and Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) professor Evan DeLucia and postdoctoral researcher Kristina Anderson-Teixeira developed a new way to calculate the potential climate impacts of land use changes, one that takes into account the greenhouse gas value and the biophysical attributes of different ecosystems.
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Novel Bandage
News-Medical.net (Sydney, Dec.16) -- U. of I. researchers have developed a bandage that stimulates and directs blood vessel growth on the surface of a wound. “Any kind of tissue you want to rebuild, including bone, muscle or skin, is highly vascularized,” says chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Hyunjoon Kong, a co-principal investigator on the study with electrical and computer engineering professor Rashid Bashir.
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Also:
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Dec. 15)
Also:
Cover feature Advanced Materials, Volume 24, January 3, 2012

Team Designs a Bandage that Spurs, Guides Blood Vessel Growth
News Bureau (Champaign, Dec. 15) -- Researchers at Illinois have developed a “microvascular stamp” that lays out a blueprint for new blood vessels and spurs their growth in predetermined pattern. The research team included Rashid Bashir, a professor of electrical and computer engineering; graduate student Vincent Chan; K. Jimmy Hsia, a professor of mechanical science and engineering; graduate student Casey Dyck; and Hyunjoon Kong, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering; and postdoctoral researcher Jae Hyun Jeong and graduate student Chaenyung Cha.
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Gene Therapy
Phys Org.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Dec. 15) -- Clinical gene therapy may be one step closer, thanks to a new twist on an old class of molecules. A group of U. of I. researchers, led by professors Jianjun Cheng and Fei Wang, have demonstrated that short spiral-shaped proteins can efficiently deliver DNA segments to cells.
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Also:
News-Medical.net (Sydney, Dec.16)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Dec. 15)

Spiral Proteins are Efficient Gene Delivery Agents
News Bureau (Champaign, Dec. 15) -- Illinois researchers developed spiral polypeptides that can deliver DNA segments to cells with high efficiency and relatively low toxicity, a step toward clinical gene therapy. The team, from left, postdoctoral researchers Lichen Yin and Dong Li; Fei Wang, a professor of cell and developmental biology; Jianjun Cheng, a professor of materials science and engineering; and Nathan Gabrielson, a postdoctoral researcher.
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Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory (CNLM) Request for Proposals
The Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory (CNLM), established in a partnership between Abbott and the University of Illinois, requests proposals in a Grand Challenge research competition for interdisciplinary, team-based scientific research on the impact of nutrition on learning and memory in the human brain.
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Eight Illinois faculty members elected fellows of AAAS
News Bureau (Champaign, Dec. 6) -- Eight University of Illinois faculty members have been elected fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, including one affiliate and one faculty member from the Institute for Genomic Biology: Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Rashid Bashir, Debasish Dutta, K. Jimmy Hsia, Keith W. Kelley, Wilfred van der Donk, M. Christina White and James Whitfield.
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Sixth Annual Young Investigators
Genome Technology (Dec. 2) -- Jian Ma, CDMC faculty, was one of 25 individuals chosen by Genome Technology magazine as a 2011 Young Investigator, as nominated by senior principal investigators in their field. All of the researchers profiled are no more than five years into their first faculty appointment, working in areas as diverse as single-cell genomics, the role of microRNA in disease, and the uncovering of new biomarkers. Ma’s profile, Investigating Genomic Alterations, can be found on genomeweb.com.
read entire article   (free registration required)

Cellular Research
Nature (London, Dec. 1) -- Many researchers venturing into single-cell analysis will be on their own, so techniques will have to become more auto­mated, integrated and kit-like, says Jonathan Sweedler, a chemist at Illinois.
read entire article (PDF, see Page 137)

Last Universal Common Ancestor
The Daily Mail (London, Nov. 24) -- The ocean was turned into a global mega-organism 3 billion years ago before giving birth to the ancestors of all living things today, new research has revealed. Scientists are currently attempting to confirm the last universal common ancestor – the life form that gave rise to all others. This single organism has been called LUCA and is now traceable in all domains of life including plants, animals and fungi. Scientists believe that it was about 2.9 billion years ago when LUCA split into the three domains of life – bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. But little is known about what happened before the split. Research into this area is being carried out by U. of I. bioinformatics professor Gustavo Caetano-Anolles.
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Also:
Phys Org.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 28)
The Hindustan Times (New Delhi, Nov. 26)

Insect Genome
PCT Magazine (Richfield, Ohio, Nov. 21) -- Scientists are gearing up to sequence the genomes of 5,000 insects and other arthropods, and what they uncover could change how the industry controls structural pests. The five-year, $15 million international effort, known as the i5k Initiative, has been called the Manhattan Project of entomology. “The genome is the source of a tremendous amount of information about an organism,” says Gene Robinson, a professor of entomology at Illinois. Data will help researchers better understand how to sustain organisms like honey bees and target vulnerabilities in pests.
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Converting Carbon Dioxide
Science (Washington, D.C., Nov. 18) -- Researchers led by U. of I. chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Paul Kenis and Richard Masel, of Dioxide Materials in Champaign, reported online in Science Sept. 29 that they’ve come up with a less energy-intensive way to convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.
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Editor’s note: Kenis and Masel’s work is cited in the blue box.

Genetics
Genome Technology (New York City, October) -- U. of I. researchers have taken an unusual approach to studying the role of microRNAs in a deadly brain cancer. Animal sciences professor Sandra Rodriguez-Zas and her group developed a bioinformatics pipeline that allows them to look at all miRNAs, remove those that are not associated with the disease, and still look at multiple miRNAs to establish which ones are related to cancer survival. She and Kristin Delfino, a doctoral candidate at Urbana, are now extending this approach to ovarian cancer survival.
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Editor’s note: This site requires free registration after the first visit.

Cellular Research
United Press International (Nov. 1) -- U. of I. researchers say they’ve discovered how a cancer-causing bacterium attacks a cell’s energy infrastructure, ultimately causing the cell to self-destruct.
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Also:
e! Science News (Quebec City, Nov. 1)
News Medical.Net (Sydney, Nov. 2)
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 1)
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Nov. 1)
Zee News (Noida, India, Nov. 2)

Chemistry
Chemical & Engineering News (Washington, D.C., Nov. 1) -- Researchers have started to realize that cancer drugs often have multiple ways of doing their jobs, says U. of I. chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother.
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Biology
Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Oct. 26) -- Fei Wang, a professor of biology at Illinois, and colleagues have found a way to create melanocytes from the tail cells of mice, using embryonic stem cell-like intermediates called inducible pluripotent cells.
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Also:
Health Canal (Melbourne, Australia, Oct. 26)