News Archive
2011
Earth Microbiome Project to catalogue world’s microbes
An initiative called the Earth Microbiome Project, led by Jack Gilbert at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and including scientists all over the world, is tackling the massive task of cataloguing the DNA of all those microbes. The knowledge could potentially one day help us understand climate change, increase world food production and even avoid unnecessary surgeries.Press Release
UChicago Awards $600,000 to Argonne-University collaborators
Eight pairs of University and Argonne National Laboratory researchers recently received $600,000, collectively, in Strategic Collaborative Initiative (SCI) seed grants from the University following a rigorous competition managed by Argonne and the University of Chicago. Press Release
New research links common RNA modification to obesity
Scientists have observed, for the first time, an intermediate stage in the chemical process that repairs DNA methylation damage and regulates many important biological functions that impact health conditions such as obesity, cancer and diabetes. Press Release
New data-mining effort launched to study mental disorders
The Sylvio O. Conte Center, a multi-institutional effort based at the University of Chicago, will combine the statistical power of pre-existing genetics, pharmacogenomics, text-mining and clinical record databases to confront diseases that have so far frustrated researchers.Press Release
Cloud computing and Argonne program help decode German E. coli strain
Over a feverish weekend after the rogue bacterium’s genome was sequenced, scientists from all over the world submitted the E. coli genome to rounds of rigorous study. Thanks to a unique Argonne-developed computer program and cloud computing testbed, researchers mapped the strain’s genes—and came a little closer to understanding the bacterium’s secrets. Press Release
IGSB Fellow Tao Pan Receives NIH Director’s Pioneer Award
University of Chicago scientist Tao Pan, PhD, will be awarded $2.5 million by the National Institutes of Health to fund his research into the functional genomics of RNA and epigenetics. Press Release
Anonymous gifts support new professorships in Institute for Molecular Engineering
The University of Chicago has created four named professorships for its new Institute for Molecular Engineering, building momentum behind the new academic program.
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IGSB Senior Fellow Michelle Le Beau, UCCCC director, named President-Elect of AACI
Michelle M. Le Beau, PhD, director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC), has been elected Vice President/President-elect of the Association of American Cancer Institutes. Press Release
Introduction to Beagle
Beagle is one of the fastest supercomputers in the world that is devoted to life sciences. The 151 teraflops, Cray XE6 system supports computation, simulation, and data analysis for the biomedical research community. Beagle is made possible by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). Beagle is named after the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyage in 1831.
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IGSB Sr. Fellow Manyuan Long has been named the inaugural Edna K. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor
Long is an international expert on genetics and evolutionary biology, with a research focus on the origin and evolution of genes with novel functions.
Errors in protein structure sparked evolution of biological complexity
Over four billion years of evolution, plants and animals grew far more complex than their single-celled ancestors. But a new comparison of proteins shared across species finds that complex organisms, including humans, have accumulated structural weaknesses that may have actually launched the long journey from microbe to man.
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Public event to commemorate building that housed Enrico Fermi, wealth of pioneering scientists
Time capsule from Research Institutes building to be unveiled June 2
Neil Shubin elected to National Academy of Sciences, honored for teaching
University of Chicago evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin, PhD, the Robert R. Bensley Professor and Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, has been elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and honored with a prestigious national teaching award.Read press release
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