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Health Life Sciences
Study tallies extra calories Americans consume in their coffee, tea
Jan 30, 2017 9:15 am424 views
A new analysis reveals just how much Americans are adding to their caloric intake by spicing up or sweetening their coffee or tea.
Health Engineering Life Sciences Physical Sciences
Tiny exports signal big shifts in cancer tissue, researchers find
Jan 25, 2017 1:30 pm621 views
Microscopic shifts in metabolism and increases in tiny transport vesicles out of tumor cells preface larger changes to the tumor environment and could prepare the way for cancerous cells to spread and metastasize, University of Illinois researchers report.
Life Sciences
Team discovers how bacteria exploit a chink in the body’s armor
Jan 19, 2017 3:00 pm438 views
Scientists have discovered how a unique bacterial enzyme evades the body’s key weapons in its fight against infection.
Physical Sciences Life Sciences
Tool to map gene's ‘social network’ sheds light on function, interactions and drug efficacy
Jan 19, 2017 9:00 am753 views
Although the human genome has been mapped, many questions remain about how genes are regulated, how they interact with one another, and what function some genes serve. A new tool developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology distills the huge amount of genomic data into gene networks that can point to the function of genes, highlighting relationships between genes and offering insights into disease, treatment and gene analogs across species.
Life Sciences Agriculture
Survival of many of the world’s nonhuman primates is in doubt, experts report
Jan 18, 2017 1:00 pm1085 views
A report in the journal Science Advances details the grim realities facing a majority of the nonhuman primates in the world – the apes, monkeys, tarsiers, lemurs and lorises inhabiting ever-shrinking forests across the planet. The review is the most comprehensive conducted so far, the researchers say, and the picture it paints is dire.
Social Sciences Life Sciences
Counseling, antidepressants change personality (for the better), team reports
Jan 6, 2017 10:30 am2095 views
A review of 207 studies involving more than 20,000 people found that those who engaged in therapeutic interventions were, on average, significantly less neurotic and a bit more extraverted after the interventions than they were beforehand.
Health Life Sciences
Study links nutrition to brain health and intelligence in older adults
Dec 13, 2016 8:45 am3835 views
A study of older adults offers insight into how a pigment found in leafy greens that tends to accumulate in brain tissue may contribute to the preservation of “crystallized intelligence,” the ability to use the skills and knowledge one has acquired over a lifetime.
Humanities Life Sciences
An informatics approach helps better identify chemical combinations in consumer products
Dec 12, 2016 9:15 am243 views
An informatics approach can help prioritize chemical combinations for further testing by determining the prevalence of individual ingredients and their most likely combinations in consumer products.
Physical Sciences Life Sciences
Report proposes standards for sharing data and code used in computational studies
Dec 8, 2016 1:00 pm774 views
A new report by prominent leaders in computational methods and reproducibility lays out recommendations for ways researchers, institutions, agencies and journal publishers can work together to standardize sharing of data sets and software code.
Agriculture Life Sciences
Pollinator habitat program spreads bad seeds with the good
Dec 7, 2016 8:30 am6278 views
Weed scientists in at least two Midwestern states have been reporting for years that a conservation program meant to provide habitat for pollinating insects is sowing bad seeds – including seeds of the potentially devastating agricultural weed Palmer amaranth – along with the good. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois have traced the weed seeds to at least one source: pollinator habitat seed sold by a company in the Midwest.
Health Life Sciences
Paper: Enzyme that digests vitamin A also may regulate testosterone levels
Dec 6, 2016 1:00 pm414 views
An enzyme that converts the dietary carotenoid beta carotene into vitamin A in the body may also regulate testosterone levels and growth of the prostate, researchers at the University of Illinois found in a study.
Business Life Sciences
‘Nudges’ an inexpensive, effective way to increase completion of health promotion programs
Dec 1, 2016 9:15 am262 views
Keeping your message brief and simple – on the level of a gentle reminder, as opposed to constant nagging – can produce gains when trying to increase engagement with health care programs, says new research from U. of I. professor and social psychology expert Dolores Albarracin.
Life Sciences
Young toddlers can tell when others hold false beliefs, study finds
Nov 28, 2016 9:00 am763 views
A new study finds that, under the right conditions, 2 1/2-year-old children can answer questions about people acting on false beliefs, an ability that most researchers believe does not develop until age 4.
Life Sciences
Study in rats finds low blood alcohol levels have no effect on total calories consumed
Nov 23, 2016 8:15 am499 views
Laboratory rats will drink alcohol if it’s available, and may even get a little tipsy, researchers report in a new study. But they won’t voluntarily drink until they’re drunk. And while ethanol is calorie-rich, rats that drink it eat less food and their total energy intake remains steady, the research team found.
Life Sciences Health
Team finds new way to attach lipids to proteins, streamlining drug development
Nov 21, 2016 2:00 pm432 views
A new study reveals an efficient means of attaching lipids (fat molecules) to peptides (the building blocks of proteins). This can improve the molecules’ drug-delivery capabilities.
Honors Agriculture Announcements Engineering Health Life Sciences Physical Sciences
Eight Illinois researchers rank among world’s most influential
Nov 18, 2016 9:15 am5846 views
Eight University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Thomson Reuters / Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016. The list identifies scientists “whose research has had significant global impact within their respective fields of study."
Agriculture Life Sciences
Scientists tweak photosynthesis to boost crop yield
Nov 17, 2016 1:00 pm1979 views
Researchers report that they can increase plant productivity by boosting levels of three proteins involved in photosynthesis. This confirms a hypothesis some in the scientific community once doubted was possible.
Life Sciences
For First Nations peoples, effects of European contact are recorded in the genome
Nov 15, 2016 10:00 am432 views
A study of the genomes of 25 individuals who lived 1,000 to 6,000 years ago on the north coast of present-day British Columbia, and 25 of their descendants who still live in the region today, opens a new window on the catastrophic consequences of European colonization for indigenous peoples in that part of the world.
Life Sciences Health
Yoga practice linked to lower stress, better cognitive performance in older adults
Nov 15, 2016 8:30 am395 views
Older adults who practiced hatha yoga for 8 weeks were better able to manage stress and performed better on cognitive tests than peers in a stretching and weight-training program, researchers report.
Life Sciences Health
Licorice compound interferes with sex hormones in mouse ovary, study finds
Nov 9, 2016 12:00 pm298 views
A study of mouse reproductive tissues finds that exposure to isoliquiritigenin, a compound found in licorice, disrupts steroid sex hormone production in the ovary, researchers report.
Life Sciences Campus Campus Life Deaths Physical Sciences
Klaus Schulten, pioneer in biophysics and computational biology, has died
Nov 4, 2016 8:30 am1012 views
University of Illinois physics professor Klaus Schulten, an innovator in the use of computational methods to study the chemical and biological processes driving living cells, died Monday, Oct. 31, at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. He was 69.
Life Sciences Physical Sciences
Time-lapse cell imaging reveals dynamic activity
Oct 26, 2016 12:30 pm1256 views
Living cells are miniature worlds bustling with activity. A new advanced imaging method can track cells over long periods of time using only light – no dye or chemicals required – to reveal dynamics and provide insight into how cells function, develop and interact.
Life Sciences Social Sciences
Distracted much? New research may help explain why
Oct 5, 2016 8:15 am1706 views
A new study offers evidence that one’s motivation is just as important for sustained attention to a task as is the ease with which the task is done.
Life Sciences Social Sciences
Review finds little evidence that brain-training games yield real-world benefits
Oct 3, 2016 12:15 am662 views
A systematic review of the scientific studies cited by brain-training companies as evidence that their products improve cognition in daily life finds no convincing evidence to support those claims. While people tend to improve on the specific tasks they practice, the researchers report, the conclusion that computerized brain-training programs yield broader cognitive benefits or improve real-world outcomes for their users is premature at best.
Life Sciences Social Sciences
Study links nutrition to brain health and cognitive aging
Sep 28, 2016 9:00 am538 views
A new study of older adults finds an association between higher blood levels of phosphatidylcholine, a source of the dietary nutrient choline, and the ability to regulate attention to manage competing tasks. The study also identified a brain structure that appears to play a role in this association.
Faculty Interviews Engineering Life Sciences Physical Sciences
Is Academia Waking Up to the Problem of Sexual Harassment?
Sep 19, 2016 2:15 pm3172 views
U. of I. anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy supports a federal legislative effort that would require universities to report – and federal funding agencies to consider – findings that any university professor engaged in discrimination on the basis of sex.
Agriculture Life Sciences
Illinois growers are running out of options in fight against waterhemp
Sep 14, 2016 8:00 am812 views
Resistance to multiple herbicides is the new norm for populations of waterhemp, a common agricultural weed. With their herbicide options dwindling and nothing new on the horizon, Illinois growers must be strategic in how they manage waterhemp-infested fields, says a University of Illinois expert on crop weed management.
Business Life Sciences
‘Sleeper effect’ accounts for durability of weak messages from credible sources
Sep 13, 2016 8:45 am931 views
The least convincing arguments can reverberate in the public consciousness over time – provided they’re delivered by a credible source, says new research from U. of I. psychology professor Dolores Albarracin.
Health Life Sciences
Scientists identify genes that disrupt response to breast cancer treatment
Sep 7, 2016 9:45 am1769 views
Scientists at the University of Illinois may have unlocked the genetic code that determines why many patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer fail to respond to the widely used drug tamoxifen.
Agriculture Life Sciences
Study: Future drought will offset benefits of higher CO2 on soybean yields
Sep 5, 2016 10:00 am834 views
An eight-year study of soybeans grown outdoors in a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere like that expected by 2050 has yielded a new and worrisome finding: Higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations will boost plant growth under ideal growing conditions, but drought – expected to worsen as the climate warms and rainfall patterns change – will outweigh those benefits and cause yield losses much sooner than anticipated.
Life Sciences Engineering Physical Sciences
Force triggers gene expression by stretching chromatin
Aug 22, 2016 10:00 am1107 views
A new study by University of Illinois researchers and collaborators in China has demonstrated that external mechanical force can directly regulate gene expression.
Life Sciences
Study confirms long-term effects of ‘chemobrain’ in mice
Aug 17, 2016 3:15 pm1159 views
Women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer have long complained of lingering cognitive impairments after treatment. These effects are referred to as "chemobrain," a feeling of mental fogginess. A new study from the University of Illinois reports long-lasting cognitive impairments in mice when they are administered a chemotherapy regimen used to treat breast cancer in humans.
Life Sciences Engineering Physical Sciences
Genome-editing proteins ride a DNA zip line
Aug 15, 2016 1:30 pm859 views
For gene-editing proteins to be useful in clinical applications, they need to be able to find the specific site they’re supposed to edit among billions of DNA sequences. Using advanced imaging techniques, University of Illinois researchers have found that one class of genome-editing proteins rapidly travels along a strand of DNA like a rider on a zip line – a unique behavior among documented DNA-binding proteins.
Health Life Sciences
Report: People buy most of their junk food at the supermarket
Aug 9, 2016 9:15 am970 views
An analysis of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults reveals that access to healthy foods in a supermarket does not hinder Americans’ consumption of empty calories. In fact, the study found, U.S. adults buy the bulk of their sugar-sweetened beverages and nutrient-poor discretionary foods at supermarkets and grocery stores. The findings challenge the "food desert" hypothesis.
Life Sciences
Ancient bones, teeth, tell story of strife at Cahokia
Aug 4, 2016 10:45 am1514 views
Dozens of people buried in mass graves in an ancient mound in Cahokia, a pre-Columbian city in Illinois near present-day St. Louis, likely lived in or near Cahokia most of their lives, researchers report in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Life Sciences
Fresh look at burials, mass graves, tells a new story of Cahokia
Aug 4, 2016 10:30 am1493 views
A new study challenges earlier interpretations of an important burial mound at Cahokia, a pre-Columbian city in Illinois near present-day St. Louis. The study reveals that a central feature of the mound, a plot known as the “beaded burial,” is not a monument to male power, as was previously thought, but includes both males and females of high status.
Life Sciences Physical Sciences
Iron catalysts can modify amino acids, peptides to create new drug candidates
Aug 1, 2016 9:45 am467 views
For medicinal chemists, making tweaks to peptide structures is key to developing new drug candidates. Now, researchers have demonstrated that two iron-containing small-molecule catalysts can help turn certain types of amino acids – the building blocks of peptides and proteins – into an array of potential new forms, even when part of a larger peptide, while preserving a crucial aspect of their chemistry: chirality, or “handedness.”
Health Life Sciences Veterinary Medicine
Scientists test nanoparticle drug delivery in dogs with osteosarcoma
Jul 25, 2016 2:00 pm3451 views
At the University of Illinois, an engineer teamed up with a veterinarian to test a bone cancer drug delivery system in animals bigger than the standard animal model, the mouse. They chose dogs – mammals closer in size and biology to humans – with naturally occurring bone cancers, which also are a lot like human bone tumors.
Agriculture Engineering Life Sciences Physical Sciences
Measure of age in soil nitrogen could help precision agriculture
Jul 25, 2016 8:00 am1384 views
University of Illinois engineers developed a model to calculate the age of nitrogen in corn and soybean fields, which could lead to improved fertilizer application techniques to promote crop growth while reducing leaching.
Life Sciences
Scientists watch as water fleas take over new territory
Jul 19, 2016 9:15 am571 views
Look into any nutrient-rich pond almost anywhere in the world and you will find Daphnia pulex, a tiny crustacean (also called a water flea) that is a source of food for fish and fascination for scientists. A new study, reported in the journal Molecular Ecology, offers insights into this creature’s ability to disperse and its remarkable success in the wild.
Life Sciences
Pap screenings linked to less cervical cancer in elderly women
Jul 7, 2016 7:15 am591 views
A new study from the University of Illinois confirms a link between routine Pap smear screenings and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer in women over age 65. However, most American health guidelines discourage women in that age range from receiving screenings unless they have pre-existing risk factors.
Life Sciences Social Sciences
Study: How we explain things influences what we think is right
Jul 5, 2016 9:00 am1077 views
New research focuses on a fundamental human habit: When trying to explain something (why people give roses for Valentine’s Day, for example), we often focus on the traits of the thing itself (roses are pretty) and not its context (advertisers promote roses). In a new study, researchers found that people who tend to focus on “inherent traits” and ignore context also are more likely to assume that the patterns they see around them are good.
Health Life Sciences Veterinary Medicine
Report: A host of common chemicals endanger child brain development
Jul 1, 2016 9:15 am2624 views
In a new report, dozens of scientists, health practitioners and children’s health advocates are calling for renewed attention to the growing evidence that many common and widely available chemicals endanger neurodevelopment in fetuses and children of all ages.
Education Life Sciences Veterinary Medicine
With online games, high school students learn how to rein in disease outbreaks
Jun 27, 2016 11:00 am665 views
High school students investigate Ebola-like outbreaks and administer vaccines through Outbreak!, a new summer course at Illinois that uses online games to encourage critical thinking about fighting infectious diseases.
Life Sciences Health
Study finds brain markers of numeric, verbal and spatial reasoning abilities
Jun 20, 2016 10:00 am1137 views
A new study begins to clarify how brain structure and chemistry give rise to specific aspects of what researchers call “fluid intelligence,” the ability to adapt to new situations and to solve problems one has never encountered before.
Faculty Interviews Life Sciences Veterinary Medicine
When veterinarians become crime scene investigators
Jun 17, 2016 1:45 pm566 views
A Minute With...™ veterinary diagnostic laboratory professor Adam Stern
Life Sciences
Current diversity pattern of North American mammals a ‘recent’ trend, study finds
Jun 13, 2016 2:00 pm546 views
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s called the latitudinal diversity gradient, a phenomenon seen today in most plant and animal species around the world: Biodiversity decreases from the equator to higher latitudes. A new study of fossils representing 63 million of the past 65 million years reveals that – for North American mammals, at least – the modern LDG is the exception rather than the rule.
Health Business Life Sciences Veterinary Medicine
Human trials of cancer drug PAC-1 continue with new investment
May 24, 2016 1:45 pm2470 views
Clinical trials of the anti-cancer agent PAC-1 are continuing to expand, thanks to a $7 million angel investment from an anonymous contributor who originally invested $4 million to help get the compound this far in the drug-approval pipeline.
Faculty Interviews Life Sciences
Why America's aging population needs to think about preventing falls
May 23, 2016 3:45 pm529 views
A Minute With...™ Jacob Sosnoff, professor of kinesiology and community health
Life Sciences
Study links parental depression to brain changes and risk-taking in adolescents
May 10, 2016 3:15 pm853 views
A new study concludes that parental depression contributes to greater brain activity in areas linked to risk taking in adolescent children, likely leading to more risk-taking and rule-breaking behaviors. While previous research has found associations between clinically depressed parents and their teenagers’ risk taking, the new study is the first to find corresponding changes in the adolescents’ brains.