News Bureau

Researchers report in the journal Nature that they have found a way to get antibacterial drugs through the nearly impenetrable outer membrane of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that – once it infects a person – is notoriously difficult to treat.

We adjust a lens, and a bright constellation swirls into view – points of colored light hung against a deep-hued backdrop. They are not stars, but extracellular vesicles: tiny packages of molecular cargo in nanosized lipid carriers, released by all cells in the body. We are launching a new project with the goal of not only visualizing EVs in living tissue, but also tracking their dynamics. We have been named 2023 Allen Distinguished Investigators by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation for this purpose.

The slabs of sandstone that make Altgeld Hall one of the most recognizable buildings on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus have been covered in scaffolding for months. But the results of the renovation work going on there are apparent, as the dark gray stone is restored to a pinkish hue. The work is part of a multiphase project that includes exterior and interior restoration of the building.

Psychologists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explored the factors associated with students' sense of belonging at college and found that of the four factors they identified that contribute to it, cultural capital is a key element for those from marginalized groups.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ spring season will feature many genres of music, dance and theater.

The best way to think of the Biden administration’s wide-ranging executive order on artificial intelligence is as a trial balloon to gauge what works, says Robert Brunner, the associate dean for innovation and chief disruption officer at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A new study led by chemists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign brings fresh insight into the development of semiconductor materials that can do things their traditional silicon counterparts cannot – harness the power of chirality, a non-superimposable mirror image.

The American Ornithological Society’s decision to rename birds that were named after people will allow us to consider how we remember historical figures and acknowledge the oppression in our nation’s history, says University of Illinois history professor David Sepkoski, who studies how biological and environmental sciences interact with culture.

A new antifungal molecule, devised by tweaking the structure of prominent antifungal drug Amphotericin B, has the potential to harness the drug’s power against fungal infections while doing away with its toxicity, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report in the journal Nature.

An innovative pair of faculty members in education and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are partnering to provide experiential learning projects that cultivate the collaborative skills engineering students need for educational and career success.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign design professor Lisa Mercer has written a book, “Racism Untaught: Revealing and Unlearning Racialized Design,” that examines how racism is perpetuated through design and how to use anti-racist approaches to counter it.

Researchers report that a single, simplified model can predict population fluctuations in three unrelated realms: urban employment, human gut microbiomes and tropical forests. The model will help economists, ecologists, public health authorities and others predict and respond to variability in multiple domains, the researchers say. The new findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In early October, nearly 1,000 birds perished after colliding with the windows of a convention center near Lake Michigan in Chicago, marking the largest mass bird die-off in decades. But bird window-strike fatalities are an ongoing threat. Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife ecologist Thomas J. Benson, an expert in bird population trends in Illinois, spoke to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about the problem and what new strategies may help.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently announced new funding to support communities working to preserve and celebrate their unique cultural heritage. The “State Designated Cultural District” initiative will provide $3 million to selected cultural districts to aid such efforts. U. of I. anthropology professor Helaine Silverman, whose work focuses on the ways that nations and communities create and deploy cultural heritage as a means of building identity and attracting tourism, spoke to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about the new program and its implications for the state.

A multiyear analysis tested whether management zone maps based on soil conditions, topography or other landscape features can reliably predict which parts of a cornfield will respond best to higher rates of seeding or nitrogen application. The study found that – contrary to common assumptions – crop-plot responses to the same inputs vary significantly from year-to-year. The most unpredictable factor – the weather – seemed to have the biggest impact on how the crops responded to these inputs.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign English professor Janice Harrington has written a children’s biography of pioneering Black botanist Charles S. Parker, “Rooting for Plants: The Unstoppable Charles S. Parker, Black Botanist and Collector.”

When choosing between meaningful work or a better salary, it’s not even close – most job seekers overwhelmingly prefer higher-paying jobs with low meaningfulness over low-salary jobs with high meaningfulness, according to new research from Sarah Ward, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The October Dance performance by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dance department will feature the historic Martha Graham work “Steps in the Street.”

Ancient Maya reservoirs, which used aquatic plants to filter and clean the water, “can serve as archetypes for natural, sustainable water systems to address future water needs," writes U. of I. anthropology professor Lisa Lucero in a perspective in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rashid Bashir, the dean of The Grainger College of Engineering and a professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. A pioneer at the intersection of engineering and medicine, Bashir was elected “for seminal contributions and visionary leadership in micro and nanoscale biosensors and diagnostics, bioengineering early detection of infection and sepsis, and education in engineering-based medicine with helping to establish the world's first engineering-based medical school.”

The 15-millionth volume in the collection of the University Library is a copy of Walter of Henley’s 13th-century work “Hosbondrye,” one of the most influential works on agriculture and land management in the Middle Ages.

A new study assessing the state of food service and bar employment in the city of Chicago found that more than three-quarters of tipped workers surveyed were compensated at an hourly wage rate of less than the standard Chicago minimum wage, says Alison Dickson, a senior instructor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the study’s lead author.

Xinzhu Yu, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. 

According to the NIH, the New Innovator Award “supports investigators at each career stage who propose innovative research that, due to their inherent risk, may struggle in the traditional NIH peer-review process despite their transformative potential.” The award provides $2.4 million in funding over the next five years.

Increased government investment in climate change mitigation is prompting agricultural sectors to find reliable methods for measuring their contribution to climate change. With that in mind, a team led by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign proposed a supercomputing solution to help measure individual farm field-level greenhouse gas emissions. Although locally tested in the Midwest, the new approach can be scaled up to national and global levels and help the industry grasp the best practices for reducing emissions.

Naomi Oreskes, a leader in examining efforts to undermine the scientific truth on the causes of global warming, will give a Center for Advanced Study MillerComm lecture on how free market ideology is preventing action on climate change.

While the climes may be a-changing, the state science standards that shape what U.S. schoolchildren learn about environmental problems are shaded by state politics, leaving many unprepared for the challenges ahead, a new study says.  

Women with chronic, undiagnosed conditions find themselves in several double binds while laboring to establish their credibility as a patient and the legitimacy of their medical problems with their doctors and loved ones, says a new study.

History professor Rosalyn LaPier, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana and Métis, talks about the history of the bison and their connection to Indigenous people in the new Ken Burns documentary “The American Buffalo.”

The unsanctioned police raid on a newspaper in rural Kansas underscores the need to provide journalists with legal protections such as the recently re-introduced bipartisan Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying Act, says Lena Shapiro, a clinical assistant professor of law and the inaugural director of the College of Law’s First Amendment Clinic.

Shafts of sunlight are coming through the skylights of the Stock Pavilion on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, illuminating swirls of dust stirred up as several people standing on the dirt floor uncoil ropes, pulling them taut and twirling them in circles like lassos. It looks like the setting for a rodeo, but this is a nautical environment.

“CETACEAN (The Whale),” the latest multimedia performance in “The Unreliable Bestiary,” tells stories about eco-anxiety and resilience in adjusting to changing conditions.

It’s one of the hottest days of the summer, but a dozen people have gathered with their water bottles, sun hats and gardening tools in front of Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They're starting early in the morning, before it gets even hotter, amid blooms of pink, purple, yellow, orange and white. They're clipping the spent flowers from zinnias and the dead leaves from day-lilies, weeding and watering.

Non-monetary benefits such as independence, autonomy and the ability to work on innovative technologies are among the key selling points for talented scientists and engineers who spurn working for a bigger technology firm in favor of a riskier startup, said Michael Roach, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

New research led by data science experts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and United Nations Global Pulse found that there is no strong evidence that YouTube promoted anti-vaccine sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, performed an algorithmic audit to examine if YouTube’s recommendation system acted as a “rabbit hole,” leading users searching for vaccine-related videos to anti-vaccine content

A new paper co-written by Gies College of Business professor David Molitor found that air pollution via drifting wildfire smoke disproportionately elevates the risk of suicide among rural populations in the U.S.

New research finds that blood levels of amino acids may predict estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in African American women while free fatty acid levels may predict the disease in non-Hispanic white women.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers investigated the relationship between historical traumatic events experienced by Alaska Native communities and epigenetic markers on genes that previous studies have linked to trauma. The new study found a similar pattern among Alaska Native participants, with specific epigenetic differences observed in those who reported experiencing the most intense symptoms of distress when reflecting on historic losses. 

The study also found that individuals who strongly identified with their Alaska Native heritage and participated in cultural activities generally reported better well-being. The new findings are detailed in the International Journal of Health Equity.

Joanne Lee Molinaro, known as “The Korean Vegan,” gained fame through her TikTok videos and now is a best-selling cookbook author. She’ll be on campus at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as part of the PYGMALION Festival.

Seven years after an initial $17.9 million award from the National Institutes of Health, the Illinois Kids Development Study at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will receive approximately $13.7 million – awarded in two phases – to continue its work for another seven years. The money coming to Illinois is part of a national collaborative effort to explore how environmental exposures influence child development, cognition, growth and health.

New research led by Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois, points to a better way of assessing noncognitive abilities such as personality and career interests.

An exhibition at the Illini Union Art Gallery during September will feature photographs of artwork from the Mexican Muralism movement.

When an immunocompromised person’s system begins to recover and produce more white blood cells, it’s usually a good thing – unless they develop C-IRIS, a potentially deadly inflammatory condition. New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has found that the pulmonary distress often associated with C-IRIS is caused not by damage to the lungs, but by newly populated T-cells infiltrating the brain. Knowing this mechanism of action can help researchers and physicians better understand the illness and provide new treatment targets.

African American studies professor Bobby J. Smith II tells the overlooked story of how food was used as both a weapon and a tool of resistance during the Civil Rights Movement in his new book “Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.”

Krannert Art Museum is hosting a traveling exhibition of the prints of artist Marie Watt, whose work draws on pop culture, mythology and her Native American and European ancestry.

President Biden has been heralded as the most pro-labor president ever, but the state of U.S. labor and the labor movement in 2023 is “very agitated,” reflecting decades of stagnant wage increases and deteriorating job quality, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

Families that perceived themselves as members of a team working for their collective benefit were more likely to improve their family's well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, U. of I. professor  Allen W. Barton found in a new study.

Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit California in 84 years. Atmospheric sciences professor Deanna Hence spoke with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian about what made this storm unique and if the Southwest U.S. should expect more like it in the future. 

A new Illinois law that expands the eligibility for law enforcement jobs to non-U.S. citizens such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program participants is mostly aspirational since DACA recipients aren’t legally allowed to possess firearms, says Lauren R. Aronson, a clinical professor and the director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law.

University of Illinois English professor Jamie L. Jones examines the massive energy transition from whale oil to fossil fuels and the continuing influence of the dying industry of whaling in her new book “Rendered Obsolete: The Afterlife of U.S. Whaling in the Petroleum Age.”

A new law requiring Illinois public schools to teach Native American history will help students learn about the Indigenous people who originally occupied the land, as well as the contemporary Native American community in the state, says Illinois history professor Rosalyn LaPier.

New research shows that a person’s own behavior is the primary driver of how they treat others during brief, zero-sum-game competitions. Generous people tend to reward generous behavior and selfish individuals often punish generosity and reward selfishness – even when it costs them personally. The study found that an individual’s own generous or selfish deeds carry more weight than the attitudes and behaviors of others.