Biophysics News

Biophysics professor emeritus Govindjee is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Photosynthesis Research

The Illinois Biophysics (IB) Third Annual Graduate Research & Networking Symposium was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Illini Union on April 19th, 2022. The student-led event featured research presentations, poster sessions, discussion groups, and valuable opportunities for academic and social networking.

Adding seven new letters to DNA’s molecular alphabet and developing a precise readout method enabled Illinois researchers to transform the double helix into a robust, sustainable data storage platform fit for the Information Age.

Dr. Taras Pogorelov's advisee, Haolin Luo, was awarded the National Center for Supercomputing Applications' Fiddler Innovation Fellowship.

Scientists have labored for decades to find antibiotics that work against Gram-negative bacteria, which cause some of the deadliest infections in hospital settings and are most likely to be resistant to treatment with existing antibiotics. In a study reported in the journal Chemical Science, researchers developed a new method to determine how antibiotics with specific chemical properties thread their way through tiny pores in the otherwise impenetrable cell envelopes of Gram-negative bacteria.

Thirty-three new investigators will join the community of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigators, including Biophysics and Quantitative Biology alumna Elizabeth Villa.

Our sense of hearing is stimulated by the sound transmitted through the external auditory canal to the middle ear and then to the inner ear. The hair cells in the inner ear are known as the sensory cells of hearing and are capable of mechano-electrical transduction—the mechanism by which cells convert a mechanical stimulus into an electrical signal—and signal amplification, which mechanically amplifies low-level sound entering the ear’s cochlea.

Biophysics and Quantitative Biology student Kevin Cheng has recently been selected to serve on the Graduate College Students Advising on Graduate Education (SAGE) board.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks cells that help the body fight infection, thus making the human body more vulnerable to other infections and diseases. Until this day, HIV remains a global pandemic of large proportions. Upon infection, inactive or latently infected cells capable of reactivating following treatment removal remain the major barrier to curing HIV.

Shriyaa Mittal obtained her doctoral degree in biophysics and quantitative biology from the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in Summer 2020.