Current News
Faculty Award: Meena Rao, PhD
November 7th, 2023 - Professor Emerita, Mrinalini (Meena) Chatta Rao, is one of five outstanding scientists selected to receive the Distinguished Alumni Awards of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for the year 2023. Dr. Rao has pioneered research on elucidating the molecular basis of cell signaling, specifically on intestinal epithelial ion transport in health and diseases such as cystic fibrosis. She has also contributed to the most definitive textbook in the field of gastroenterology. Congratulations Dr. Rao on this prestigious recognition!
Promotion News: Paul Goldspink, PhD
August 17th, 2023 - Congratulations to Dr. Paul Goldspink on the promotion to the rank of Research Associate Professor. Dr. Goldspink, an alumnus of the department, rejoined the department as a faculty member in 2019. Since arriving he has significantly grown his research program, serving as PI or multi-PI on 2 NHLBI R01s and has received NOA on a new NHLBI R21. His work is focused on signaling pathways that maintain heart function and crosstalk between coronary vasculature and cardiomyocytes during HCM. Dr. Goldspink currently serves on an American Heart Association study section and the editorial board of several journals. In collaboration with colleagues in physiology, Dr. Goldspink developed key components of the new MAPTD master's program.
Promotion News: Alexandra Naba, PhD
August 17th, 2023 - Congratulations to Dr. Alexandra Naba on the promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. In 2016, Dr. Naba joined UIC and formed the Lab for Extracellular Matrix (ECM) Research. She is a founder of the Matrisome Project, has had key leadership positions in the American Society for Matrix Biology and the International Society for Matrix Biology, and served to support the NIH Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP). She has external funding from GM, HG, and CA at the NIH/NCI. Dr. Naba is considered the authority on all things ECM!
Publication News: Naba Lab
August 10th, 2023 - Congratulations to Dr. Naba and her team on their latest article entitled "Matrisome AnalyzeR: A suite of tools to annotate and quantify ECM molecules in big datasets across organisms" published in the Journal of Cell Science. You can read the full article here.
Award News: Naba Lab
August 9th, 2023 - Congratulations to Dr. Naba and her team on receiving a $1.2M grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to study the "mechanisms guiding the fibrillar assembly of SNED1 in the extracellular matrix". You can learn about Dr. Naba's projec here.
Award News: Naba Lab
March 23rd, 2023 - Nandini Kapoor, rising senior in the Naba lab, has received a Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Initiative (LASURI) award for the 2023-2024 academic year! Nandini's research will focus on studying the role of the new ECM protein, SNED1, in cell adhesion. You can learn more about the LASURI program here.
Publication News: Jiang Lab
May 15th, 2023 - Congratulations to Dr. Jiang and her team for their publication “Genetically prolonged beige fat in male mice confers long-lasting metabolic health" in Nature Communications! In this study, the authors show that inhibiting Cdkn2a-Becn1-mediated autophagy can prolong the lifespan of beige adipocytes, which are typically “short-lived”, and this intervention can offer long-term metabolic benefits. Read the full story here.
Publication News: Naba Lab
March 15th, 2023 - Congratulations to Dr. Naba on the publication of her latest review entitled "10 years of extracellular matrix proteomics: Accomplishments, challenges, and future perspectives" published in Molecular and Cellular Proteomics. Dr. Naba's review was featured in the newsletter of the University of Illinois Cancer Center. Read the full story here.
Award News: Naba Lab
March 8th, 2023 - Congratulations to Ikram Isa, biomedical engineering major and 3rd-year undergraduate research assistant in the Naba lab for receiving a Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award (CURA) from the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Academic Programs to pursue her research on the extracellular matrix. You can learn more about the CURA program here.