Inaugural Biosciences Initiative faculty hire
The University of Michigan Biosciences Initiative is proud to announce the onboarding of Roland Kersten, Ph.D., as its first expert faculty hire.
Second cohort of Michigan Life Sciences Fellows expands the program’s reach and impact
Meet the newest MLSF fellows, who are investigating important questions related to multiple sclerosis, triple-negative breast cancer, and how complex living architectures form.
New SciComm Speaker Series bolsters university efforts to engage public in scientific inquiry
The Life Sciences Institute is launching an annual series of public talks highlighting the importance of disseminating scientific findings beyond the walls of the academy.
Innovating on all fronts
Alison Narayan, Ph.D., is one of only two researchers nationwide to be named both a 2019 Sloan Research Fellow and a 2019 Cottrell Scholar Award recipient. Taken together, these two awards illustrate Narayan’s passion for advancing bold, new approaches to chemistry within her lab and within in undergraduate classrooms where she can help shape the next generation of innovative chemists.
Scientists discover how proteins interact along metabolic pathway
Research writes new chapter in the story of fatty acid biosynthesis and its potential for new antibiotics and renewable resources
Three U-M researchers chosen Cottrell Scholars
LSI faculty member Alison Narayan was one of three U-M professors to be named a 2019 Cottrell Scholar.
Solving a key protein’s structure offers new opportunities for targeting the most common form of eye cancer
Researchers have solved the structure of a key protein that is over-activated in 90 percent of cases of uveal melanoma.
Three U-M researchers chosen for Sloan Foundation Fellowship
LSI faculty member Alison Narayan was one of three U-M professors to be named a 2019 Sloan Research Fellow.
New award recognizes LSI community’s outreach activities
LSI Outreach Awards recognize the value of our community members' efforts to connect research, teaching and service to the public
LSI Cubed funds new round of trainee-initiated, multi-lab research projects
Four teams of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will soon launch their own cross-lab, interdisciplinary projects, with funding from the LSI Cubed program.
Applications open for annual hands-on cryo-EM data workshop
The University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute will lead a five-day cryo-electron microscopy workshop in June to introduce participants to common image processing software packages.
When the body is in overdrive, this liver hormone puts the brakes on metabolism, researchers find
Researchers have identified a hormone produced by the liver that tells the body to downshift its metabolism when it’s expending a lot of energy, revealing a potential target for treating metabolic disorders.
Living a stronger and longer life — What U-M scientists are learning from worms
Research from the LSI has uncovered a cause of declining motor function and increase frailty in tiny aging worms — and a way to slow it down.
Two LSI scientists named AAAS fellows
Fifteen researchers at the University of Michigan — including two from the Life Sciences Institute — have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
LSI staffer named first Rhodes Scholar for Saudi Arabia
LSI staffer Majd Abdulghani was named first Rhodes Scholar for Saudi Arabia.
U-M researchers decode steps in stem cells’ complex decision-making process
U-M researchers have shed new light on the mechanisms by which stem cells permanently shed their identity to become new types of cells.
U-M researchers helping to prevent freshwater algal blooms
LSI researchers are part of a new, federally funded effort to understand and prevent toxic algal blooms that plague portions of the Great Lakes and impact freshwater sources around the world.
Biosciences Initiative invests $45M in U-M research
Three ground-breaking LSI projects are among the University of Michigan projects to be funded in the first round of investments from the Biosciences Initiative.
Acrylic genetics: When scientific research becomes a work of art
When Kärt Tomberg joined the Ginsburg lab at the LSI, she planned to identify the genetic factors that play a role in a fatal blood clotting disease. Now, the culmination of that project is featured in the September 2018 issue of PLOS Genetics, not just as a research study, but as art.
The unconventional wisdom of Baldomero Olivera
Not every molecular biologist would think to look in cone snail venom for potential therapeutics. But a long-held interest in his surrounding biological environment — and a habit of making unconventional choices — led Baldomero “Toto” Olivera to do just that.
LSI symposium brings leading experts together to explore 'The Power of One’
Recently, scientific leaders in the single-cell field gathered at the University of Michigan for the 2018 Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium, to discuss how their labs are developing and harnessing new technologies to answer questions about cellular identity and to highlight the immense power of single cell analyses.
Cancer cells borrow healthy cells’ tools for moving around, but not in the way scientists expected
Cancer cells and healthy cells both employ the same set of molecular “scissors” to travel through tissues within the body — but they do so using very different processes, according to new findings from the University of Michigan.
Video: Investigating microtubules and motor proteins
Puck Ohi, Ph.D., describes his lab’s work to understand how motor proteins organize microtubules within the cell, and how those proteins processes could be used to stop cell division in cancer.
Summer science internship offers opportunities for Michigan high school students
The U-M Life Sciences Institute has launched the Aspirnaut Summer Research Internship Program, a six-week, immersive program providing students with hands-on research experience in state-of-the-art labs.
Sending one gene to pinch hit for its twin may offer possible treatment for a type of congenital anemia
A team of U-M researchers has found that two paralog genes — which can lead to two very different diseases — are functionally nearly identical. The findings indicate that one gene could be harnessed to help treat the disease associated with the other.