Recent News

How a new type of rapid-response defense mechanism  helps protect cells from environmental stress while giving slower, well-known protection systems time to act

New cryo-EM research reveals 3-D snapshots of how a key biological machine unfolds a ribbon of protein through its central channel.

Researchers have captured the first cryo-electron microscopy snapshots of a cellular target for Type 2 diabetes in action.

LSI Director Roger Cone named to an additional role as the university's first vice provost and director of the biosciences initiative.

The LSI is pleased to welcome structural biologist Michael Cianfrocco, Ph.D., to its faculty as an assistant research professor.

A new study sheds new light on how the motor protein myosin V knows where to release a yeast vacuole, when transporting it from the mother cell into a new bud.

An unexpected mechanism of glucose sensing in skeletal muscles contributes to the body’s overall regulation of blood sugar levels.

LSI researchers have developed a clear picture of a critical mechanism in the budding process that sends materials from the inside of the cell to far-flung places in the body.

The LSI's newest faculty member, Alison Narayan, Ph.D., is the first recipient of a Klatskin-Sutker Discovery Fund award, which will fuel the development of a library of bioactive molecules to support the search for new antibiotics, antivirals and anti-parasitic agents.

Postdoc Laura Mike, Ph.D., is targeting bacteria’s need to scavenge iron from its human host in order to survive.

An international research team is changing the understanding of the key cellular and molecular events that trigger graft-versus-host disease, an often-fatal complication of bone marrow transplants.

Alicia Buisst recently toured the LSI with members of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Michigan, visiting to learn about the research of faculty member Ivan Maillard, whose work the society supports. In this personal essay, she connects the drive of basic science research to her journey as a blood cancer patient.

Researchers have mapped the  complex chemistry involved in creating several types of bioactive compounds that are naturally produced inside bacteria. 

LSI scientists identified a molecular switch that triggers a stem cell’s progeny to commit to generating only differentiated cell types by giving up its “stemness.”

LSI Director Roger Cone receives named professorship honoring the pioneering botanist Asa Gray. 

A round-up of media stories about LSI research and researchers from 2016.

How fly fishing can help explain a new frontier of drug discovery

The new receptor protein has unusual characteristics that suggest potential future applications ranging from sunscreen to scientific research tools.

LSI faculty member Yukiko Yamashita, Ph.D., honored for her significant contributions to the field of biology

How chemicals that cause damaging oxidation to the nervous system may actually improve sensory function at low doses

Researchers blocked the dysregulated signaling associated with a 'master transcription factor,' which controls many different cellular decisions, without compromising its other biologically important functions.

LSI Director Roger Cone is among the new members of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. 

A transcription factor known as Snail1 can act as a “molecular bypass” that diminishes the natural tumor suppressing action of a gene called p53 in breast cancer patients.

David Sherman and his daughter traveled to Nepal in the search for microbes that produce beneficial molecules.

LSI researchers are breaking new ground in scientists’ quest to develop drugs that can target DNA transcription, which is dysregulated in a variety of diseases from cancer to diabetes.