News and Announcements

A new study has provided direct evidence in mice that the drug reversibly cuts the cell’s energy supply by interfering with mitochondria to lower glucose levels.

Distinguished biochemist Ron Evans, PhD, director of the Gene Expression Laboratory and professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has been named the winner of the annual $250,000 Kimberly Prize in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.

Scientists have discovered how interactions between RNA and the TOP1 essential enzyme, which is overexpressed in many human cancers, regulate DNA during transcription and may inform the creation of new cancer therapies, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Molecular Cell.

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered new insights into the production and regulation of an emerging class of noncoding RNAs in three major types of cancer, according to findings published in Science Advances.

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered that mitochondria are not necessary for the proliferation of immune cells called microglia, but do help them respond to demyelinating injury, according to a study published in Nature Metabolism.

Dan Foltz, PhD, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has been named director of the Walter S. and Lucienne Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences (DGP). He will begin the role on July 1.

Influential biochemist Craig M. Crews, PhD, who pioneered the pharmaceutical field of targeted protein degradation, delivered the second Kimberly Prize in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Lecture to a full auditorium of Feinberg faculty, staff, fellows and students.

Northwestern Medicine investigators have discovered that inhibiting a chromatin remodeling complex associated with a particular gene in small-cell lung cancer cells may decrease cancer cell differentiation and tumor growth, according to findings published in Nature Communications.

Investigators led by Issam Ben-Sahra, PhD, have discovered how cellular metabolism fluctuates in response to changes in levels of pyrimidines, metabolites used by cells to make DNA and RNA, according to a recent study published in Science.

Northwestern Medicine investigators have successfully localized novel molecular mechanisms behind a genetic mutation found in a wide range of cancers, which could serve as a biomarker for improving patient stratification and treatment, according to findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.