News and Announcements
Read the latest news from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. The links below take you to articles where you can learn more about our faculty’s latest achievements, awards and honors.
10.17.2024Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered how a protein in a deadly type of lung cancer can control how the immune system responds to the tumor, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
08.21.2024Scientists 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.
08.08.2024Investigators from the laboratory of Marc Mendillo, PhD, have discovered new cellular regulators of an established cancer cell transcription factor linked to cancer cell resilience and tumor progression, according to findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
08.01.2024Northwestern 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.
07.26.2024Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered increased immune cell activity in Merkel cell carcinoma tumors, which could help predict treatment response in patients and inform the development of new targeted therapies, according to findings published in the journal Cancer Discovery.
07.25.2024Northwestern 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.
06.24.2024Inflamed heart muscles can mount immune responses even in the absence of immune cells, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
06.03.2024Dan 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.
05.01.2024A multiprotein complex is essential for regulating cellular transcription response to oxygen deprivation, a key feature of cancer, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
04.16.2024Influential 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.
04.11.2024A Northwestern Medicine study has detailed the development of a machine learning model to predict DNA methylation status in cell-free DNA by its fragmentation patterns, according to findings published in Nature Communications.
04.10.2024Northwestern 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.
04.04.2024The lab of Yongchao C. Ma, PhD, has discovered a fundamental biological mechanism that could lead to new treatments for neurological diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and autism, as well as different cancers.
03.28.2024Investigators 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.
01.18.2024A multidisciplinary team of investigators has developed a first-of-its-kind interactive 3D spatial approach that reveals new therapeutic targets and provides a comprehensive three-dimensional view of glioblastoma tumors, detailed in a recent study published in Cell.
12.20.2023Northwestern 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.
12.05.2023Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics announced today that renowned biochemist Craig M. Crews, PhD, who pioneered the pharmaceutical field of targeted protein degradation, has been named the winner of the annual $250,000 Kimberly Prize in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.
11.22.2023Investigators from the laboratory of Ali Shilatifard, PhD, have discovered a new repeat gene cluster sequence that is exclusively expressed in humans and non-human primates, according to findings published in Science Advances.
03.21.2023Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a new compound which could inform future HIV cure strategies, according to research published in Science Advances.
11.28.2022At Feinberg, scientists are pursuing synthetic biology research to address the health challenges and diseases that humans face.