All biology students at Illinois Tech, including undergraduate students, have the opportunity to work collaboratively with distinguished faculty on research. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral research assistants work side-by-side in the lab. At Illinois Tech you might work alongside faculty on projects where you will:
- Use the beamlines at Argonne National Laboratory to help unravel the mechanisms of muscle contraction and regulation
- Study cellular signaling and behavior to provide a foundation for diagnosis and treatment of human diseases such as cancer and diabetes
- Develop and use software tools that help researchers determine and analyze the three-dimensional structures of large biomolecules
- Determine the structures of bacterial and eukaryotic protein
- Engage in comparative genomics, with an emphasis on finding the elements that distinguish obligate pathogens from their free-living relatives
- Study how pest insects adapt to biotech crops and insecticides, and how the interactions with the plants they eat affects the evolution of insects
- Study the metabolic strategies and host-pathogen interactions of harmful bacteria such as Chlamydia trachomatis and Vibrio cholerae, a gastrointestinal pathogen—studies essential to the design of selective antibacterial drugs
- Investigate fundamental basic science questions related to brain injury and disease, and to connective tissue conditions including heart disease and arthritis
- Characterize multi-domain proteins, including dystrophin, the product of the largest human gene
Hands-on learning opportunities at Illinois Tech provide the knowledge, skills, and real-world experience to hit the ground running toward career success—all of which take place in a warm, caring community of teachers and students who learn from one another every day.