Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
QCB researchers make Minecraft worlds for science education about cells
Learning about cells just became a lot more fun, thanks to some QCB researchers who created virtual worlds for Minecraft.
The team - QCB Director Zaida (Zan) Luthey-Schulten, Associate Director Rohit Bhargarva, Prof. Stephen Boppart, graduate
students Tianyu Wu and Kevin Tan, and postdocs Seth Kenkel and Zane Thornburg - relied on high-resolution microscopic data to build their cell models.
They focused first on cells of special interest to researchers and to the public: a yeast
cell, epithelial cells from both cancerous and healthy breast tissue, and a “minimally viable” bacterial cell, which has been stripped of all genes that are not essential to life. Their work was published in The Biophysicist.
View the Minecraft worlds here.
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APPLICATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED!
QCB Summer School in Quantitative Cell Biology
July 21-25, 2025
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Application deadline March 31, 2025.
More information here.
Registration now open! 2025 NSF iPOLS Meeting at Illinois
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Abstracts received by the March 17 deadline will be given preference for talks, later submission will be considered for talks as program space allows.
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QCB Hiring Postdocs!
Applications Now Being Accepted!
QCB offers several postdoctoral fellowship opportunities to support outstanding scientists. These fellowships provide a unique opportunity for selected scholars to engage in a two-year interdisciplinary research fellowship while advancing the research of QCB.
For full consideration, application must be received by April 30, 2025. Applications may be accepted after that date until all positions are filled. See full details here
Advancing knowledge about cells
The NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology will create whole-cell models to transform our understanding of how cells function. With cutting-edge imaging and simulation tools, the center will advance the study of healthy and diseased cells; accelerate research into gene expression, metabolism, and division; and share science with communities of all ages through a partnership with the popular computer game Minecraft.
A new paradigm
We're forging a new scientific understanding of the cell that will have implications for human health, photosynthesis, and more.
Learn more about our impact