Lab News

----------- 2026 -----------

10.12.26 || Rajendra's work developing 'CoBRAA' (conductance-based reciprocal association analysis) - a tool for predicting protein-protein and macromolecular complex-complex interactions - is online at bioRxiv!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.12.758675v1

09.24.26 || Jenny's study uncovering RNA polymerase III regulation by the NuRD (nucleosome remodeling and deactylase) complex is published at Cell Reports!

07.07.26 || The lab receives an R35 MIRA from the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS) to investigate RNA polymerase III regulation and function

06.22.26 || Simón's study on Pol III activity across tissues and tumors is officially accepted for publication at Genome Research!

06.10.26 || Summer interns Peter Wald (Urbana H.S.) and Sera Wagle (The Brearely School) join our team to explore codon dynamics in tumors.

06.05.26 || Jenny's successful PhD defense makes Dr. Jenny (Ruiying) Cheng the fourth official PhD from our lab, congratulations Jenny!

06.01.26 || Parkland College Science Scholars Gavin Dorsla, Jeremiah Rogers, and Sage Young join our team for summer undergraduate research exploring codon dynamics in tumors.

05.14.26 || Kevin receives the College of LAS Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professor (LEAP) scholar award

05.04.26 || Sihang's successful PhD defense makes Dr. Sihang Zhou the third official PhD from our lab, congratulations Sihang!

04.22.26 || Divya receives the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Undergraduate Research Achievement Award for her thesis project, congratulations Divya!

04.09.26 || Divya earns Highest Distinction for Excellence in Research for her undergraduate research and thesis!

04.01.26 || Rajendra's successful PhD defense makes Dr. Rajendra K C the second official PhD from our lab, congratulations Rajendra!

03.23.26 || Deyaba receives an MCB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) to join us this summer!

----------- 2025 -----------

12.15.25 || Jenny's study (preprint) uncovering RNA polymerase III regulation by the NuRD (nucleosome remodeling and deactylase) complex is online at bioRxiv!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.694012v1

12.12.25 || First year MCB graduate students Josh Kaluf and Saindhabi Ghosh officially join our lab, welcome to the team Josh and Saindhabi!

12.11.25 || Sihang Zhou receives the 2025 Outstanding MCB Graduate Student Award, congratulations Sihang!

11.25.25 || Sihang's study on snaR-A ncRNA activity in cancer is officially published at Nature Communications!, congratulations Sihang and to all co-authors!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65448-x

* check out this MCB research highlight written by Gwyneth Graham https://mcb.illinois.edu/news/2025-12-01/new-research-van-bortle-lab-untangles-noncoding-rna-based-mechanism-cancer

11.12.25 || Divya Choudhary presented her work at the 2025 MCB undergraduate research symposium!

11.11.25 || Simón's successful PhD defense makes Dr. Lizarazo Chaparro the first official PhD from our lab, congratulations Simón!

11.08.25 || Jenny and Sihang presented their work at the Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB) Retreat. Congratulations to both Jenny (Ruiying) Cheng and Sihang Zhou on receiving CDB flash talk awards!

10.28.25 || Our team's first R package, dominatR - a tool for feature dominance visualization across multi-variable datasets - is now officially available through the development version of Bioconductor: https://bioconductor.org/packages/3.23/bioc/html/dominatR.html

Congratulations to Simón Lizarazo for leading the development of this tool with Ethan Chen and Rajendra KC!

09.01.25 || Simón's study (preprint) on Pol III activity across tissues and tumors is online at bioRxiv!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.28.672650v1

08.19.25 || Jenny and Simón presented their work at the 2025 MCB Retreat, congratulations Jenny (Ruiying) Cheng on receiving the Cell and Developmental Biology Platform Presentation Award!

08.01.25 || The lab receives 3-year funding support from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust to investigate the cancer-associated Pol III transcriptome!

06.05.25 || Sihang is recognized as the 2025 recipient of the Julie and David Mead Graduate Student Fellowship, congratulations Sihang!

05.30.25 || Jenny, Rajendra, Sihang and Simón presented their work at the 2025 OddPols International Conference on Transcription by RNA polymerases I, III, IV, and V. Congratulations Simón Lizarazo on receiving the best poster award!

05.14.25 || Junmeng and Leela officially graduate from MCB and the Univ. of Illinois!

05.08.25 || Simón presented his work at the Molecular and Integrative Physiology (MIP) Retreat and received the MIP graduate student talk award!

02.24.25 || Rajendra presented his work mapping Pol III binding and protein-prortein interactions at the CSHL Innovators Symposium

01.15.25 || Econ. and Statistics undergraduate Ethan Chen joins us to help develop our dominatR visualization tool

----------- 2024 -----------

12.18.24 || Rajendra passes Biophysics preliminary exam

11.16.24 || Jenny, Rajendra, Sihang and Simón presented their work at the Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB) Retreat. Congratulations Simón Lizarazo on receiving a flash talk award, and to Sihang Zhou for receiving a CDB graduate student seminar award!

11.07.24 || Rajendra's study on Pol III activity at protein-coding gene promoters is officially published at Molecular Cell, congratulations Rajendra and to all co-authors!

https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/abstract/S1097-2765(24)00771-8

* check out this MCB research highlight written by Jeni Bushman: https://mcb.illinois.edu/news/2024-10-10/asking-big-questions-ui-researchers-illuminate-transcriptional-interplay-among-rna

10.18.24 || Jenny, Rajendra, Sihang and Simón presented their work at the 2024 Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Newark, Ohio. Nice job Rajendra K C on an abstract-selected talk!

08.26.24 || Undergraduate students Divya Choudhary and Junmeng Yuan join us from Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB)

07.10.24 || Grace He departs to start her graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin

07.03.24 || Sihang's study (preprint) on snaR-A ncRNA activity in cancer is online at bioRxiv!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.02.601767v1

06.08.24 || Rajendra's study (preprint) on Pol III activity at protein-coding gene promoters is online at bioRxiv!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.08.598009v1

06.01.24 || Marco Penaherrera's joins our team to investigate Pol III protein interactions as a summer visiting scholar from the Universidad San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador

05.07.24 || Simón presented his work exploring Pol III dynamics across tissues at the CSHL Biology of Genomes Meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

----------- 2023 -----------

11.11.23 || Jenny, Rajendra, Sihang and Simón presented their work at the Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB) Department Retreat at Allerton

11.02.23 || Anshita and Leela presented their undergraduate research at the MCB Undergraduate Research Symposium! Congratulations Leela Mouli on receiving the School of MCB Director's Award for Exceptional Research Presentation!

10.15.23 || Our study of predicted regulatory features underlying POLR3G expression is published in a special issue on RNA polymerase I and III in Cancer. Congratulations first authors Jenny and Sihang and the rest of the team!

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/15/20/4995

05.15.23 || Undergraduate student David Condroski joins us from Computer Science (CS) and Jamie Im joins us from Chemistry

05.09.23 || Rajendra passes Biophysics qualifying exam

05.01.23 || Anshita and Leela receive MCB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURFs)

04.10.23 || Sihang passes CDB preliminary exam

04.04.23 || Jenny passes CDB preliminary exam

02.08.23 || Sihang's review on the Pol III transcriptome is published in WIREs RNA!

https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wrna.1782

01.12.23 || Jenny's mini-review on Pol III RPC7 subunits (POLR3G and POLR3GL) is published in Frontiers Molecular Biosciences!

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2022.1073795/full

----------- 2022 -----------

10.22.22 || Sihang and Jenny present their work at the CDB Cell and Developmental Biology Retreat, congratulations Sihang Zhou on winning a flash talk award!

09.01.22 || Graduate student Simón Lizarazo joins us from Molecular and Integrative Physiology (MIP); Undergraduate students Anshita Jayanth and Leela Mouli join us from Molecular & Cell Biology (MCB)

01.12.22 || Graduate student Rajendra K C joins us from the Center for Biophysics & Quantitative Biology (CBQB)

----------- 2021 -----------

11.01.21 || Hello World from the Van Bortle Lab. Graduate students Sihang Zhou and Ruiying (Jenny) Cheng join us from Molecular & Cell Biology (MCB)