Once dominant, U.S. agricultural exports falter amid trade disputes and rising competition

 The U.S. has traditionally been an agricultural powerhouse with a healthy trade surplus. But global dynamics are changing due to a confluence of political and economic factors. U.S. agricultural imports now exceed exports, and the trade deficit is projected to worsen in the coming years.

Read full story

Study: Tariffs have potential to reshape US beer market

The ripple effects of increased tariffs under President Trump could extend to the $117 billion U.S. beer market, according to new research from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign agricultural economist who studies food supply chains.

Read full story

What risks does sickness pose in pregnancy?

The cold and flu season is beginning amid conflicting guidance on vaccination and the use of acetaminophen — a common fever-reducing drug sold under brand names such as Tylenol — during pregnancy. Adrienne Antonson is a professor of animal sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies the immune response during pregnancy and prenatal neurodevelopment.

Read full story

Bioeconomy U: How Illinois is leading the bio-revolution

If you ate, filled your gas tank, took medicine, or did laundry today, you likely participated in the bioeconomy. That’s the part of the economy that taps as its source material living, growing things.

Read full story

In pregnant mice with severe flu, harmful molecules can breach fetal barriers

A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shows, for the first time, that severe flu infection in pregnant mice leads to a breakdown in placental and brain barriers and an accumulation of potentially harmful molecules in the fetal b

Read full story

Study: 72% of Illinois wetlands no longer protected by federal Clean Water Act

Illinois once harbored more than 8 million acres of wetlands. By the 1980s, all but 1.2 million wetland acres had been lost, filled in for development or drained to make way for agriculture. Now, thanks to a 2023 Supreme Court decision, roughly 72% of the remaining 981,000 acres of Illinois wetlands are no longer protected by the federal Clean Water Act, putting communities at risk of losing the flood control, groundwater recharge, water purification and natural habitat these wetlands provide, researchers report.

Read full story

Can cash payments to low-income families improve romantic relationships?

Financial strain can be a major stressor that impacts people’s wellbeing and quality of life, and it can also affect couple relationships.

Read full story

U of I researchers trace genetic code’s origins to early protein structures

Genes are the building blocks of life, and the genetic code provides the instructions for the complex processes that make organisms function. But how and why did it come to be the way it is?

Read full story

Researchers capture new antibiotic resistance mechanisms with trace amounts of DNA

Scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a method to isolate genes from amounts of microbial DNA so tiny that it would take 20,000 samples to weigh as much as a single grain of sugar.

Read full story
Subscribe to Research