UO biologists Joe Thornton and Michael Harms are attracting more publicity for their work in reconstructing an ancient protein, the glucocorticoid receptor that regulates development and stress responses in response to the hormone cortisol.

In a newly published paper in the journal Nature, their research focuses on how chance has played a role in shaping today's form of the protein. Thornton splits his time at the UO and at the University of Chicago, where he also has a faculty position. Harms is an assistant professor of biology at the UO.

Read the latest report on their work at: Evolution depends on rare chance events, 'molecular time travel' experiments show.

- by Jim Barlow, Public Affairs Communications