Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Professor Wolf-Dieter Reiter. Dr. Reiter was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut after his retirement in 2016.
The Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships (ONSF) has recognized professors Stacey Hanlon, Eric May and Carol Teschke for their work mentoring students through the process of developing proposals and submitting applications for eligible awards. The National Fellowships Incentive Program (NFIP) works to build a stronger student and faculty culture around applying for prestigious, nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships. They will each receive $1000 in professional development funds.
The Marth Award was established by the UConn AAUP to recognize the leadership and dedication of Edward Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP Chapter, and to encourage and reward outstanding mentoring of graduate students by UConn Graduate Faculty members. It is awarded annually to a faculty member with an extraordinary record of excellence and effectiveness in graduate student mentoring. Dr. Knecht has demonstrated such a record, and the MCB department is happy that he has been recognized for his exceptional contributions to graduate student mentoring through this award. The Marth Award winner is invited to give a short address at the PhD graduation ceremony in May.
MCB presented the 2021 Khairallah Symposium on Tuesday, November 16.
This year’s guest speaker was Dr. Ana Maria Cuervo, Professor of Developmental and Molecular Biology and of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and co-director of the Einstein Institute for Aging Studies.
Scholarships of $5000 or more are offered in memory of Paul L. Drotch, class of 1957. This competition is open to UConn undergraduates in Biology including Biological Sciences, EEB, MCB, PNB and Structural Biology and Biophysics who have demonstrated both financial need and outstanding scholarship and who have completed a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 semesters of study. The deadline for applications is Monday, November 15, 4 pm. Application can be found here.
Professor Charles Giardina, University of Connecticut, has been elected a 2021 Senior Fellow by the CSSI Executive Council. Giardina is a founding member of the Cell Stress and Chaperones Board of Reviewing Editors.
He has done a record eighty reviews and is coauthor on six articles in our Journal as well.
MCB Emeritus Professor Emory H. Braswell died September 27, 2021, leaving his wife Frima Braswell, three grown children and five grandchildren. Dr. Braswell started his career at UConn in 1962 in the Department of Chemistry. In 1967 he transferred to the Biochemistry and Biophysics Section of the Biological Sciences Group, the common ancestor of the Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB), Physiology and Neuro Biology (PNB) and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) departments.
Nature Reviews Microbiology Special Symbiosis Edition Features Nyholm Lab’s Squid-vibrio symbiosis research
Nyholm lab published Nature Reviews Microbiology, " A lasting symbiosis: how the Hawaiian bobtail squid finds and keeps its bioluminescent bacterial partner" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-021-00567-y
and Nature Reviews Microbiology Special Symbiosis Edition featured the squid from that review for the cover!
MCB held a Departmental Retreat on Thursday, August 26th. After welcoming remarks, the 2021 MCB graduate awards were announced.
Following a ‘Get to Know the New Students’ event, new faculty member, Assistant Professor, Jelena Erceg presented a talk, “Genome Folding and Regulation in Diploid Multicellular Organisms”
A fun trivia session preceded the Lab Poster Sessions. The virtual event was held on a fun, new platform called SpacialChat that split the presentations into 5 different poster rooms allowing attendees to circulate among the rooms. The retreat finished with a Social Mixer with Happy hour rooms. Screen shots of the event can be found here.
