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Cellular Two Step

Time-lapse movies show brain cells move like a two-stroke engine Following the often-quoted advice of Yogi Berra — "You can observe a lot by just watching" — Rockefeller University scientists show that nerve cells in the developing brains of humans and other mammals move in a two-part "step" le...

DNA barcodes find four new bird species

Short stretch of DNA sequence fast, accurate method for identifying species The task of identifying Earth's estimated 10 million species has daunted biologists for centuries - fewer than two million have been named. Using a technique called DNA barcoding, researchers at Rockefeller University and...

Essential smell gene may prove key to new insect repellents

Repellents that block gene might help fight malaria and other infectious diseases Insects navigate by smell to find food, mates and — in the case of disease-spreading mosquitoes — humans to bite. Researchers at Rockefeller University report in the September 2 issue of Neuron that insect...

Silencing human gene through new science of epigenetics; Gene associated with human development—and cancer

For the first time, scientists have shown how the activity of a gene associated with normal human development, as well as the occurrence of cancer and several other diseases, is repressed epigenetically — by modifying not the DNA code of a gene, but instead the spool-like histone proteins around...

Single isolated mouse skin cell can generate into variety of epidermal tissues

Sheets of stem cells, created in the lab, grow hair, skin and oil glands on hairless mice Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at The Rockefeller University have isolated stem cells from the skin of a mouse, and showed, for the first time, that an individual stem cell can renew itse...

"Genome destroyer" identified in the immune system

Enzyme called AID is the initial culprit in B cell cancers Our bodies have such great capacity to heal, it's hard to imagine that we naturally manufacture a product in our immune system that can endanger our own DNA and provide a biological footstep to cancer. But this is precisely the case. In t...

Hormone replacement therapy one hour at a time

Rodent study suggests approach to keep good and lose bad effects of standard hormone treatments Giving hormone doses in pulses, rather than as a steady exposure, may maximize the benefits and limit the side effects now associated with hormone therapies. This is one implication of the findings sci...

Viral locksmith is caught in the act

Interactions between viral and bacterial proteins promise new directions for antibiotics How does the molecular machine responsible for activating genes choose which gene to switch on, from among the 30,000 genes contained in each cell of the human body? In the August 4 issue of the EMBO Journa...

Rockefeller University establishes stem cell research center

                $5 million endowment by NYC philanthropist Harriet Heilbrunn for research to advance basic research knowledge about stem cells   For more information about Rockefeller research using stem cells, visit http://www.rockefeller.edu/stemcell.   With the support of...

Through population screening on the island of Kosrae, Rockefeller scientists discover a mutant gene that controls dietary cholesterol absorption

Findings may contribute to revealing genetic underpinnings of high cholesterol Using DNA from 1,000 inhabitants of the Micronesian island of Kosrae, Rockefeller University scientists have discovered a mutant gene that affects an individual's absorption of dietary cholesterol. The findings are rep...