The Rockefeller University

May 23, 2003

Science News

"Bacteria-eating" viruses may spread some infectious diseases

Phage may be new therapeutic target A strep-infected child in a daycare center plays with a toy, puts it in her mouth and crawls away. Another child plays with the same toy and comes down with strep. Until now, scientists thought that disease-causing bacteria left on the toy was the culprit in tr...

May 19, 2003

Science News

Sperm cells shaped by natural cell suicide mechanism

In male fruit flies, fertility requires it; Trigger for release of "beastly caspases" also identified Since discovering that body cells actively commit suicide over 35 years ago, scientists have come to learn that this natural process, called programmed cell death, occurs throughout human tissues...

May 15, 2003

Science News

Frog (and histone) tails tell the tale

Rockefeller researcher proposes "death code" for cells Using laboratory cultures of human leukemia cells and the tails of tadpoles, a Rockefeller University researcher has shown that specialized proteins in the cell nucleus contain chemical flags that provide a "code" that spells death. The findi...

April 30, 2003

Science News

MacKinnon lab's newest picture tells action potential story

Voltage-dependent channel structure reveals masterpiece responsible for all nerve, muscle activity Scientists studying the tiny devices — called voltage-dependent ion channels — that are responsible for all nerve and muscle signals in living organisms for 50 years have been working like a bun...

April 28, 2003

Science News

"Smartness' about social life is different from smartness about SAT scores"

Four gene "micronet" found to regulate social behavior in female mice What do the brain, ovaries and nose have in common? According to new research from The Rockefeller University, these three organs help orchestrate the complex behavior called social recognition in female mice through the intera...

April 25, 2003

Science News

New test for drug and alcohol addiction focuses solely on time of heaviest use

A new survey can quickly test for addiction to cocaine, heroin and alcohol simply by asking about the time in the person's life when he or she was drinking or using these substances the most, according to a study by Rockefeller University researchers. In the five-minute survey, only three answers...

April 22, 2003

Science News

Food traffic

Researchers develop new conceptual tool for describing ecological communities Ever since Charles Darwin wrote one of the first descriptions of a food web — outlining who eats whom — in 1838, biologists such as Rockefeller scientist Joel E. Cohen, Ph.D., Dr.P.H., have been studying patterns of e...

April 21, 2003

Campus News

"Stressed out" by living and working in NYC?

Experts on stress will speak on April 29, at Rockefeller Univ. lecture for public Car alarms. Traffic jams. Job layoffs. These almost daily events are among the reasons that New Yorkers often feel stressed out. But while many people can identify what triggers their stress, they may not understand...

April 11, 2003

Science News

Gairdner Prize honors Rockefeller scientist Ralph Steinman, M.D.

Dendritic cells, discovered at Rockefeller in 1973, now a vehicle for immune-based therapies For the critical discovery of the immune system's sentinel dendritic cells, and for demonstrating that science can fruitfully harness the power of these cells and other components of the immune system to ...

April 11, 2003

Science News

First images of protein export in cells illuminate structural "highways" called microtubules as sole conduits of protein cargo

For the first time, scientists have viewed — and recorded on camera — the final pathway followed by a protein as it exits the body cell that created it. Once released from a cell, a protein is free to perform its duties as a neurotransmitter, hormone, cell surface receptor, or one of the many ot...

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