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One size does not fit all when it comes to RNA. And now, in addition to long mRNA strands that deliver genetic instructions, and microRNAs (miRNAs) that serve to tweak those instructions and are implicated in everything from insulin production to cancer, scientists have discovered a new player am...

Having good genes is not enough; they each need to be expressed at the right time and place. By solving the structure of a protein called σ, researchers at Rockefeller University reveal a new mechanism by which bacteria prevent premature and precocious activation of their genes. Bacteria use the ...

To serve as an effective barrier, skin must form multiple layers that separate internal organs from exposure to the environment. New research from Rockefeller University shows that a well-known signaling pathway, Notch, drives the process by which skin cells form those layers. Starting with the i...

Three Rockefeller University scientists have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. The election of Arleen Auerbach, Cori Bargmann and Nathaniel Heintz was announced in the AAAS News and Notes section...

Exhaustive searching may not guarantee a compatible mate, but that doesn’t stop most people from trying. Now, new research from Rockefeller University suggests that estrogens may be a driving force. Research in mice, led by George Reeke and Donald Pfaff, has shown that this family of sex hormones...

Since their discovery at Rockefeller University some 30 years ago, dendritic cells have been recognized as key players on the immune-system team, presenting antigens to other immune cells to help them respond to novel insults. Now, Rockefeller scientists have shown that dendritic cells also have ...

To understand the role any one gene plays in an organism, scientists rely on knockout mice: They breed a mouse that lacks the gene they are interested in, then observe the effects. It doesn’t always work. Removing a gene from an entire mouse can create many problems, including killing the mouse b...

For years, environmentalists have been raising the alarm about deforestation. But even as forests continue to shrink in some nations, others grow — and new research suggests the planet may now be nearing the transition to a greater sum of forests. A new formula to measure forest cover, developed ...

In most cells, telomeres are a critical protection against death: If these caps at the ends of chromosomes fail, the cell’s life is cut short. But what’s true for most cells isn’t true for all cells, and a surprising new finding from Rockefeller University, recently published in Genes and Dev...

A discovery by a Rockefeller University chemist that enabled the rapid synthesis of peptides and proteins — and garnered a Nobel Prize in 1984 — will be honored Monday by the American Chemical Society. The presentation of the Citation for Chemical Breakthroughs will be part of a daylong scientif...