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Without glial cells, animals lose their senses

Sensory neurons have always put on a good show. But now it turns out they’ll be sharing the credit. In groundbreaking research to appear in the October 31 issue of Science, Rockefeller University scientists show that while neurons play the lead role in detecting sensory information, a second type...

New method provides panoramic view of protein-RNA interactions in living cells

DNA, it has turned out, isn’t all it was cracked up to be. In recent years we learned that the molecule of life, the discovery of the 20th century, did not — could not — by itself explain the huge differences in complexity between a human and a worm. Forced to look elsewhere, scientists turned...

Michel Nussenzweig wins Howley Prize for Arthritis Research

Michel C. Nussenzweig, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at Rockefeller University, is one of this year’s two winners of the Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Research. The award will be presented at the Evening of Honors reception of the annual Arthritis Foundation meeting Novem...

By imaging living cells, researchers show how hepatitis C replicates

The hepatitis C virus is a prolific replicator, able to produce up to a trillion particles per day in an infected person by hijacking liver cells in which to build up its viral replication machinery. Now new research — in which scientists have for the first time used fluorescent proteins to image...

Simulator allows scientists to predict evolution's next best move

Biologists today are doing what Darwin thought impossible. They are studying the process of evolution not through fossils but directly, as it is happening. Now, by modeling the steps evolution takes to build, from scratch, an adaptive biochemical network, biophysicists Eric D. Siggia and Paul Fra...

Plant virus spreads by making life easy for crop pests

In 752, Japanese Empress Koken wrote a short poem about the summertime yellowing of a field in what is thought to be the first account of a viral plant disease. More than 1,250 years later, scientists concluded that the virus Koken described was part of the particularly insidious geminivirus fami...

In mice, anxiety is linked to immune system

In the first study ever to genetically link the immune system to normal behavior, scientists at Rockefeller and Columbia Universities show that mast cells, known as the pharmacologic bombshells of the immune system, directly influence how mice respond to stressful situations. The work, to appear ...

Scientists discover how a well-known protein repairs broken DNA ends

During the life cycle of our cells, a minefield of environmental and biological assaults can lead to double-stranded DNA breaks, the most lethal and dangerous form of DNA damage. Now, in research published online this week inNature, Rockefeller University scientists reveal that when these breaks ...

A new role for a critical DNA molecule in the immune system

The human immune system is a brilliantly adaptable weapon against foreign invaders. But it all depends on the work of specialized cells called lymphocytes that have made a risky evolutionary gambit to mutate their own DNA. New research to be published this week in Nature shows for the first time ...

Rockefeller accepts mayor's challenge to reduce emissions by 30 percent

Rockefeller is one of 14 New York City universities that have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent over a 10-year period in response to a challenge issued by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as part of his PlaNYC sustainability program. The initiative, known as the 2030 Mayoral Chal...