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Awards, Arrivals, and Promotions

Congratulations to our latest award winners: Winrich Freiwald has won the 2016 W. Alden Spencer Award. The prize, given by Columbia University, recognizes outstanding contributions in neuroscience. Dr. Freiwald, who shares the prize with his long-time collaborator Doris Y. Tsao of Caltech, presen...

Researchers discover new antibiotics by sifting through the human microbiome

Most antibiotics in use today are based on natural molecules produced by bacteria—and given the rise of antibiotic resistance, there’s an urgent need to find more of them. Yet coaxing bacteria to produce new antibiotics is a tricky proposition. Most bacteria won’t grow in the lab. And even whe...

Researchers shed new light on RNA’s journey out of a cell’s nucleus

Cells secure DNA within their nuclei like a secret code stashed in a vault. However, the tightly controlled borders of the nucleus create a challenge: In order for the cell to produce essential proteins, messages derived from DNA must somehow escape the nucleus in the form of RNA molecules. New w...

Scientists prove how genetics change behavior by studying worms’ foraging strategies

“Organisms pay attention to what other members of their species are doing,” says Cori Bargmann, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University. “It’s a very robust phenomenon that you see from humans on Twitter to bacteria, and everything in between.” That’s why Bargmann, Torsten N. W...

Researchers watch in 3D as neurons talk to each other in a living mouse brain

No single neuron produces a thought or a behavior; anything the brain accomplishes is a vast collaborative effort between cells. When at work, neurons talk rapidly to one another, forming networks as they communicate. Researchers led by Rockefeller University’s Alipasha Vaziri are developing tech...

Pioneering drug discovery company Bridge Medicines launched to advance promising early technologies in major academic institutions through human proof of concept

The Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, a partnership between Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine and Takeda, joins with Deerfield Management and Bay City Capital to create an accelerated path to innovative therapies to treat ...

Winrich Freiwald wins Columbia University’s 2016 W. Alden Spencer Award

Winrich Freiwald, associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Neural Systems, has received the 2016 W. Alden Spencer Award. The prize, given by Columbia University, recognizes outstanding research contributions in the field of neuroscience. Freiwald shares the award with his long-time colla...

Child and Family Center expansion to 15 classrooms is complete

  The Rockefeller University Child and Family Center has grown. The recently completed expansion project, which included the construction of five new classrooms on the second floor of the Graduate Students Residence, has doubled the number of infant spots available in the child care program and a...

Genomic testing could speed research on skin disease and bring new drugs to patients faster

In an ideal world, the newest and most effective drugs for chronic inflammatory conditions would immediately help everyone who took them. Unfortunately, in the real world, it can take several months to determine whether a given patient will respond to one of these medications, which target specif...

Study uncovers how cells organize the growth of their structural filaments

To take shape, to move and to reproduce, cells need internal scaffolding composed of slender filaments known as microtubules. Before the cell can use microtubules for these and other essential functions, it must first organize them into carefully crafted bundles, which become the basis for three ...