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Cellular pathway yields potential new weapon in vaccine arsenal

When a cell has to destroy any of its organelles or protein aggregates, it envelopes them in a membrane, forming an autophagosome, and then moves them to another compartment, the lysosome, for digestion. Two years ago, Rockefeller University assistant professor Christian Münz showed that this pro...
Science News

Newborns could benefit from time away from home, rodent study suggests

First-time parents face an array of choices, each one seemingly vital for a newborn’s developing body and brain: cloth or disposable diapers? Breast milk or formula? Nanny or daycare? New research from neurobiologists at Rockefeller University may have something to say about that last question, s...
Science News

A master repressor protein, Tcf3, holds stem cells back until the time is right

For stem cells, timing is key: To maintain their versatility they rely on a molecular mechanism that keeps the cells in a state of self-renewal until they are needed by adjacent tissue. Now, new research by Rockefeller University’s Elaine Fuchs reveals that in skin, the Tcf3 protein is a critical...
Science News

Trash talk: Molecular conversations trigger cell suicide in yeast

For cells, like people, relationships are based on good communication. In yeast cells, however, scientists have shown that communication between certain molecules involved in gene regulation can trigger the cell’s suicide program, suggesting that molecular “crosstalk” may be an important mecha...
Science News

Identification of carbon dioxide detectors in insects may help fight infectious disease

Mosquitoes don’t mind morning breath. They use the carbon dioxide people exhale as a way to identify a potential food source. But when they bite, they can pass on a number of dangerous infectious diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile encephalitis. Now, Leslie Vosshall’s laborato...
Science News

New means of predicting populations more accurately accounts for random influences

By studying the ways of little jar-bound cannibals — tiny flour beetles who like to eat their young — scientists at Rockefeller University have created techniques they believe are the best yet to capture how random “noise” affects the dynamics of a biological population. To understand how r...
Science News

Viral gene hijacks small RNA pathway as a counter-attack strategy

Every day plants are battling for survival against tiny viruses invading their cells. Small RNAs are a major part of the plant’s immune system, but viruses have devised counter-attack molecules that disable this line of defense. Research from Nam-Hai Chua’s laboratory has found a new mechanism f...
Awards and Honors

Lederberg receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

President Emeritus Joshua Lederberg is one of 10 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award, President George W. Bush announced today. Established by Executive Order 11085 in 1963, the Medal may be awarded by the president “to any person who has made an e...
Science News

Ion channels are key to estrogen's effect on neurons

Despite being one of the body's best-studied hormones, there's still a lot we don't know about estrogens. Now, by studying how these sex hormones impact brain cells at the biophysical level, scientists at Rockefeller University say they exert their powerful effects on behavior in part by affectin...
Science News

Measuring awareness is not as simple as a single number

Science fiction describes the crucial difference between a robot and a person as sense of self. But for Rockefeller University’s George Reeke, computers — self or no self — do not yet begin to capture the complexity of the human mind. An article by Reeke and coauthors published recently in Pr...
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