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Atomic map reveals clues to how cholesterol is made

In spite of its dangerous reputation, cholesterol is in fact an essential component of human cells. Manufactured by the cells themselves, it serves to stiffen the cell’s membrane, helping to shape the cell and protect it. By mapping the structure of a key enzyme involved in cholesterol production...

Newly discovered brain cells explain a prosocial effect of oxytocin

Oxytocin, the body’s natural love potion, helps couples fall in love, makes mothers bond with their babies, and encourages teams to work together. Now new research at Rockefeller University reveals a mechanism by which this prosocial hormone has its effect on interactions between the sexes, at le...

In the News - McEwen - NewSci

Brave or reckless? Thrill-seekers' brains can tell you   "'It really has to do with the reckless and the brave,' says Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University, New York, who wasn't involved with the work. The brave feel fear but are able to overcome it, whereas the reckless seem to have a brain tha...

Rockefeller neurobiology lab is awarded first-round BRAIN initiative grant

A proposal to develop a new way to remotely control brain cells from Sarah Stanley, a Research Associate in Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, headed by Jeffrey M. Friedman, is among the first to receive funding from U.S. President Barack Obama’s BRAIN initiative. The pro...

'Programmable' antibiotic harnesses an enzyme to attack drug-resistant microbes

The multitude of microbes scientists have found populating the human body have good, bad and mostly mysterious implications for our health. But when something goes wrong, we defend ourselves with the undiscriminating brute force of traditional antibiotics, which wipe out everything at once, regar...

Rockefeller postdoc Stephen Brohawn named Blavatnik Award regional finalist

Stephen Brohawn, a postdoctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University, has been named a Blavatnik Award regional finalist in chemistry by the New York Academy of Sciences. Brohawn is a member of Roderick MacKinnon’s Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics. The Blavatnick Awards were es...

Stanford's Lucy Shapiro to receive 2014 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize

The Rockefeller University has announced that Lucy Shapiro, professor of developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, will receive the 2014 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize. The annual award, which celebrates the achievements of outstanding women in science, will be presented to ...

New technique reveals a role for histones in cell division

Proteins known as histones give structure to DNA, which coils around them like string on spools. But as is so often the case in biology, it turns out there is more to these structures than meets the eye. Scientists already know histones play a part in controlling the expression of genes, and more...

Imaging studies open a window on how effective antibodies are formed

Sometimes, in order to understand what’s happening in the immune system, you just have to watch it. By imaging the immune response, researchers have observed how two types of immune cells, T and B cells, interact with one another during a critical period following infection in order to prepare th...

Hironori Funabiki promoted to professor

Hironori Funabiki, head of the Laboratory of Chromosome and Cell Biology, has been promoted to professor and granted tenure by the university’s Board of Trustees. Funabiki joined Rockefeller as assistant professor in 2002 and has been associate professor since 2007; his promotion to professor is ...