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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 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...

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...

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...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 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...

“When you’re out hiking, you’ll notice that everything tastes really delicious. That’s one of the best parts about hiking, actually, is how delicious a peanut butter and raisin sandwich can be,” says Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and head of the Laboratory of Neural Circuits a...