Skip to main content

On the wing

Butterfly gardens planted this spring have led to sightings of several different species across the Rockefeller campus. Photos taken by Anne Nurse, wife of President Paul Nurse, show, clockwise from top left, eastern tiger swallowtail, monarch, cabbage white and black swallowtail butterflies in ...

Milestones

Awarded: C. David Allis, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Merck Award, for contributions to the field of chromatin biology. The award will be presented at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting in April in San Diego, California. Nina V. Fedoroff (alumna), the 2006 Nation...

Viewing dye-packed vesicles causes them to explode

It’s a long-standing question: Can just the act of observing an experiment affect the results? According to a new study by Rockefeller University scientists, if the experiment uses a fluorescent dye called acridine orange, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Cells use a process called exocyto...

Sizing cells up: Researchers pinpoint when a cell is ready to reproduce

For more than 100 years, scientists have tried to figure out the cell size problem: How does a cell know when it is big enough to divide? In research conducted in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), scientists at Rockefeller University have now identified the cellular event that marks the m...

New cell death pathway involved in sperm development

Heavy and bulky sperm would not be good swimmers. To trim down, sperm rely on cell death proteins called caspases, which facilitate the removal of unwanted cellular material and radically remodel these cells into their sleek, light shape. New research from scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical ...

Gene determines whether male body odor smells pleasant

To many, urine smells like urine and vanilla smells like vanilla. But androstenone, a derivative of testosterone that is a potent ingredient in male body odor, can smell like either — depending on your genes. While many people ascribe a foul odor to androstenone, usually that of stale urine or st...

Rockefeller immunologist receives Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research

This year’s Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the most prestigious American prize in science, honors Rockefeller University’s Ralph M. Steinman, who discovered dendritic cells, the preeminent component of the immune system that initiates and regulates the body's response to foreign...

Dendritic cells stimulate production of immune-repressing T cells

Regulatory T cells (also known as T regs) suppress some of the immune system’s more inappropriate responses, preventing it from attacking the body’s own tissues and stifling its activity once invading microbes have been fought off. But while researchers knew that these cells could be exploited f...

Construction begins on new Collaborative Research Center

After nearly two years of planning, construction is under way on The Rockefeller University’s new Collaborative Research Center, a building and renovation project that will transform two historic limestone and masonry buildings into modern open-plan laboratories connected by a dramatic six-story ...

A global view: Researchers build microRNA atlas

Building a comprehensive microRNA expression atlas is not easy. Just ask the Rockefeller University scientists who, in a massive collaborative effort involving 50 investigators from six countries, led the project. In three years, they catalogued microRNA expression patterns in more than 250 healt...