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Watching fruit fly larvae crawl towards odors provides clues to how smells are detected

In an effort to understand how smells influence behavior, Leslie Vosshall has been watching fly larvae inch their way across Petri dishes. It may not be high-tech, but this technique has been helping scientists study neurobiology for the past 20 years. And a refinement of it, in which the larvae’...

New evidence that SARS cripples the immune system

Researchers at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC) at Rockefeller University were deeply involved in AIDS research in China when the SARS epidemic broke out in 2003. With their extensive virology background and their knowledge of the country and its government, it was only natural that...

From cell to gel: refined protocol uses GFP to locate proteins and examine their interactions

There are two things cell biologists always want to know: where is their protein found and what other proteins does it associate with. A new protocol has been developed at the Rockefeller University that will enable scientists to answer both in one fell swoop. One of the most common ways scientis...

Paul Nurse elected trustee of HHMI

Rockefeller University President Paul Nurse has been elected a trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a medical research organization dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge in the life sciences. HHMI announced Nurse’s election on December 14. Nurse, 56, is one of 1...

Neurons in the brain change shape when stressed

Long-term stress, like the kind that occurs when someone cares for a chronically ill parent or spouse, can impair short-term memory. Researchers believe that this occurs because constant stress affects an area of the brain necessary for learning and memory, and the underlying mechanisms for this ...

Immune cell receptors act in combination to regulate attack

The complexities of the mammalian immune system allow our bodies to fend off countless diseases. But researchers are still working to pin down exactly how it works — and to understand why some people’s antibodies, and some therapeutic antibodies, are better able to fight off disease than others...

Two Rockefeller postdocs receive funding for research at the "scientific interface"

Two postdoctoral researchers at Rockefeller University, Nicolas E. Buchler and Edo L. Kussell, were awarded 2006 Career Awards at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, it was announced today. Buchler and Kussell each will receive $500,000 to foster their development and produ...

Scientists say toxins use their shape to wreak havoc on cells

Last year, Rockefeller University scientists used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of cytolethal distending toxin (or CDT) — a widespread toxin found in diverse, disease-causing bacteria that binds to human cells, inserts a component of itself inside, then proceeds to attack the c...

Building a better vaccine

Rockefeller’s Charlie Rice thinks that scientists struggling to create a vaccine to protect against the widely predicted avian flu pandemic might learn a thing or two from yellow fever. “The yellow fever 17D vaccine is one of the most successful vaccines ever created,” says Rice, the Maurice ...

From primordial soup to cells

Life is complicated. Even the simplest cell has to deal with continual changes in temperature, pressure, food, and anything else the environment wants to throw at it. After millions of years adapting to every kind of condition, it is hard to determine what genes are actually driving the cell and ...