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For microbes fighting viruses, a fast response means a better defense

Researchers have found that the bacterial immune system targets an invading virus as soon as it enters the cell. This discovery answers a long-standing question about how microbes defend themselves.

Changes in the vascular system may trigger Alzheimer’s disease

In some people whose cognitive functions are weakened due to Alzheimer’s, the disease can be traced back to changes in the brain’s blood vasculature. Scientists have found that a protein involved in blood clotting and inflammation might offer a potential path to new drugs.

For biologists studying tiny worms, new technologies make big improvements

Two new technologies are helping scientists understand new aspects of organ and nervous system development in C. elegans. One allows them to image worms developing in a natural environment, while the other makes it possible to track single neurons as the worms grow.

A new way to reset gene expression in cancer cells shows promise for leukemia treatment

New findings from Rockefeller University researchers could guide the development of potent combination therapies that deliver more effective and durable treatment of leukemia. In recent work published in Nature, they show it’s possible to deactivate cellular programs involved in tumor growth by d...

New research explains why a common bacterium can produce severe illness

As much as we try to avoid it, ­we are constantly sharing germs with those around us. But even when two people have the same infection, the resulting illnesses can be dramatically different—mild for one person, severe or even life-threatening for the other. Now, new research from The Rockefell...

Talking Science lecture introduces students to the genetic aspects of infectious diseases

As he opened this year’s Talking Science lecture, geneticist Jean-Laurent Casanova made a stark observation to his teenage audience: “If we had been here 150 years ago, about half of you would already have died.” The primary reason, he told the 350 high school students and 60 teachers present,...

Crowdsourcing effort helps researchers predict how a molecule will smell

You can anticipate a color before you see it, based solely on the length of light waves. Music can be interpreted from notes on a page without being heard. Not so with odor.

Newly discovered beetle species named after Rockefeller’s Daniel Kronauer

 Scientists can rack up many awards, but to have one’s name cemented in scientific nomenclature is a special kind of honor. In an homage to his mentor Daniel Kronauer, former Rockefeller postdoctoral associate Christoph von Beeren has named a new species of beetle Nymphister kronaueri. ...

Scientists discover an unexpected influence on dividing stem cells’ fate

When most cells divide, they simply make more of themselves. But stem cells, which are responsible for repairing or making new tissue, have a choice: They can generate more stem cells or differentiate into skin cells, liver cells, or virtually any of the body’s specialized cell types. As r...

Researchers explore how protein production gets distorted in skin cancer

Each cell in the body follows a strict protocol for manufacturing the proteins it needs to function. When a cell turns cancerous, however, its protein production goes off script. A new study led by researchers at the Rockefeller University takes a close look at one way in which this procedure goe...

Elaine Fuchs wins 2017 McEwen Award for Innovation

Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor and head of the Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, has been honored with the 2017 McEwen Award for Innovation. The prize, given by the International Society for Stem Cell Research, recognizes groundbreaking wo...

Scientists learn how to ramp up microbes’ ability to make memories

Some microbes can form memories—although, inconveniently for scientists who study the process, they don’t do it very often. Rockefeller University researchers and their colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to make bacteria encode memories much more frequently...

Research on sweat glands suggests a route to better skin grafts

As early humans shed the hairy coats of their closest evolutionary ancestors, they also gained a distinct feature that would prove critical to their success: a type of sweat gland that allows the body to cool down quickly. Those tiny glands are enormously useful, allowing us to live in a wide var...

Human embryo discovery wins People’s Choice of Science Breakthrough of the Year

A revolutionary method developed by Rockefeller University scientists that allows researchers to study human embryo development in the lab has been voted Breakthrough of the Year by Science magazine readers. The technique, pioneered by Ali Brivanlou, Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Professor of the ...

Fifty years after landmark methadone discovery, stigmas and misunderstandings persist

Methadone, the first pharmacological treatment for heroin addiction, was pioneered 50 years ago by Rockefeller University’s Mary Jeanne Kreek and her colleagues. Since then the drug, which is widely used in treatment programs across the globe, has saved countless lives and allowed millions of her...

Elaine Fuchs to receive 2016 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science

Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor and head of the Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, has won the 2016 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science for her innovative use of reverse genetics to understand skin diseases and cancer stem cells. The priz...

Jean-Laurent Casanova receives the 2016 Inserm Grand Prix

Jean-Laurent Casanova, professor and head of the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, has won the 2016 Inserm Grand Prix for his work on the genetic basis of infectious diseases. The prestigious award, given annually by Inserm—the French National Institute of Health and ...

New research clarifies why wounds heal more slowly with age

Older bodies need longer to mend. This reality of aging has been documented since World War I, with the observation that wounds heal slower in older soldiers. Yet until now, researchers have not been able to tease out what age-related changes hinder the body’s ability to repair itself. Recent e...

Scientists prove how genetics change behavior by studying worms’ foraging strategies

“Organisms pay attention to what other members of their species are doing,” says Cori Bargmann, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University. “It’s a very robust phenomenon that you see from humans on Twitter to bacteria, and everything in between.” That’s why Bargmann, Torsten N. W...

A possible explanation for why male mice tolerate stress better than females

The nerves we feel before a stressful event—like speaking in public, for example—are normally kept in check by a complex system of circuits in our brain. Now, scientists at Rockefeller University have identified a key molecule within this circuitry that is responsible for relieving anxiety. Intr...

Rockefeller graduate Monica Mugnier wins 2016 NIH Early Independence Award

Monica Mugnier, who completed her Ph.D. at Rockefeller earlier this year, is one of 16 junior investigators nationwide to receive a National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award. The award, which is part of the NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, allows early-caree...

Rockefeller University awarded $27 million NIH grant to fund clinical and translational science

Rockefeller University’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science, established a decade ago to accelerate the pace of translating scientific discoveries into interventions shown to improve health, has received $27 million from the National Institutes of Health to fund ongoing and expanded wo...

Four Rockefeller scientists named 2016 HHMI Faculty Scholars

Four Rockefeller University scientists—Daniel Kronauer, Luciano Marraffini, Agata Smogorzewska, and Sohail Tavazoie—have been named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholars. The Faculty Scholars program, a new collaboration between HHMI, the Simons Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gate...

Rockefeller neuroscientist Cori Bargmann to lead science work at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Cori Bargmann, an internationally recognized neuroscientist who heads the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior at The Rockefeller University, has been named the incoming president of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the philanthropy funded by Facebook f...

Neuroscientist Cori Bargmann to lead science work at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Cori Bargmann, an internationally recognized neuroscientist who heads the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior at Rockefeller, has been named the incoming president of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the philanthropy funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuc...

Scientists uncover a clever ranking strategy bacteria use to fight off viruses

Like humans, bacteria come under attack from viruses and rely on an immune system to defend themselves. A bacterial immune system known as CRISPR helps microbes “remember” the viruses they encounter and more easily fend them off in the future. Since researchers first discovered CRISPR in the mid...

Charles M. Rice wins Lasker Award for groundbreaking work on the hepatitis C virus

Charles M. Rice, Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology and head of the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease, has been honored with the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the country’s most prestigious science prize. Rice shares the award with Ralf F....

Researchers find combined effects of two genes responsible for premature skull fusion in infants

During the first year of life, the human brain doubles in size, and continues expanding through adolescence. The loosely connected bony plates of the young skull accommodate this growth. But sometimes, these bones fuse too early, a disorder known as craniosynostosis. This disorder can produce fac...

Four postdocs honored with 2016 Tri-Institutional Breakout Awards

NEW YORK, NY—Four young life scientists from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medicine are the winners of the 2016 Tri-Institutional Breakout Awards for Junior Investigators. The awards, established last year by three winners of the 2013 Breakt...

Postdoc John Maciejowski wins 2016 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation

John Maciejowski, a postdoctoral fellow in Titia de Lange’s Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics, has received the 2016 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. The award, given by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., recognizes innovative young scientists based on proposals they submit that have ...