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Displaying 182 of 2942 articles.
Rockefeller’s newest faculty member studies birdsong to illuminate the origins of human language
by Katherine Fenz, media relations manager The ability to speak has allowed our species to pass knowledge between generations, articulate complex ideas, and build societies. Erich Jarvis, the newest addition to Rockefeller’s faculty, uses songbirds as a model to study the molecular mechan...
Mary E. Hatten and Daniel Kronauer honored with teaching awards
by Alexandra MacWade, assistant editor Mary E. Hatten, Frederick P. Rose Professor and head of the Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology, and Daniel Kronauer, assistant professor and head of the Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, were honored at this year’s Convocation luncheon w...
Neurobiologist interested in memory to join Rockefeller faculty
For humans, the ability to form and recall memories is what gives meaning to existence. Memory is what allows us to learn, to form relationships, and to feel emotions. Priya Rajasethupathy, the most recent addition to Rockefeller’s faculty, studies the mechanisms that make memories possible, work...
Neurobiologist interested in memory to join Rockefeller faculty
by Wynne Parry, science writer Currently a postdoc at Stanford, Dr. Rajasethupathy will join the university as a tenure-track assistant professor and head of laboratory in May. She is the third new scientist to emerge from Rockefeller’s fall 2015 open recruitment process, making this year...
Do artificial sweeteners live up to the promise of sweetness without harm? An ongoing clinical study investigates
There was a time when Thomas Huber, a molecular biologist at The Rockefeller University, was drinking about 36 ounces of diet cola a day. More than a year ago, Huber, a research assistant professor in Thomas P. Sakmar’s Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Signal Transduction, became curious about ...
New insights into muscular dystrophy point to potential treatment avenues
The average healthy man is 54 percent muscle by mass, but people with muscular dystrophy, an incurable, genetic condition, have almost no muscle at terminal stages of the disease. New research from The Rockefeller University provides insights about what causes patients’ muscles to degenerate and ...
Researchers find new signs of stress damage in the brain, plus hope for prevention
Chronic stress can make us worn-out, anxious, depressed—in fact, it can change the architecture of the brain. New research at The Rockefeller University shows that when mice experience prolonged stress, structural changes occur within a little-studied region of their amygdala, a part of the brain...
New technique captures the activity of an entire brain in a snapshot
When it comes to measuring brain activity, scientists have tools that can take a precise look at a small slice of the brain (less than one cubic millimeter), or a blurred look at a larger area. Now, researchers at The Rockefeller University have described a new technique that combines the best of...
35 labs and counting: How the Robertson Therapeutic Development Fund speeds translational research at Rockefeller
by Alexandra MacWade, assistant editor Developing a new medical product is a complex, high-risk endeavor. Of the thousands of clinically promising concepts scientists formulate each year, only a small fraction move beyond the lab. The Robertson TDF was created to advance work that has gone beyon...
Researchers use new CRISPR-based strategy to replicate disease in cells
To explore in detail how specific genetic errors can lead to disease, scientists need to perform experiments in cells that carry these exact mutations. Now, the ability to create these cellular replicas using new genome editing technology has been facilitated thanks to work by Rockefeller Univers...
Nathaniel Heintz and Stanislas Leibler elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Nathaniel Heintz, James and Marilyn Simons Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Stanislas Leibler, Gladys T. Perkin Professor and head of the Laboratory of Living Matter, have been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. They are among 84 new national and 21 ne...
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug reverses genetic changes thought to spur the disease
Aging takes its toll on the brain, and the cells of the hippocampus—a brain region with circuitry crucial to learning and memory—are particularly vulnerable to changes that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline. With the hope of counteracting the changes that can lead to these t...
In the News - Stat - Tessier-Lavigne
Scientists solve CRISPR's 'Energizer Bunny' problem   "'It works beautifully,' Tessier-Lavigne said. With standard CRISPR-Cas9, 6 percent to 35 percent of the edits were clean, without random insertions and deletions due to Cas9’s repeated cuts, but with their upgrade, the percentage of clean e...
A common brain cell shapes the nervous system in unexpected ways
More than half of our brains are made up of glial cells, which wrap around nerve fibers and insulate them—similarly to how the plastic casing of an electric cable insulates the copper wire within—allowing electrical and chemical impulses to travel faster. In the past, neuroscientists considered ...
A newly discovered way for cells to die
Some cells are meant to live, and some are meant to die. The linker cell of Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny worm that is a favored model organism for biologists, is among those destined for termination. This cell helps determine the shape of the gonad in male worms—and then it dies, after two days...
Sweet tooth? Flies have it too—and new research explains how they know what to eat and when to stop
All animals, including humans, love sweet food. But if you’re someone who never turns down dessert under normal circumstances, try wolfing down six donuts as a scientific experiment. Even the moistest, most velvety piece of chocolate cake will seem a lot less appetizing—and you will likely eat l...
In the News - New York Times - Vosshall
Mapping a Genetic Strategy to Fight the Zika Virus "Aware of the new technology, Dr. Vosshall floated the idea of a new Aedes map on Twitter: 'The Aedes aegypti mosquito is infecting millions with #Zika and #Dengue,' she wrote on Jan. 28, 'but we still haven’t put all the pieces of its genome tog...
Using magnetic forces to control neurons, study finds the brain plays key role in glucose metabolism
To learn what different cells do, scientists switch them on and off and observe what the effects are. There are many methods that do this, but they all have problems: too invasive, or too slow, or not precise enough. Now, a new method to control the activity of neurons in mice, devised by scienti...
Jeffrey Friedman receives the 2016 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine
Jeffrey Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, has won the 2016 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine. The award, given by the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Harrington Discovery Institute, recognizes physician-scientist...
Awards, arrivals, and promotions
Congratulations to our latest award winners: Cori Bargmann has won the 2016 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience, an award given by the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT to recognize outstanding advances in the field. She is being honored for her work on the genetic and neural mech...
Rockefeller scientists in the news
by Katherine Fenz, media relations manager Mutant mosquitoes Earlier this month, PBS Newshour featured Leslie Vosshall in a segment on the use of mutant mosquitoes to fight Zika and dengue fever. “Mosquitoes—especially the mosquitoes that are spreading Zika, dengue, and chikungunya...
In the News - PBS Newshour - Vosshall
Can mutant mosquitoes be used to fight Zika and dengue fever? "'Ultimately, how cool would it be to have a cream that you put on your arm that has a probiotic, right, that makes you demagnetized as a mosquito magnet?' asks Leslie Vosshall."
Cori Bargmann honored with the 2016 Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience
Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, has won the 2016 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience, an award given by the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT to recognize outstanding advances in the field...
In the News - Huffington Post - Pfaff
Neuroscience Has An Important (But Complicated) Place In The Courtroom "Rockefeller University neurobiologist Dr. Donald Pfaff explained one way that neuroscience evidence can be important in the courtroom -- juries can consider testosterone levels, as high testosterone can cause violent behavior...
Metabolism protein found to also regulate feeding behavior in the brain
The molecular intricacies of hunger and satiety, pivotal for understanding metabolic disorders and the problem of obesity, are not yet fully understood by scientists. However, new research from The Rockefeller University reveals an important new component of the system responsible for regulating ...
Search committee formed to identify Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s successor
When President Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced earlier this month that he will be leaving the university in September to become the next president of Stanford University, the news was met with praise for his many accomplishments by the campus community, the Rockefeller Board of Trustees, and its c...
In the News - PBS Frontline - Kreek
The Options and Obstacles to Treating Heroin Addiction   "'Methadone became stigmatized almost immediately,' says Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek of Rockefeller University. Kreek was part of the team that originally studied methadone as a potential treatment for opioid addiction in the 1960s. She notes tha...
Scientists question a popular theory about how the nervous system trims its branches
As tiny embryos in the womb, we start out with a lot more neuronal material than we actually need. During development, the body drastically prunes back the excess—cutting the branches from nerve cell bodies, known as axons, as well as entire neurons. Scientists have long assumed that the decisi...
Rockefeller hosts the first New York City symposium on human genetics
by Katherine Fenz, media relations manager Tapping into human genetics holds great promise for understanding and treating disease, but there is still much to be learned. Scientists continue to have questions about how our DNA is altered in various afflictions, and how to effectively sort thr...
Awards, arrivals, and promotions
Congratulations to our latest award winners: Jean-Laurent Casanova has been recognized with the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award for his work investigating the genetic basis of pediatric infectious diseases. The award is given by the American Society for Clinical Investigation, an honor society of phys...
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