News & HighlightsNews
HIV gets a makeover: A few adjustments to the AIDS virus could alter the course of research
The slow pace of AIDS research can be pinned, in no small part, on something akin to the square-peg-round-hole conundrum. The HIV-1 virus won’t replicate in monkey cells, so researchers use a monkey virus — known as SIVmac, or the macaque version of simian immunodeficiency virus — to test pote...
New function for protein links plant's circadian rhythm to its light-detection mechanism
They may not sleep — or dream — but plants do have day-night cycles just like animals. Their internal timekeepers tell them how long the days are, helping the plants control photosynthesis and flowering. Now, new research from Nam-Hai Chua’s laboratory at Rockefeller University has identified ...
Animal study suggests two amino acids may modulate addictive behavior
For some, living without alcohol, cigarettes or even coffee is a daily struggle. Others can give up their vices without ever looking back. From a biological standpoint, the difference may be as slight as a single amino acid, suggests new research from the Rockefeller University laboratories of Ma...
A wolf in sheep's clothing: plague bacteria reveal one of their virulence tricks
The bacterium that causes the plague belongs to a virulent family of bacteria called Yersinia, a group that also includes a pathogen responsible for food poisoning. These bacteria insert into their host cells proteins and other virulence factors, which kill by — among other things — disrupting ...
Phosphorylation of WAVE1 protein remodels neuronal connections
Paper marks 50th anniversary of Paul Greengard's first publication in journal Nature.  Within the brain, branched nerve cell extensions called dendrites play a key role in how cells communicate with one another by sending electrical signals from the tip of one neuron to the tip of the next – a p...
A once maligned drug's second-life as an immune booster
Thalidomide — a drug long villified for causing severe birth defects when pregnant women took it to relieve morning sickness — has resurfaced in the last decade as a potential boon for patients with certain bone marrow disorders. A new thalidomide derivative called Revlimid was recently approved...
HIV protein acts as a solvent, releasing viral particles from the surface of their host cell
In 1989, researchers discovered an HIV protein called Vpu that was key to how the AIDS virus spreads from cell to cell. Produced only by the HIV-1 virus and its closest relatives, Vpu appeared to be somehow involved in helping put together new viral particles and assisting with their release from...
Protein linked to antibodies also has an antiviral function, researchers show
In biology, it’s actually possible to teach an old dog a new trick. A new finding from Rockefeller University’s Nina Papavasiliou has shown that a protein called AID, which is involved in creating diversity among immune system antibodies, evolved long before antibodies themselves did — suggest...
Structural analysis of SpvB protein show how Salmonella bacteria hijack a cell
When Salmonella bacteria attack, they create their own compartment or vacuole in the host’s cell, in which they replicate. Now, in a cover article published this week in the journal Structure, Rockefeller University scientists show how the pathogen uses a protein called SpvB to create this comp...
Leprosy bacteria lead to new understanding of nerve damage and cell proliferation
For nervous system cells, specialization is a one-way street. But as is often the case in biology, the rules have exceptions. Glial cells — nervous system cells that form a highly specialized insulating sheath called myelin that surrounds nerve fibers — under certain conditions can “de-differe...
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