In terms of their telomeres, mice are more complicated than humans. That’s the finding from a recent Rockefeller University study, which shows that mice have two proteins working together to do the job of a single protein in human cells. The findings, published recently in Cell, suggest that the ...

Using a newly derived line of human embryonic stem cells, Rockefeller University researchers have coaxed human cells to grow in mouse tissue. Ali Brivanlou, an embryologist who specializes in studying how the nervous system develops, and his colleagues demonstrated that despite the evolutionary d...

Humans have 200 million light receptors in their eyes, 10 to 20 million receptors devoted to smell, but only 8,000 dedicated to sound. Yet despite this miniscule number, the auditory system is the fastest of the five senses. Researchers credit this discrepancy to a series of lightning-fast calcul...

While politicians debate whether evolution occurs, scientists are busy debating how it occurs. Now, new research from Rockefeller's Magda Konarska suggests that there are more ways than previously thought to achieve the impressive complexity characteristic of humans. Many organisms -- including h...

Every second our noses are bombarded with hundreds of smells, some pleasant, others not. Before we can react, however, our brains must first recognize an odor, and there are multiple steps between the nose and the brain. New research by Rockefeller’s Peter Mombaerts delves into the function and w...

As we age, our eyes change shape — that’s why you see your eye doctor every year. But new research from Rockefeller University suggests that how the brain interprets visual information also changes with experience. And by studying the way in which nerve cells form connections between the eye and...

For years, scientists have known that netrin molecules help guide growing neurons and their axons — the long tendrils that conduct electrical signals. But new research shows that these proteins are also important for helping create the neuron’s characteristically asymmetrical shape. In a recent ...

Not all biological weapons are created equal. They are separated into categories A through C, category A biological agents being the scariest: They are easy to spread, kill effectively and call for special actions by the pubic health system. One of these worrisome organisms is anthrax, which has ...

With fewer than 4,000 residents, the genetically isolated Micronesian island of Kosrae, in the West Pacific, provides an ideal population in which to research heritability of disease. Over the last 12 years, Rockefeller University researchers have been collecting blood samples and other data from...

Studying receptors on the surface of blood platelets, sticky cells that cause blood to clot, has given one Rockefeller researcher new insight into potential causes and treatments for certain cardiovascular diseases. Barry Coller, David Rockefeller Professor and the university’s physician-in-chief...