News & HighlightsNews
Scientists track variant of gene-regulating protein in embryonic stem cells
The journey from embryonic stem cell to a fully developed liver, heart or muscle cell requires not only the right genes, but genes that are turned on and off at the right time — a job that is handled in part by DNA-packaging proteins known as histones. But it turns out that not all histones are c...
Research identifies gene that changes the brain’s response to stress
Stress can literally warp your brain, reshaping some brain structures that help cope with life’s pressures. In the short term, the stress response can be helpful — i.e., fight or flight — but over time it leads to a wear and tear that can cause disease in both the brain and other parts of ...
Imaging studies reveal order in programmed cell death
Every day, about 10 billion cells in a human body commit suicide. Cells infected by virus, that are transformed or otherwise dysfunctional altruistically sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Now, new imaging experiments have revealed a previously unseen order to this process, showing close...
Mouse model reveals a cause of ADHD
Although it’s typically considered an adolescent curse, ADHD actually affects about five percent of adults as well. New research in a mouse model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder suggests that the root of the psychiatric disorder might be the over-activity of a protein that regulate...
Research identifies gene with likely role in premenstrual disorder
Scientists have identified a gene they say is a strong candidate for involvement in premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and other maladies associated with the natural flux in hormones during the menstrual cycle. In a paper to be published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci...
Scientists crash test DNA’s replication machinery
Enzymes that travel along DNA to copy or transcribe it — the crucial processes underlying cell replication and protein production — aren’t coordinated by a central dispatcher. In fact, they often collide. Now, Rockefeller University researchers have discovered that when DNA-copying machine...
Newly engineered enzyme is a powerful staph antibiotic
With their best chemical antibiotics slowly failing, scientists are increasingly looking to nature for a way to control deadly staph bacteria — the culprit behind most hospital infections. Naturally toxic for bacteria, enzymes called lysins have the promising ability to obliterate staph, but t...
By tracking water molecules, physicists hope to unlock secrets of life
The key to life as we know it is water, a tiny molecule with some highly unusual properties, such as the ability to retain large amounts of heat and to lose, instead of gain, density as it solidifies. It behaves so differently from other liquids, in fact, that by some measures it shouldn’t eve...
Brain arousal heightens sexual activity in male mice
The most powerful sexual organ, it’s said, is the brain. Now here’s the evidence. New research from Rockefeller University shows that an overly excitable brain hastens sexual activity in male mice and increases their nervous energy, a finding that not only points to the existence of a centra...
Researchers track evolution and spread of drug-resistant bacteria across hospitals and continents
An international team of researchers has used high resolution genome sequencing to track a particularly virulent strain of MRSA as it traveled between South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. The findings shed light on how these deadly bacteria are able to spread from patient to patient in a sin...
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