News & HighlightsNews
Scientists show how a neuron gets its shape
Ask a simple question, get a simple answer: When Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man’s legs should be, he absurdly replied, “Long enough to reach the ground.” Now, by using a new microscopy technique to watch the growth of individual neurons in the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis el...
Rockefeller neuroscientist applies basic science to health care reform
A self-described “molecular sociologist” is extending his basic research to the national policy debate on health care reform. Bruce McEwen, head of the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, led a panel of scientific experts last month at the Institute of Medicine’s Summit on Integrative Medicine a...
Epigenetic mark guides stem cells toward their destiny
Not all stem cells are completely blank slates. Some, known as adult stem cells, have already partially embraced their fates and are capable of becoming only cells of a particular type of tissue. So how do these tissue-specific stem cells restrict their fate? In research to appear in the March 20...
Research defines dendritic cell lineage
Dendritic cells were discovered more than 30 years ago, but their pedigree has never been fully charted. They were known to be key immune system cells born in bone marrow, but their adolescence remained a mystery, their path to infection-fighting adulthood confused. Now, in experiments published ...
A natural approach for HIV vaccine
For 25 years, researchers have tried and failed to develop an HIV vaccine that will generate antibodies to kill the virus before it takes hold. Only four “super antibodies” have been discovered that might do the job, but they have proved impossible to induce in people so far. Now, in research pu...
Scientists discover master regulator of motor neuron firing
When the Human Genome Project was complete, DNA bowed out of the limelight and gave way to RNA as a major player in genetic regulation. Now, findings at Rockefeller University mirror this ideological shift, revealing that one of the most important physiological events in the body — the wiring of ...
Measuring the strength needed to move chromosomes
It’s about as long as the width of a human hair and only half that length across. So it’s tiny — measured in millionths of a meter — and extremely tricky to manipulate. But the meiotic spindle plays so irresistibly important a role in separating our chromosomes during cell division that scie...
Rockefeller University president applauds new U.S. policy on stem cells
Today’s executive order making federal money once again available for research on human embryonic stem cells will accelerate biomedical research and hopefully bring us closer to cures for some of our most devastating diseases, says Rockefeller University president Paul Nurse. “The new policy, w...
Researchers unveil new monkey model for HIV
By altering just one gene in HIV-1, scientists have succeeded in infecting pig-tailed macaque monkeys with a human version of the virus that has until now been impossible to study directly in animals. The new strain of HIV has already been used to demonstrate one method for preventing infection a...
New protein identified in bacterial arsenal
Nearly a billion years ago, bacteria evolved an insidious means of infecting their hosts — a syringe-like mechanism able to inject cells with stealthy hijacker molecules. These molecules, called virulence factors, play a sophisticated game of mimicry, imitating many of the cells’ normal activiti...
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