News & HighlightsNews
A snooze button for the circadian clock
We may use the snooze button to fine-tune our sleep cycles, but our cells have a far more meticulous and refined system. Humans, and most other organisms, have 24-hour rhythms that are regulated by a precise molecular clock that ticks inside every cell. After decades of study, researchers are sti...
Researchers solve structure of an enzyme vital for DNA repair
When dividing cells copy their DNA, mistakes can — and do — occur. To compensate, cells have a built-in system to correct these errors. That correction process isn’t thoroughly understood, but researchers are piecing it together bit by bit. Now, in the latest step toward solving this puzzle, R...
Molecular bridge serves as a tether for cell's nucleus
A cell’s nucleus — home of it its most precious contents — is a delicate envelope that, without support, is barely able to withstand the forces that keep it in place. Now, researchers have discovered a network of molecules in the nuclear membrane that provide the nucleus with rigidity and also...
A positive-feedback system ensures that cells divide
In the life of every cell, there’s a point of no return. Once it enters the cell cycle and passes a checkpoint known as “Start,” a cell will follow the steps it needs to divide — no matter what changes might occur in its environment. Now, in research appearing in the July 17 issue of Nature...
In lean times, flies can't survive without their sense of smell
It’s not just bomb-sniffing dogs; animals everywhere rely on their sense of smell. Now, Rockefeller University researchers show just how important olfaction is, proving that fruit flies with a normal sense of smell have a survival advantage over those that don’t. The findings, to appear in the J...
Eroded telomeres are behind a rare premature aging syndrome
Each time a cell divides, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes shorten — and when these caps are gone, so are we. Now, by using an unconventional strategy to shorten telomeres in mice, researchers at Rockefeller University have not only created the first faithful mouse model for studyin...
New evidence of battle between humans and ancient virus
For millennia, humans and viruses have been locked in an evolutionary back-and-forth — one changes to outsmart the other, prompting the second to change and outsmart the first. With retroviruses, which work by inserting themselves into their host’s DNA, the evidence remains in our genes. Last ye...
Glia guide brain development in worms
Again and again, experiments confirmed it. Without glia, neurons die. So scientists who wanted to study in living animals what glia — the most abundant brain cells — do for neurons besides keep them alive were out of luck. But now, a breakthrough. A system unveiled and described by Rockefeller U...
New antibiotic beats superbugs at their own game
The problem with antibiotics is that, eventually, bacteria outsmart them and become resistant. But by targeting the gene that confers such resistance, a new drug may be able to finally outwit them. Rockefeller University scientists tested the new drug, called Ceftobiprole, against some of the dea...
Newly identified enzyme treats deadly bacterial infection in mice
By the time antibiotics made their clinical debut 70 years ago, bacteria had long evolved strategies to shield themselves. For billions of years, bacteria hurled toxic molecules at each other in the struggle to prosper, and those that withstood the chemical onslaught marched on. Now, with an upti...
View
View