News & HighlightsNews
Biologists use microfluidics chips to watch worm behavior
Tiny roundworms called Caenorhabditis elegans have a rather uncomplicated method for finding food: They wriggle and turn and explore new territory until they find something edible, and then they stay the course until the food disappears. But despite the worm’s simple nervous system, researchers ...
Immune cells can simultaneously stimulate and inhibit killer cell activity
Dendritic cells, which are responsible for teaching other immune cells to attack infected or mutated cells, face a dangerous predicament. To demonstrate that an enemy has invaded, they must change to look a little bit like the invader. And once they look like an enemy, they risk being treated lik...
Balancing act protects vulnerable cells from cancer
When a cell loses some of its weapons to fight cancer, it can still look healthy and act normally — if not forever, at least for a while. In research published in the October 15 issue of Cancer Cell, Rockefeller University scientists show how cells lacking a key receptor in a tumor-suppressing pa...
Accessory protein determines whether pheromones are detected
heromones are like the molecules you taste as you chomp on a greasy french fry: big and fatty. In research to be published in the October 17 advance online issue of Nature, Rockefeller University researchers reveal an unanticipated role for a new CD36-like protein to help cells detect these invis...
Newly solved structure reveal how cells resist oxygen damage
The sun’s rays give life, but also take it away. Singlet oxygen, a byproduct of the photosynthetic process by which certain cells convert sunlight into energy, is a highly toxic and reactive substance that tears cells apart. Now, in a study that took more than five years to complete, Rockefeller ...
Viewing dye-packed vesicles causes them to explode
It’s a long-standing question: Can just the act of observing an experiment affect the results? According to a new study by Rockefeller University scientists, if the experiment uses a fluorescent dye called acridine orange, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Cells use a process called exocyto...
Sizing cells up: Researchers pinpoint when a cell is ready to reproduce
For more than 100 years, scientists have tried to figure out the cell size problem: How does a cell know when it is big enough to divide? In research conducted in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), scientists at Rockefeller University have now identified the cellular event that marks the m...
New cell death pathway involved in sperm development
Heavy and bulky sperm would not be good swimmers. To trim down, sperm rely on cell death proteins called caspases, which facilitate the removal of unwanted cellular material and radically remodel these cells into their sleek, light shape. New research from scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical ...
Gene determines whether male body odor smells pleasant
To many, urine smells like urine and vanilla smells like vanilla. But androstenone, a derivative of testosterone that is a potent ingredient in male body odor, can smell like either — depending on your genes. While many people ascribe a foul odor to androstenone, usually that of stale urine or st...
Dendritic cells stimulate production of immune-repressing T cells
Regulatory T cells (also known as T regs) suppress some of the immune system’s more inappropriate responses, preventing it from attacking the body’s own tissues and stifling its activity once invading microbes have been fought off. But while researchers knew that these cells could be exploited f...
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