News & HighlightsNews
Removing a sugar turns protective antibodies into attackers
In autoimmune diseases like arthritis and lupus, proteins whose job it is to recognize and fight foreign invaders somehow stop recognizing the body as “self” and begin to attack. But exactly what happens to these antibody proteins to transform them into pathological “autoantibodies” capable ...
Brain cells need microRNA to survive
There are lots of things that brain cells need to survive. Add to that list microRNAs. New research from Rockefeller University shows that neurons that cannot produce microRNAs, tiny single strands of RNA that regulate the expression of genes, slowly die in a manner similar to what is seen in suc...
Subset of dendritic cells could be used to fight infection
Although few people in the United States have reason to have heard of it, leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that occurs in 88 different tropical and subtropical countries. Yet despite its prevalence, there is currently no vaccine to prevent transmission. Now, research by Rockefeller University...
Critical protein prevents damaged DNA from persisting through generations
A protein long known to be involved in protecting a cell from genetic damage has been found to play an even more important role in protecting the cell’s offspring. New research shows that the protein, known as ATM, is not only vital for helping repair double-stranded breaks in the DNA of immune c...
Ion flow through membrane channels is dictated by particle size
Ion channels are small passageways that control the movement of electrically charged particles across a cell’s membrane. But they’re persnickety gatekeepers: Each channel allows only one kind of ion to flow through. Now, new research from Rockefeller University reveals the thermodynamics behind ...
Protein is linked to functional development of brain neurons
Rockefeller University investigators say that a molecule that helps transport cargo inside nerve cells may have another, critically important, role related to how developing neurons sprout the projections that relay electrical signals within the brain. In the June 6 issue of The EMBO Journal, re...
Dendritic cells are replenished from blood
Dendritic cells help direct the body’s immune response by presenting invading antigens to T cells so they know what to attack. But an ongoing debate exists about where dendritic cells originate and how they multiply, especially in the spleen and lymph system. Now, in a paper published in this mon...
Study of staph reveals how bacteria evolve resistance
Antibacterial resistance doesn’t happen overnight. But until recently nobody knew exactly how long it took — or how it happened at all. Now, by studying blood taken from a single patient over a period of months, Rockefeller University researchers have been able to trace how a common strain of ba...
Left-right wiring determined by neural communication in the embryonic worm
Most animals appear symmetrical at first glance, but we’re full of internal lopsidedness. From the hand used to pick up a pencil or throw a baseball, to where language is generated in the brain, to the orientation of our internal organs, humans are a glut of asymmetries. Worms aren’t so differen...
Single circadian clock regulates flies' response to light and temperature
Animals have biological clocks with a cycle of about 24 hours — these circadian rhythms allow them to align their physiology and behavior to the earth’s rotation. Now new research from Rockefeller University shows that the same molecular clock responsible for helping flies sync themselves with p...
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