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New study reveals inner workings of a molecular clamp critical to DNA replication
From bacteria to humans, every organism must replicate its DNA. This basic process, which occurs millions of times a day in an average mammal, is driven by three core protein complexes that act as tiny machines, zipping along an unwound strand of DNA to assemble a duplicate copy. New research fro...
Building the nuclear pore piece by piece
The nuclear pore complexes are the sole gatekeepers for the cell’s nucleus — proteins, RNA, viruses, anything that passes between the nucleus and the rest of the cell has to use one of these giant protein assemblies. But exactly how each of the almost 2,000 pores that are embedded in the nuclear...
Dendritic cells may be key to reversing diabetes
When the body’s own immune system begins to assault the cells in the pancreas responsible for producing insulin, the result is type 1 diabetes. Now, researchers studying the immune system’s dendritic cells in mice have found a way to stop the destruction and help revive and maintain the populati...
Density does it: Fibrinogen concentration controls clot formation
When blood clots over a wound, the resulting scab is the product of an intricate molecular dance between cell fragments called platelets in the blood and the glycoprotein fibrinogen. Fibrinogen sticks to the wound's surface, and when platelets float by the fibrinogen it turns on a receptor on the...
To recognize their friends, mice use their amygdalas
Even those who can’t remember names can usually recall faces. New research from Rockefeller University suggests that a simple brain chemical, a neuropeptide called oxytocin, is a reason. Social recognition is an important part of normal life for animals of every species. “Remembering an individ...
Hepatitis C virus blocks 'superinfection'
There’s infection and then there’s superinfection – when a cell already infected by a virus gets a second viral infection. But some viruses don’t like to share their cells. New research from Rockefeller University shows that the hepatitis C virus, which infects cells in the liver and can cau...
Understanding ubiquitylation: Researchers identify a process that enables access to genes
It turns out there’s more than one way to skin a gene. New research from Rockefeller University suggests that two closely related DNA unpackaging mechanisms may not work the way scientists thought. Access to a gene requires a host of proteins to work in tandem to pry open DNA’s protective chrom...
New glimpse into early brain development shows how nerve cells move into position
Tucked into the lower, rear portion of the brain, the cerebellum plays key roles in motor learning, motor memory and sensory perception. It’s also where the majority of metastatic childhood brain tumors are located. Yet scientists still know very little about its early growth. Now, new research h...
Immune response to cancer stem cells may dictate cancer's course
Although stem cells hold incredible promise in the fight against certain diseases, in cancer they’re anything but helpful. In fact, mounting evidence is showing that a tumor’s growth and spread may depend on “cancer stem cells,” which comprise only a very small subset of the tumor. Now, a ne...
Humans, flies smell alike, neurobiologists find
The nose knows – whether it’s on a fruit fly or a human. And while it would seem that how a fruit fly judges odors should differ from how a human smells, new research from Rockefeller University finds that at the neurobiological level, the two organisms have more in common than one might expect....
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