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Plant 'vaccines' may combat viruses in crops
Plants might not get colds, but they do get viruses — and viral diseases in crops cause enormous economic damage each year. New research, however, suggests that plant “vaccines,” developed at Rockefeller University, may be a new way of helping fend off viral attackers. “Plants possess sever...
Viral detectives: Researchers track down the location of HIV-1 assembly in human cells
Since HIV was discovered in the early 1980s, scanning electron microscopes have been capturing images of the virus associated with different membranes of the cell they’ve infected. They can be seen stuck to the cell’s outer plasma membrane, as well as within membrane-enclosed structures called e...
Unfolded proteins may protect cells from dying
When cells get stressed, their proteins go unfolded. It’s a reaction with a straightforward name: the unfolded protein response. Now, new research from Rockefeller University shows that this phenomenon actually serves a protective role; rather than a sign that the cells have given up, it may be a...
Cellular pathway yields potential new weapon in vaccine arsenal
When a cell has to destroy any of its organelles or protein aggregates, it envelopes them in a membrane, forming an autophagosome, and then moves them to another compartment, the lysosome, for digestion. Two years ago, Rockefeller University assistant professor Christian Münz showed that this pro...
Newborns could benefit from time away from home, rodent study suggests
First-time parents face an array of choices, each one seemingly vital for a newborn’s developing body and brain: cloth or disposable diapers? Breast milk or formula? Nanny or daycare? New research from neurobiologists at Rockefeller University may have something to say about that last question, s...
A master repressor protein, Tcf3, holds stem cells back until the time is right
For stem cells, timing is key: To maintain their versatility they rely on a molecular mechanism that keeps the cells in a state of self-renewal until they are needed by adjacent tissue. Now, new research by Rockefeller University’s Elaine Fuchs reveals that in skin, the Tcf3 protein is a critical...
Trash talk: Molecular conversations trigger cell suicide in yeast
For cells, like people, relationships are based on good communication. In yeast cells, however, scientists have shown that communication between certain molecules involved in gene regulation can trigger the cell’s suicide program, suggesting that molecular “crosstalk” may be an important mecha...
Identification of carbon dioxide detectors in insects may help fight infectious disease
Mosquitoes don’t mind morning breath. They use the carbon dioxide people exhale as a way to identify a potential food source. But when they bite, they can pass on a number of dangerous infectious diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile encephalitis. Now, Leslie Vosshall’s laborato...
New means of predicting populations more accurately accounts for random influences
By studying the ways of little jar-bound cannibals — tiny flour beetles who like to eat their young — scientists at Rockefeller University have created techniques they believe are the best yet to capture how random “noise” affects the dynamics of a biological population. To understand how r...
Viral gene hijacks small RNA pathway as a counter-attack strategy
Every day plants are battling for survival against tiny viruses invading their cells. Small RNAs are a major part of the plant’s immune system, but viruses have devised counter-attack molecules that disable this line of defense. Research from Nam-Hai Chua’s laboratory has found a new mechanism f...
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