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Study detailing axonal death pathway may provide drug targets for neurodegenerative diseases

Axons connect neurons with each other to form the neural networks that underpin the vital functions of perception, motility, cognition, and memory. In many neurodegenerative disorders, from traumatic injury or toxic damage to diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, axonal degenerati...
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Long-acting drug effectively prevents HIV-like infection in monkeys

A regime of anti-HIV drugs — components of regimens to treat established HIV infection — has the potential to protect against infection in the first place. But real life can interfere; the effectiveness of this prophylactic approach declines if the medications aren’t taken as prescribed. ...
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Facial motion activates a dedicated network within the brain, research shows

A face is more than a static collection of features. A shift in gaze, a tightening of the lips, a tilt of the head, these movements convey important clues to someone’s state of mind. Scientists know that two particularly social and visual creatures, humans and rhesus macaque monkeys, have a netwo...
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New research suggests an existing drug, riluzole, may prevent foggy ‘old age’ brain

Forgetfulness, it turns out, is all in the head. Scientists have shown that fading memory and clouding judgment, the type that comes with advancing age, show up as lost and altered connections between neurons in the brain. But new experiments suggest an existing drug, known as riluzole and alread...
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‘Radiogenetics’ seeks to remotely control cells and genes

It’s the most basic of ways to find out what something does, whether it’s an unmarked circuit breaker or an unidentified gene — flip its switch and see what happens. New remote-control technology may offer biologists a powerful way to do this with cells and genes. A team at Rockefeller Univers...
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Discovery links shift in metabolism to stem cell renewal

Stem cells in early embryos have unlimited potential; they can become any type of cell, and researchers hope to one day harness this rejuvenating power to heal disease and injury. To do so, they must, among other things, figure out how to reliably arrest stem cells in a Peter Pan-like state of in...
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Atomic-level view provides new insight into translation of touch into nerve signals

Whether stubbing a toe or stroking a cat, the sensation of touch starts out as a mechanical force that is then transformed into an electrical signal conveying pain or other sensations. Tiny channels in neurons act as translators by helping to formulate that signal to the brain. However, scientist...
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Research suggests how mosquitoes evolved an attraction to human scent

The female mosquitoes that spread dengue and yellow fever didn’t always rely on human blood to nourish their eggs. Their ancestors fed on furrier animals in the forest. But then, thousands of years ago, some of these bloodsuckers made a smart switch: They began biting humans and hitchhiked all ov...
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3D deep-imaging advance likely to drive new biological insights

In a significant technical advance, a team of neuroscientists at The Rockefeller University has devised a fast, inexpensive imaging method for probing the molecular intricacies of large biological samples in three dimensions, an achievement that could have far reaching implications in a wide arra...
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Research resolves contradiction over protein’s role at telomeres

Mice and humans share a lot more than immediately meets the eye, and their commonalities include their telomeres, protective ends on chromosomes. But in recent years, the role of one particular protein at telomeres has puzzled scientists. New work at Rockefeller University has solved the contradi...
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New technique efficiently turns antibodies into highly tuned ‘nanobodies’

Antibodies, in charge of recognizing and homing in on molecular targets, are among the most useful tools in biology and medicine. Nanobodies – antibodies’ tiny cousins – can do the same tasks, for example marking molecules for research or flagging diseased cells for destruction. But, thanks to...
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One signal means different things to stem cells versus their progeny

Two listeners might hear the same message, but understand it differently and take different actions in response. Something similar happens within the hair follicle: Stem cells and their progeny react quite differently to an important group of signaling proteins. New experiments at Rockefeller Uni...
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Atomic map reveals clues to how cholesterol is made

In spite of its dangerous reputation, cholesterol is in fact an essential component of human cells. Manufactured by the cells themselves, it serves to stiffen the cell’s membrane, helping to shape the cell and protect it. By mapping the structure of a key enzyme involved in cholesterol production...
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Newly discovered brain cells explain a prosocial effect of oxytocin

Oxytocin, the body’s natural love potion, helps couples fall in love, makes mothers bond with their babies, and encourages teams to work together. Now new research at Rockefeller University reveals a mechanism by which this prosocial hormone has its effect on interactions between the sexes, at le...
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'Programmable' antibiotic harnesses an enzyme to attack drug-resistant microbes

The multitude of microbes scientists have found populating the human body have good, bad and mostly mysterious implications for our health. But when something goes wrong, we defend ourselves with the undiscriminating brute force of traditional antibiotics, which wipe out everything at once, regar...
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New technique reveals a role for histones in cell division

Proteins known as histones give structure to DNA, which coils around them like string on spools. But as is so often the case in biology, it turns out there is more to these structures than meets the eye. Scientists already know histones play a part in controlling the expression of genes, and more...
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Imaging studies open a window on how effective antibodies are formed

Sometimes, in order to understand what’s happening in the immune system, you just have to watch it. By imaging the immune response, researchers have observed how two types of immune cells, T and B cells, interact with one another during a critical period following infection in order to prepare th...
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Research hints at why stress is more devastating for some

Some people take stress in stride; others are done in by it. New research at Rockefeller University has identified the molecular mechanisms of this so-called stress gap in mice with very similar genetic backgrounds — a finding that could lead researchers to better understand the development of ps...
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Discovery reveals how bacteria distinguish harmful versus helpful viruses

When they are not busy attacking us, germs go after each other. But when viruses invade bacteria, it doesn’t always spell disaster for the infected microbes: Sometimes viruses actually carry helpful genes that a bacterium can harness to, say, expand its diet or better attack its own hosts. Scient...
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Research explains how cellular guardians of the gut develop

Even the most careful chosen meal can contain surprises. To defend against infectious microbes, viruses or other potential hazards that find their way to the intestines, a dedicated contingent of immune cells keeps watch within the thin layer of tissue that divides the contents of the gut from th...
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Antibodies, together with viral ‘inducers,’ found to control HIV in mice

Although HIV can now be effectively suppressed using anti-retroviral drugs, it still comes surging back the moment the flow of drugs is stopped. Latent reservoirs of HIV-infected cells, invisible to the body’s immune system and unreachable by pharmaceuticals, ensure that the infection will reboun...
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An embryonic cell’s fate is sealed by the speed of a signal

When embryonic cells get the signal to specialize the call can come quickly. Or it can arrive slowly. Now, new research from Rockefeller University suggests the speed at which a cell in an embryo receives that signal has an unexpected influence on that cell’s fate. Until now, only concentration o...
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Small RNAs in blood may reveal heart injury

Like clues to a crime, specific molecules in the body can hint at exposure to toxins, infectious agents or even trauma, and so help doctors determine whether and how to treat a patient. In recent years, tiny pieces of RNA called microRNAs have captured scientific attention for their potential as ...
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Discovery of pro-metastasis protein reveals mysterious link to neurodegeneration

Researchers have identified a protein that makes breast cancer cells more likely to metastasize. What's more, the protein appears to trigger cancer's spread in part by blocking two other proteins normally linked to neurodegeneration, a finding that suggests a tie between two of the most common di...
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Researchers create the first model of the DNA ‘replication fork’

Human cells make new copies of their DNA billions of times each day, a crucial process upon which life itself depends. However, scientists do not fully understand how cells unzip the double-stranded DNA molecule before replicating both halves of it. New work at Rockefeller may help change that. F...
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Genetically driven gut feelings help female flies choose a mate

Even among flies, mating is a complicated ritual. Their elaborate, and entirely innate, courtship dance combines multiple motor skills with advanced sensory cues. Now, researchers at Rockefeller University have determined that the Abdominal-B (Abd-B) gene, previously known as the gene that sculpt...
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Using geometry, researchers coax human embryonic stem cells to organize themselves

About seven days after conception, something remarkable occurs in the clump of cells that will eventually become a new human being. They start to specialize. They take on characteristics that begin to hint at their ultimate fate as part of the skin, brain, muscle or any of the roughly 200 cell ty...
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Potential Alzheimer’s drug prevents abnormal blood clots in the brain

Without a steady supply of blood, neurons can’t work. That’s why one of the culprits behind Alzheimer’s disease is believed to be the persistent blood clots that often form in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, contributing to the condition’s hallmark memory loss, confusion and cognitive ...
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Sequencing efforts miss DNA crucial to bacteria’s disease causing power

Genomic sequencing is supposed to reveal the entire genetic makeup of an organism. For infectious disease specialists, the technology can be used to analyze a disease-causing bacterium to determine how much harm it is capable of causing and whether or not it will be resistant to antibiotics. But ...
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New monkey model for AIDS offers promise for medical research

HIV-1, the virus responsible for most cases of AIDS, is a very selective virus. It does not readily infect species other than its usual hosts — humans and chimpanzees. While this would qualify as good news for most mammals, for humans this fact has made the search for effective treatments and vac...
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To recover consciousness, brain activity passes through newly detected states

Anesthesia makes otherwise painful procedures possible by derailing a conscious brain, rendering it incapable of sensing or responding to a surgeon’s knife. But little research exists on what happens when the drugs wear off. “I always found it remarkable that someone can recover from anesthesia...
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Research details how developing neurons sense a chemical cue

Symmetry is an inherent part of development. As an embryo, an organism’s brain and spinal cord, like the rest of its body, organize themselves into left and right halves as they grow. But a certain set of nerve cells do something unusual: they cross from one side to the other. New research in mic...
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Researchers profile active genes in neurons based on connections

When it comes to the brain, wiring isn’t everything. Although neurobiologists often talk in electrical metaphors, the reality is that the brain is not nearly as simple as a series of wires and circuits. Unlike their copper counterparts, neurons can behave differently depending on the situation. R...
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Searching for drugs in dirt, researchers call on citizen scientists

Microbes are not only a rich source of disease, but also a rich source of medicines, and experts think many life-saving compounds produced by as-yet-unnamed bacteria are awaiting discovery. But they don’t always give up their secrets easily. Researchers must know where to look to find promising b...
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Stem cell progeny tell their parents when to turn on

Stem cells switch off and on, sometimes dividing to produce progeny cells and sometimes resting. But scientists don’t fully understand what causes the cells to toggle between active and quiet states. New research in Elaine Fuchs’ Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development focused on s...
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Discovery helps explain how B cells adapt to their targets

Over the weeks following an invasion by a disease-causing microbe, the human immune system fine tunes its defenses, producing proteins called antibodies that are ever more precisely targeted at the invader. New research in Michel Nussenzweig’s Laboratory of Molecular Immunology helps explain how ...
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Friction harnessed by proteins helps organize cell division

A football-shaped structure, known as the mitotic spindle, makes cell division possible for many living things. This piece of cellular architecture, responsible for dividing up genetic material, is in constant flux. The filaments that form it grow and shrink, while motor-like molecules burn energ...
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A new web tool effectively prioritizes disease-causing genes by biological distance

A new tool, essentially a genetic navigation system that can help biologists identify connections and measure distances between human genes, has received an upgrade. Now, just as with Google Maps, anyone can access the Human Gene Connectome, without training in computational biology or the need t...
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Genetically identical ants help unlock the secrets of larval fate

A young animal’s genes are not the only genes that determine its fate. The genetic identity of its caretakers matters too. Researchers suspect the interaction between the two can sway the fate of the young animal, but this complex dynamic is difficult to pin down in lab experiments. However, soci...
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Drug is identified that could block the spread of melanoma

Cancer is at its most curable when it’s caught before it spreads. That’s especially true in the case of melanoma, where survival rates can be as high as 97 percent when caught early — and as low as 15 percent if it’s not. New research at Rockefeller has now identified a promising route to sl...
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Discovery reveals protons sneak through the sodium-potassium pump

Located in the surface membrane of all animals’ cells, sodium-potassium pumps keep cells and the animals that contain them in working order. Among other things, their efforts underlie nerve signals, heart beats and muscle contractions. But as ubiquitous and essential as these pumps are, new resea...
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Sniff study suggests humans can distinguish more than 1 trillion scents

The human sense of smell does not get the respect it deserves, new research suggests. In an experiment led by Andreas Keller, of Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, researchers tested volunteers’ ability to distinguish between complex mixtures of scents. Based on the sensitiv...
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Researchers discover unusual genetic mutation linked to adolescent liver cancer

In the race for better treatments and possible cures, rare diseases are often left behind. In a collaboration of researchers at The Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the New York Genome Center (NYGC), an unusual mutation has been found that is strongly linked to o...
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Research shows combination of sensory signals draw mosquitoes in for a bite

It may seem like mosquitoes will bite anything with a pulse, but they’re actually quite strategic in picking their victims. A new study from The Rockefeller University looked at the interaction of different sensory cues — carbon dioxide, heat and odor — that attract mosquitoes to humans, and f...
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Psoriasis researchers identify molecular changes responsible for skin discoloration

Itchy, painful rashes — such as those that occur with psoriasis — are uncomfortable, but at least they fade when the flare-up subsides. Mostly. Evidence often remains in the form of dark, discolored areas of skin, serving as a reminder of the disease. A new study supported by the Milstein Medica...
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New RNA interference technique finds seven genes for head and neck cancer

In the hunt for genetic mutations that cause cancer, there is a lot of white noise. So although genetic sequencing has identified hundreds of genetic alterations linked to tumors, it’s still an enormous challenge to figure out which ones are actually responsible for the growth and metastasis of c...
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Large-scale survey of clinical research participants shows mostly positive experiences

A multi-center survey of close to 5,000 volunteers who enrolled in clinical research studies, the first of its kind, shows that by and large participants feel valued and respected by investigators. But although many gave high marks to the research teams’ trustworthiness and ability to explain the...
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Gene is linked to deadly runaway fungal infection

For most people, a fungal infection like athlete’s foot means a simple trip to the drugstore and a reminder to bring shower shoes to the gym. But in very rare cases, fungal infections can spread below the skin’s surface and onto the lymph nodes, bones, digestive tract or even the brain. Research...
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New technique in RNA interference cuts time and cost in genetic screens

There is a new contender in the field of gene discovery, and it’s giving knockout mice a run for their money. Researchers at The Rockefeller University have shown that a new technique using RNA interference is able to find genes that cause epidermal tumor growth in months rather than the decades ...
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Researchers find molecule that causes sunburn pain

The painful, red skin that comes from too much time in the sun is caused by a molecule abundant in the skin’s epidermis, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows. Blocking the molecule, called TRPV4, greatly protects against the painful effects of sunburn...
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Scientists identify gene that regulates stem cell death and skin regeneration

Stem cells, known for their ability to self-renew and differentiate into any kind of tissue, are considered by many scientists in the field to be immortal. But there are signs that programmed death of stem cells is important for their regulation. New research from scientists at Rockefeller Univer...
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Mutant mosquitoes lose their appetite for humans

What draws a mosquito to bite its host has long been studied from the perspective of the victim — uncovering which smells and chemicals lure the insect in. But researchers at Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, headed by Robin Chemers Neustein Professor Leslie Vosshall, are a...
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Scientists discover new way protein degradation is regulated

Proteins, unlike diamonds, aren’t forever. And when they wear out, they need to be degraded in the cell back into amino acids, where they will be recycled into new proteins. Researchers at Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have identified a new way that the cell’s pr...
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Scientists discover gene mutation that causes children to be born without spleen

The spleen is rarely noticed, until it is missing. In children born without a spleen, that doesn’t happen until they become sick with life-threatening bacterial infections, often within their first year of life. An international team of researchers led by scientists from Rockefeller’s St. Giles ...
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Scientists use Nature against Nature to develop an antibiotic with reduced resistance

A new broad range antibiotic, developed jointly by scientists at The Rockefeller University and Astex Pharmaceuticals, has been found to kill a wide range of bacteria, including drug-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) bacteria that do not respond to traditional drugs. The antibiotic, Epimerox, targe...
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Mechanism of mutant histone protein in childhood brain cancer revealed

Most cancer treatments are blunt. In an attempt to eradicate tumors, oncologists often turn to radiation or chemotherapy, which can damage healthy tissue along with the cancerous growths. New research from C. David Allis’s laboratory at Rockefeller University may bring scientists closer to design...
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Researchers create map of “shortcuts” between all human genes

Some diseases are caused by single gene mutations. Current techniques for identifying the disease-causing gene in a patient produce hundreds of potential gene candidates, making it difficult for scientists to pinpoint the single causative gene. Now, a team of researchers led by Rockefeller Univer...
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In sync: stem cells work together to make hair grow, give it color

Your hair may seem unwilling to cooperate some mornings, but at the root of each strand is a tiny partnership of stem cells that work very well together to make hair happen. New research from The Rockefeller University has elucidated how these adult stem cells communicate with each other to make ...
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Ant executions serve a higher purpose, research shows

Natural selection can be an agonizingly long process. Some organisms have a way of taking matters into their own hands, or — in the case of the ant species Cerapachys biroi — mandibles. Researchers at The Rockefeller University and University of Paris 13 have found that when a C. biroi ant step...
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Changes in population growth, consumption and farming begin to return former farmlands to nature

With the global population racing past seven billion, demographers and world leaders have been concerned with depletion of resources to support everyone. The future, though, may be less bleak than some have feared. Changes in population growth and how farmers use land have brought the world to “p...
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