News & HighlightsNews
Milestones
Awarded: C. David Allis, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Merck Award, for contributions to the field of chromatin biology. The award will be presented at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting in April in San Diego, California. Nina V. Fedoroff (alumna), the 2006 Nation...
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...
Rockefeller immunologist receives Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
This year’s Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the most prestigious American prize in science, honors Rockefeller University’s Ralph M. Steinman, who discovered dendritic cells, the preeminent component of the immune system that initiates and regulates the body's response to foreign...
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...
Construction begins on new Collaborative Research Center
After nearly two years of planning, construction is under way on The Rockefeller University’s new Collaborative Research Center, a building and renovation project that will transform two historic limestone and masonry buildings into modern open-plan laboratories connected by a dramatic six-story ...
A global view: Researchers build microRNA atlas
Building a comprehensive microRNA expression atlas is not easy. Just ask the Rockefeller University scientists who, in a massive collaborative effort involving 50 investigators from six countries, led the project. In three years, they catalogued microRNA expression patterns in more than 250 healt...
Core tenets of the "histone code" are universal
In one of biology’s most impressive engineering feats, specialized proteins called histones package some six-and-a-half feet of human DNA into a nucleus that averages just five microns in diameter. That’s only 0.0001969 inches. DNA wraps around histone proteins, which are then chemically modifie...
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