News & HighlightsNews
A once maligned drug's second-life as an immune booster
Thalidomide — a drug long villified for causing severe birth defects when pregnant women took it to relieve morning sickness — has resurfaced in the last decade as a potential boon for patients with certain bone marrow disorders. A new thalidomide derivative called Revlimid was recently approved...
HIV protein acts as a solvent, releasing viral particles from the surface of their host cell
In 1989, researchers discovered an HIV protein called Vpu that was key to how the AIDS virus spreads from cell to cell. Produced only by the HIV-1 virus and its closest relatives, Vpu appeared to be somehow involved in helping put together new viral particles and assisting with their release from...
Chemical immunologist recruited to head new Rockefeller lab
A faculty search process begun last year has yielded its second successful recruit, the chemical immunologist Howard Hang, who will join The Rockefeller University as assistant professor and head of the Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Microbial Pathogenesis in early 2007. Hang, who comes to Ro...
Protein linked to antibodies also has an antiviral function, researchers show
In biology, it’s actually possible to teach an old dog a new trick. A new finding from Rockefeller University’s Nina Papavasiliou has shown that a protein called AID, which is involved in creating diversity among immune system antibodies, evolved long before antibodies themselves did — suggest...
Structural analysis of SpvB protein show how Salmonella bacteria hijack a cell
When Salmonella bacteria attack, they create their own compartment or vacuole in the host’s cell, in which they replicate. Now, in a cover article published this week in the journal Structure, Rockefeller University scientists show how the pathogen uses a protein called SpvB to create this comp...
Leprosy bacteria lead to new understanding of nerve damage and cell proliferation
For nervous system cells, specialization is a one-way street. But as is often the case in biology, the rules have exceptions. Glial cells — nervous system cells that form a highly specialized insulating sheath called myelin that surrounds nerve fibers — under certain conditions can “de-differe...
Expression of 'Blimp1' gene leads to the discovery of cells responsible for skin's sebaceous gland
Mice may not get zits, but they do have oily skin. This week, new research on mice from Rockefeller University shows how the cells responsible for oil production develop, and uncovers clues about how stem cells renew and differentiate. The research focuses on the skin’s sebaceous gland, which i...
Rockefeller researchers receive Gates Foundation grant for HIV vaccine research
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced 16 grants totaling $287 million to create an international network of highly collaborative research consortia focused on accelerating the pace of HIV vaccine development. The grants will support a range of innovative approaches for designing an ef...
Scientists ID a single sugar that allows antibodies to fight inflammation
For years, researchers have struggled to understand how IVIG works. Its ability to treat autoimmune diseases seemed to be an apparent contradiction. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a complex mixture of IgG antibodies made from human plasma that contains the pooled antibodies from thousands o...
Evidence of rapid evolution is found at the tips of chromosomes
In terms of their telomeres, mice are more complicated than humans. That’s the finding from a recent Rockefeller University study, which shows that mice have two proteins working together to do the job of a single protein in human cells. The findings, published recently in Cell, suggest that the ...
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