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David Rockefeller Award for Extraordinary Service honors founding chairs of university’s Women & Science initiative

by AMELIA KAHANEY Among the accolades for scholar-scientists, this year’s Convocation also honored four women with a different but no less significant role in the advancement of research— Lydia A. Forbes, Isabel P. Furlaud, Nancy M.Kissinger, and Sydney Roberts Shuman, the founding chairs of Ro...

Gaby Maimon and Vanessa Ruta honored with teaching awards

For Rockefeller graduate students there is labwork, and there is coursework. This year, the university recognizes two teachers who have devoted substantial time, energy, and creativity to designing and leading one of the most challenging and innovative courses within the university’s graduate cur...

Lindsay Bellani

Lindsay Bellani Presented by Leslie B. Vosshall B.S., The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Why Mosquitoes Bite Some People More than Others: Metabolic Correlates of Human Attraction in Aedes aegypti         Why do mosquitoes bite some people more than others? This question has puzzle...

Jabez Bok

Jabez Bok Presented by Sidney Strickland on behalf of Robert G. Roeder B.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison Mechanism of Action of ING4 as a Transcriptional Coactivator of p53         Jabez Bok hails from Singapore, and after earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin, ...

Christine E. Cho

Christine E. Cho Presented by Leslie B. Vosshall on behalf of Cori Bargmann Sc.B., Brown University Mechanisms of Olfactory Plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans         Although many religions warn us against fortune tellers, it’s the brain’s job to predict the future. What does a new sti...

Eliot Dow

Eliot Dow Presented by A. James Hudspeth B.S., Ohio State University Synapse Formation in the Zebrafish Lateral Line         Although our brains do not always function well, it is actually implausible that they should function at all. A human brain contains something like a hundred billion ne...

Akinori F. Ebihara

Akinori F. Ebihara Presented by Winrich Freiwald on behalf of himself and Marcelo O. Magnasco B.S., The University of Tokyo Normalization Among Heterogeneous Population Confers Stimulus Discriminability on the Macaque Face Patch Neurons         As I introduce Akinori Ebihara to you, I find ...

Clark Fisher

Clark Fisher Presented by Winrich Freiwald A.B., Princeton University Effect of Temporal and Spatial Context within the Macaque Face-Processing System         Social life relies on faces. A day like today—when lots of people come together all wearing pretty much the same outfit—would be u...

Ariel Halper-Stromberg

Ariel Halper-Stromberg Presented by Michel C. Nussenzweig B.S., University of Maryland, College Park Therapeutic Uses of Broadly Neutralizing Anti-HIV-1 Antibodies in Humanized Mice         Ari Halper-Stromberg grew up in Maryland and went to college at the University of Maryland, College Par...

Jeffrey G. Johnson

Jeffrey G. Johnson Presented by Sidney Strickland on behalf of Tom Muir B.A., Knox College Studies on the Maturation of Secreted Quorum Sensing Peptides That Regulate S. aureus Virulence         Jeffrey Johnson received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Knox College in Illinois befo...

Shaheen Kabir

Shaheen Kabir Presented by Titia de Lange B.S., Haverford College Investigating Mechanisms of Telomere End-protection         Despite being young, Shaheen Kabir’s life has already involved five continents. Born to Pakistani parents, Shaheen grew up in beautiful Tanzania. She went to Austral...

Anna Katherine Kruyer

Anna Katherine Kruyer Presented by Erin Norris on behalf of herself and Sidney Strickland B.A., Fordham College at Lincoln Center The Effect of Chronic Hypertension on Neuropathology in the TgSwDI Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease         When Anna Kruyer moved to New York City from a smal...

Johannes Larsch

Johannes Larsch Presented by Leslie B. Vosshall on behalf of Cori Bargmann M.Sc., University of Konstanz A Mechanism for Spatial Orientation Based on Sensory Adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans         In his work on the unity of opposites, hodos ano kato, the pre-Socratic philosopher Herac...

Hyeseung Lee

Hyeseung Lee Presented by Sohail Tavazoie B.S., Ewha Womans University Identification of Tmem2 as a Sox4 Transcriptional Target Involved in Breast Cancer Metastasis         Hyeseung studied chemistry and life sciences in South Korea. In my lab, she studied how a gene called SOX4 endows cance...

Joseph M. Luna

Joseph M. Luna Presented by Robert B. Darnell on behalf of himself and Charles M. Rice B.S., Yale University A Genomic Portrait of Hepatitis C Virus and MicroRNA-122         “The crowded hall was brimming with excitement as a room full of scientists took their seats.” These prescient word...

Jennifer Zuckerman Malin

Jennifer Zuckerman Malin Presented by Shai Shaham B.A., University of Pennsylvania Components of the Ubiquitin Proteasome System are Required for the Nonapoptotic Death of the Caenorhabditis elegans Linker Cell         It is a distinct pleasure for me to be here today to participate in Jenni...

Alexander R. Nectow

Alexander R. Nectow Presented by Jeffrey M. Friedman B.S.E.S., M.S., Tufts University Functional Dissection of Brainstem Circuitry         Some of you may be familiar with the phrase “all heat and no light.” This describes a person who generates lots of energy but who illuminates very lit...

Zeeshan Ozair

Zeeshan Ozair Presented by Ali H. Brivanlou B.S., M.B., The Aga Khan University Medical College A Reductionist Approach to Modeling Human Corticogenesis         Where does the mind come from? What is the origin of our brain? Zeeshan Ozair came to me in 2009 via Abu-Dhabi and Pakistan, with a ...

Pablo Polosecki

Pablo Polosecki Presented by Winrich Freiwald Licenciado, University of Buenos Aires Specialized Signals for Spatial Attention in the Ventral and Dorsal Visual Streams         Pablo Polosecki once founded a club on campus with the purpose of discussing the foundations of science and philosoph...

Kavita Rangan

Kavita Rangan Presented by Howard C. Hang B.S., University of California, Berkeley Characterization of Bacterial Metabolites Involved in Host Pathogen Resistance         It has been a pleasure to have Kavita Rangan do her graduate thesis studies in my laboratory. Kavita is a remarkable indivi...

Jason Barzel Ross

Jason Barzel Ross Presented by Sohail Tavazoie B.S., Stanford University Molecular Determinants of Tumor Re-initiation in Breast Cancer         Jason received his undergraduate training in biology at Stanford University, where he was actively involved in stem cell research. Upon joining my la...

Joshua Salvi

Joshua Salvi Presented by A. James Hudspeth B.S., The Pennsylvania State University Mechanical Control of Sensory Hair-bundle Function         Human hearing is truly remarkable: we can detect frequencies a thousandfold as great as those measured by our other senses; we can capture sounds down...

Johannes F. Scheid

Johannes F. Scheid Presented by Michel C. Nussenzweig Member of the graduating class of 2014 Diploma, University of Arts, Berlin M.D., Humboldt University – Charite, Berlin The Antibody Response against HIV       This is the second Rockefeller graduation for Johannes Scheid, the first being f...

Roman Subbotin

Roman Subbotin Presented by Brian T. Chait B.S., M.S., Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University M.S., University of Minnesota Chemical Stabilization—A Path Towards Deciphering Protein-Protein Interactions in the Cellular Milieu     Roman Subbotin was born in Stryi in the Soviet Ukraine. He studi...

He Tian

He Tian Presented by Thomas P. Sakmar B.S., Peking University Development of Novel Chemical Biology Tools for Probing  Structure-Function Relationships in G Protein Coupled Receptors     It is a challenge to describe chemistry in narrative form. Chemistry is a way of thinking. Chemistry is intel...

Yifan Xu

Yifan Xu Presented by Jeremy Dittman on behalf of Cori Bargmann B.S., Duke University Neural Circuit Dependence of Acute and Subacute Nociception in Caenorhabditis elegans     Most grad students experience some type of pain during their thesis work. For Yifan’s thesis, she decided to work on p...

John Z. Xue

John Z. Xue Presented by Hironori Funabiki B.A., University of Cambridge Xenopus Dppa2 is a Direct Inhibitor of Microtubule Polymerization Required for Nuclear Assembly         From John Xue’s eloquent British accent, it may be hard to imagine his origin. John was born and raised in Jingbia...

Daria A. Zamolodchikov

Daria A. Zamolodchikov Presented by Sidney Strickland A.B., Princeton University A New Role for b-Amyloid in Alzheimer’s Disease: Initiation of Thrombotic and Inflammatory Processes via Coagulation Factor XII and Fibrinogen         Let’s consider American Pharoah. It takes intelligence, s...

Coming soon, to The David Rockefeller Graduate Program

As the graduating class of 2015 moves on to the next stages of life and career, the Rockefeller community welcomes the incoming group of graduate fellows. There were 689 applications received this year, and after careful consideration by the admissions committee, 81 applicants were offered admiss...

Mutations in a single gene underlie vulnerability to two unrelated types of infections

When a genetic error weakens a child’s immunity, otherwise nonthreatening microbes can sicken and sometimes kill. In work published July 9 in Science, researchers at The Rockefeller University and their colleagues identify one surprising case in which mutations in a single gene render children vu...

Discovery points to a new path toward a universal flu vaccine

Flu vaccines can be something of a shot in the dark. Not only must they be given yearly, there’s no guarantee the strains against which they protect will be the ones circulating once the season arrives. New research by Rockefeller University scientists and their colleagues suggests it may be poss...

Lifelong learning is made possible by recycling of histones, study says

Neurons are a limited commodity; each of us goes through life with essentially the same set we had at birth. But these cells, whose electrical signals drive our thoughts, perceptions, and actions, are anything but static. They change and adapt in response to experience throughout our lifetimes, a...

Postdoc Shruti Naik wins Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation

Shruti Naik, a postdoctoral fellow in Elaine Fuchs’s Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development has won the Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. Awarded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the prize recognizes innovative young scientists based on proposals they submit that have the ...

New faculty member probes actions of molecular machines in gene expression

Tiny machines, which convert chemical energy into mechanical work, drive nearly all aspects of life within a cell. Shixin Liu, a biophysicist and Rockefeller’s newest tenure-track faculty member, investigates how these individual motors interact, and, in many cases, cooperate with one another to ...

Expert in cryo-electron microscopy to join Rockefeller faculty

Thomas Walz, a structural biologist who uses cutting-edge electron microscopy techniques to better understand processes involving biological membranes, will join Rockefeller’s faculty as a tenured professor on September 1. As head of the Laboratory of Molecular Electron Microscopy, Walz will take...

Sequential immunizations could be the key to HIV vaccine

The secret to preventing HIV infection lies within the human immune system, but the more-than-25-year search has so far failed to yield a vaccine capable of training the body to neutralize the ever-changing virus. New research from The Rockefeller University, and collaborating institutions, sugge...

In the News - Scientist - Nussenzweig

Neutralizing HIV   "A third group, led by Michel Nussenzweig at Rockefeller University and his colleagues, conducted experiments similar to those of Schief’s team, but taking them a step further. The researchers generated a second mouse line that also expressed a human antibody gene, but this an...

In the News - Scientist - Nussenzweig

Neutralizing HIV   "A third group, led by Michel Nussenzweig at Rockefeller University and his colleagues, conducted experiments similar to those of Schief’s team, but taking them a step further. The researchers generated a second mouse line that also expressed a human antibody gene, but this an...

Rockefeller sustainability initiatives are honored by the Association of Energy Engineers

The Rockefeller University’s multi-year initiative to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions will be honored this week with an award from the Association of Energy Engineers. The local award, for institutional energy management of the year, recognizes the consistent achievements of an entire te...

First Winners of Tri-Institutional Breakout Awards Announced

New Annual Life Sciences Award, Founded By Winners of the Breakthrough Prize, Honors Promising Postdoctoral Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medical College NEW YORK, NY — Six young scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center...

Daniel Kronauer chosen as a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences

Daniel Kronauer, head of the Laboratory of Social Evolution, has been named a 2015 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. Given by the Pew Charitable Trusts, this award provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. Kronauer...

Twenty-nine students receive doctorates at Rockefeller’s 57th Convocation

At its convocation ceremony on Thursday, June 11, Rockefeller University presented doctoral degrees to 29 students. In a tradition dating back to the university’s first commencement ceremony in 1959, doctoral candidates received their degrees from their mentors. In addition, Nicole Le Douarin,...

Research reveals key interaction that opens the channel into the cell’s nucleus

Cells have devised many structures for transporting molecular cargo across their protective borders, but the nuclear pore complex, with its flower-like, eight-fold symmetry, stands out. Monstrously large by cellular standards, as well as versatile, this elaborate portal controls access to and exi...

Luciano Marraffini selected as a Blavatnik National Award finalist

Luciano Marraffini, an assistant professor and head of the Laboratory of Bacteriology, has been named a finalist in the life sciences by the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, the New York Academy of Sciences announced on May 20. Marraffini, who studies the CRISPR-Cas systems that en...

A. James Hudspeth elected to the American Philosophical Society

A. James Hudspeth, F.M. Kirby Professor and head of the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society in the biological sciences, the society has announced. The American Philosophical Society is an honorary society that elects new members each year w...

In the News - WSJ - River Campus

Major Donations Bolster Hospital, Medical Research   "Rockefeller University plans to announce a $100 million gift from the Kravis foundation to build a laboratory research building that will be the centerpiece of a 2-acre campus extension over FDR Drive from East 64th to East 68th. That building...

The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation provides landmark gift of $100 Million to The Rockefeller University

New research center will help attract the best talent to make transformative discoveries Marc Tessier-Lavigne, president of The Rockefeller University, today announced a leadership gift of $100 million from The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation to help create a new laboratory building t...

Gaby Maimon honored with a McKnight Scholar Award

Gaby Maimon, assistant professor at The Rockefeller University and head of the Laboratory of Integrative Brain Function, has received a McKnight Scholar Award for his research on the neuronal basis for behavior. Maimon and five other young scientists will each receive $75,000 per year for three y...

In the News - Forbes - Tessier-Lavigne

Genentech Brain Trust Leaves With $217 Million For New Startup To Fight Alzheimer's And Parkinson's   "Three former top researchers at Genentech, the legendary biotech that is now part of Roche Holding, have raised $217 million in venture capital to start a new company, Denali Therapeutics, focus...

Research shows how antibodies produce vaccine-like effect against tumors

The problem with traditional cancer treatments is that their effects don’t always last:  Stop the therapy and the disease may return. That’s why antibody therapy — which not only kills tumors, but also appears to train the body’s own defenses to recognize them — has such promise. New rese...

Fragments of tRNA suggest a novel mechanism for cancer progression

For years, scientists have been puzzled by the presence of short stretches of genetic material floating inside a variety of cells, ranging from bacteria to mammals, including humans. These fragments are pieces of the genetic instructions cells use to make proteins, but are too short a length to s...

Rockefeller scientists resolve long-standing debate over how many bacteria fight off invaders

Every inch of our body, inside and out, is oozing with bacteria. In fact, the human body carries 10 times the number of bacterial cells as human cells. Many are our friends, helping us digest food and fight off infections, for instance. But much about these abundant organisms, upon which our life...

Paul Nurse to receive Friesen International Prize

Paul Nurse, president emeritus at Rockefeller, has been awarded the Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research. A Canadian prize, established by the Friends of Canadian Institutes of Health Research in collaboration with the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the prize honors excep...

Odd histone helps suppress jumping genes in stem cells, study says

A family of proteins known as histones provides support and structure to DNA, but for years, scientists have been puzzling over occasional outliers among these histones, which appear to exist for specific, but often mysterious reasons. Now, researchers have uncovered a new purpose for one such hi...

Leslie Vosshall and Jean-Laurent Casanova elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Two Rockefeller scientists have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Leslie B. Vosshall, Robin Chemers Neustein Professor and head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, has been named a member, and Jean-Laurent Casanova, senior attending physician, professor, and head of t...

Elaine Fuchs wins cell biologists’ highest honor

In recognition of her pioneering research on mammalian skin and adult stem cells, Elaine Fuchs, the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor at The Rockefeller University, has received the E.B. Wilson Medal, the highest scientific honor bestowed by the American Society for Cell Biology. The medal will be ...

Charles Rice to receive 2015 Robert Koch Award

Charles M. Rice, Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology, has been selected to receive the 2015 Robert Koch Award. Rice will share the €100,000 prize, awarded by the Robert Koch Foundation of Germany, with Ralf Bartenschlager from Heidelberg University for their groundbreaking w...

Research on the genetic roots of a blood disorder illustrates the challenges in parsing genetic data

Accumulating data, even genetic data, is easy. Understanding the meaning of those data can be more of a challenge. As genetic testing becomes increasingly popular, more and more patients and physicians are faced with tough questions: Does a particular genetic variation translate into a predisposi...

In the News - BBC - Nussenzweig

HIV: new approach against virus "holds promise"   "Michel Nussenzweig of The Rockefeller University told BBC News: 'This is different to treatment out there already on two counts. First because it comes from a human - so it is natural in that respect. And secondly it opens up the possibility of g...

In first human study, new antibody therapy shows promise in suppressing HIV infection

In the first results to emerge from HIV patient trials of a new generation of so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies, Rockefeller University researchers have found the experimental therapy can dramatically reduce the amount of virus present in a patient’s blood. The work, reported this week in...