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Phase III+: The University is open for expanded research operations; only authorized personnel will be admitted on campus. More info here.
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Phase III+: The University is open for expanded research operations; only authorized personnel will be admitted on campus. More info here.

Rockefeller University

News & Highlights > News
Adenocarcinoma of stomach
Science News

The nutrient that cancer cells crave

Starving cancer cells of a key amino acid could potentially render tumors more vulnerable to the body’s natural immune response.
Elaine Fuchs standing in front of bookcase in office
Campus News, Awards and Honors

Elaine Fuchs awarded Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science

Fuchs receives the honor for illuminating the genetics of skin diseases and the mechanisms that guide skin renewal, yielding insights into aging, inflammation, and cancer.
flu vaccine
Science News

A unique window into "original antigenic sin"

The body's first blush with a pathogen shapes how it will respond to vaccines. New evidence clarifies how this phenomenon works, mechanistically.
nussenweigGC
Science News

How the body's B cell academy ensures a diverse immune response

A diverse immune response hinges on naive B cells mingling with high affinity ones in the late-stage germinal center. Whether that helps or hinders, however, depends on the virus.
C. David Allis
Campus News

Remembering a pioneer of chromatin biology

Charles David Allis, a molecular biologist who shaped the field of chromatin biology, died on January 8 at the age of 71.
fruit fly testes
Science News

Why older fathers pass on more genetic mutations to their offspring

It's not just the number of mutations that matters. It's the failure to fix them too.
Science News
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In Brief

Solving a crucial bottleneck in drug discovery

A novel method reduces the time required to identify novel antibiotic-producing DNA from weeks to days.
lymph node germinal centers
Science News

When the body's B cell training grounds stay open after hours

While most germinal centers shut down after a few weeks, some stay in business for more than six months. A new study helps explain why.
Clonal ants with colored dots
Science News

Intriguing science discoveries of 2022

Breakthroughs in genetics, biochemistry, neuroscience, infectious disease, and drug development were a few of the year's highlights.
Campus News

Markus Library prepares researchers for new NIH data management policy

The library is offering new tools and training to support researchers operating under an updated NIH policy.
mitoribosomes
Science News
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In Brief

How a cell's mitochondria make their own protein factories

The findings shed a rare light on mitoribosomes, the unique ribosomes found within the cell's mitochondria.
covid car shot
Science News

How antibody therapy impacts COVID vaccines

People who receive monoclonal antibodies before vaccines may benefit from increased coverage, due to antibody feedback inhibition.
HNSSC tumor
Science News

Research on rare genetic disease sheds light on a common head and neck cancer

Patients with Fanconi anemia have an elevated risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a highly aggressive head-and-neck cancer. New findings pinpoint the mechanisms linking the two conditions, and also shed new light on how smoking or drinking may elevate anyone’s cancer risk.
CSCs Fuchs
Science News

Cancer stem cells are fueled through dialogue with their environments

The findings suggest that many of the mutations in cancer may simply be setting in stone a path already forged by the tumor stem cell’s aberrant dialogue with its surroundings.
ant pupae kronauer
Science News

Ant pupae secrete fluid as "milk" to nurture young larvae

This newly discovered “social fluid” appears to unite ant colonies across developmental stages into one superorganism.
Charles M. Rice (left) and Chibuzo Enemchukwu (right)
Campus News

A new institute devoted to research on global infectious disease is funded by a $75 million grant

Rockefeller’s new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Institute for Global Infectious Disease Research will provide a framework for international scientific collaboration, turning research innovations into practical health benefits and making it possible to quickly respond to pathogens of concern. It was...
Campus News

Eight Rockefeller scientists designated most influential researchers

Clarivate, a British analytics company, recognizes individuals "who demonstrate significant and broad influence among their peers in their chosen field or fields of research."
gabriel victora
Campus News

From the piano bench to the lab bench

Gabriel D. Victora is unlocking the mysteries of how the body generates antibodies to defend itself from pathogens. But there was a time when science was not even on his radar.
Fibrolamellar cells
Science News

Promising new drug target for a rare liver cancer

Fibrolamellar carcinoma needs one specific mutation in order to thrive, and impeding it reduces tumor growth in mice.
Fly eye muscle

Fruit flies move their retinas much like humans move their eyes

Insects cannot move their eyes the way humans do during a tennis game. But new research suggests fruit flies evolved a different strategy to adjust their vision without moving their heads.
actin filaments curving
Science News

New evidence of biochemical states and force working in concert

When an actin filament bends during cell movement, older actin deforms differently than newer actin, allowing regulatory proteins to tell the two states apart.
cohen people chart
Science News

Mathematical modeling suggests counties are still unprepared for COVID spikes

If jurisdictions plan to share resources in advance, the study concludes, this could prevent one rare event from overwhelming a county or state.
Shixin Liu portrait
Awards and Honors, Campus News

Shixin Liu wins 2023 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Liu is one of four scientists across the country to receive the prestigious prize, which recognizes scientists who have immigrated to the United States for early-career contributions.
mosquito biting a Rockefeller University researcher
Science News

Why some people are mosquito magnets

The female mosquito will hunt down any human, but some of us get bitten far more than others. The answer why may be hidden in our skin.
Sohail Tavazoie portrait
Awards and Honors, Campus News

Sohail Tavazoie elected to the National Academy of Medicine

A trailblazing physician-scientist, Tavazoie has substantially expanded our understanding of the mechanisms enabling some tumors to spread from one body site to another. He is the 18th member of Rockefeller’s faculty elected to the academy.
C. David Allis
Awards and Honors, Campus News

Albany Medical Center Prize awarded to C. David Allis

Allis receives the honor for discovering new mechanisms regulating gene expression.
nts adp mouse brain
Science News

The brain cells that slow us down when we're sick

New study pinpoints the cluster of neurons that tell mice to eat, drink, and move around less when they're fighting bacterial infections.  
Campus News

New workshop brings exceptional scholars to campus

Postdoctoral fellows from diverse backgrounds attended the two-day program, designed to ease their transition to independent investigators.
tavazoieostendorf
Science News

Common mutation linked to COVID mortality

Because three percent of the world population possesses these gene variants, the findings may have implications for hundreds of millions of individuals around the world.
Josephina del Marmol headshot
Awards and Honors, Campus News

Josefina del Mármol named Blavatnik Regional Award Winner in life sciences

Del Mármol receives the honor for her research leading to the first-ever molecular images of an olfactory receptor at work.
close up of light beads microscope
Seek Magazine

The tech that money can’t buy 

What if the tool needed to move science forward doesn’t yet exist? Here are gadgets and techniques born from improvisation that made impossible experiments possible.
Tim Stearns portrait
Campus News

Tim Stearns becomes new dean of graduate and postgraduate studies

Stearns, who assumes the role on September 1, reflects upon his new job and his vision for the university’s educational programs.
Begüm Aydin and Alain Bonny portraits
Awards and Honors, Campus News

Rockefeller postdocs Begüm Aydin and Alain Bonny named Hanna Gray Fellows

Aydin, of the Mucida lab, and Bonny, a member of the Fuchs lab, received HHMI’s prestigious fellowship for exceptional early career scientists on August 24.
mosquito olfaction
Science News

Unlocking the mystery of how mosquitoes smell humans

Through questioning their assumptions about how mosquitoes sense and interpret odors, scientists may have discovered why efforts to throw the vectors of dengue and Zika off the human scent have not succeeded.
Campus News

Nicola Khuri, theoretical physicist and scientific-community builder, has died

Nicola N. Khuri, a theoretical physicist known for using math to describe and predict what happens when elementary particles collide in giant accelerators, died on August 4 at age 89.
Jiankun Lyu
Campus News

New faculty member unlocks vast chemical spaces for drug discovery

Jiankun Lyu will join Rockefeller as an assistant professor on January 1, 2023.
lamia wahba
Campus News

New faculty member plumbs the depths of fast-track evolution 

Lamia Wahba will join Rockefeller as an assistant professor on January 1, 2023.
ants heat
Science News

Ant colonies behave like neural networks when making decisions 

Colonies decide to flee rising temperatures in much the same way that neural computations give rise to decisions.
A side view of the small intestine.
Science News

How the intestine replaces and repairs itself

A new study suggests that stem cells are able to integrate cues from their surroundings and coordinate their behavior across tissue through networks of vasculature in their close vicinity.
illustration of stem cells
Seek Magazine

Stem cells are growing up 

The controversy and hype have died down. The science is very much alive­, creating new directions for discovery.
gd cells with tumor
Science News

Colorectal cancer tumors both helped and hindered by T cells

Researchers have long disagreed over whether 𝛄𝛅T cells in the gut promote or discourage tumor growth, but new evidence suggests they have the capacity to do both.
memory recall
Science News

New study reveals where memory fragments are stored

The research demonstrates the distributed nature of memory processing in the brain, and reveals a dedicated pathway for memory recall, which is less understood than memory formation.
Tree removal
Campus News

A venerable tree ends its tenure

After gracing the university’s north-south pathway for decades, a London plane tree was cut down due to interior decay and the resulting safety risk. Removal of the deciduous giant required a team of highly-experienced arborists.
Pair of zebrafinches
Seek Magazine

Beak speak 

How did songbirds start singing? Neuroscientists are reshaping our understanding of speech—pinpointing the cells and molecules that built it and what happens in the brain when we learn a new word, chirp, or squeal.
Campus News

New portrait of five trailblazing women scientists from Rockefeller’s past is unveiled

With a new portrait by artist Brenda Zlamany, installed over the fireplace in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Reception Hall, the likenesses of scientists Marie Daly, Rebecca Lancefield, Louise Pearce, Gertrude Perlmann, and Florence Sabin have joined the university’s art collection.
headshot of cori bargmann
Seek Magazine

Philanthropy 2.0 

Private investments are making it possible to reimagine 21st-century bioscience. Cori Bargmann envisions a future with opportunity for researchers everywhere.
Campus News

Rockefeller leads an international ranking of research impact

According to this year’s CWTS Leiden Ranking of over 1300 universities from 69 countries, Rockefeller has the highest percentage of most frequently cited scientific publications.
third covid vaccine
Science News

A third vaccine dose may increase protection from Omicron

The booster appears to galvanize memory B cells into producing potent and versatile antibodies that neutralize both the original virus and its many variants.
Campus News

Rockefeller tops international university ranking in measure of top cited publications

In the U-Multirank rating system for higher education institutions, Rockefeller placed first in a measure of impact based on citations.
Convocation procession 2022
Campus News

40 young scientists receive Ph.D.s at Rockefeller’s 64th convocation

With this week’s ceremony, the first in-person convocation since the start of the pandemic, Rockefeller has granted doctor of philosophy degrees in bioscience to 1,395 students. In addition, Anthony S. Fauci, Katalin Karikó, and Lulu C. Wang received honorary doctor of science degrees.
Shyer-cell-ring
Science News

How intricate patterns arise in developing tissues

In developing bird skin, immature cells move around and form intricate patterns. Scientists are zeroing in on the mechanical forces guiding the process.
Science News
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In Brief

Building a human ‘pangenome’ to capture global genomic diversity

The human reference genome, the most widely used resource in human genetics, is getting a major update.
tuberculosis
Science News

Hundreds of new drug targets to combat tuberculosis

The study highlights genes that, when silenced, render Mycobacterium tuberculosis vulnerable to antibiotics, and identifies existing drugs that may be effective against one prominent strain.
h1 and ssDNA
Science News

One protein's surprising partnership with single-stranded DNA

Linker histone H1 appears capable of distinguishing between single-stranded and double-stranded DNA, suggesting that its role in maintaining our genomes extends far beyond that of keeping chromosomes compact.
streptococcus pyrogens
Science News

A synthetic antibiotic may help turn the tide against drug-resistant bacteria

The compound attacks MRSA, C. diff, and several other deadly pathogens. Its discovery demonstrates the power of combining computational biology, genetic sequencing, and synthetic chemistry to study bacterial evolution.
staphylococcus aureus
Science News

The genetic underpinnings of severe staph infections

A mutated gene may explain why some Staphylococcus aureus infections turn lethal, a finding with significant implications for people living with 5p- syndrome.
Titia de Lange
Awards and Honors

Titia de Lange elected to the Royal Society

She receives the honor for elucidating mechanisms of telomere protection and genome maintenance.
infusion therapy
Science News
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In Brief

Antibody therapy controls HIV for months in new clinical trial

Unlike conventional antiretroviral drugs, treatment with broadly neutralizing antibodies does not rely on vigilant daily dosing and could potentially reduce the body’s reservoir of latent viruses.
Shixin Liu portrait
Campus News

Shixin Liu, expert in single-molecule studies of biological machines, is promoted to associate professor

Liu’s pioneering research on nano-scale molecular events is furthering our knowledge of how DNA replication and gene expression are regulated.
Kivanç Birsoy portrait
Campus News

Kivanç Birsoy, expert on cancer cell metabolism, is promoted to associate professor 

Birsoy's groundbreaking research has highlighted key nutrients that cancer cells need to survive, while shedding light on debilitating mitochondrial diseases and rare genetic disorders.
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