July 2, 2009 | science news
Cells use import machinery to export their goods as well

Cells use bubbles called vesicles to ferry cargo to and from the membrane. Scientists long believed that this importing and exporting were independent processes. But by imaging individual vesicles as they are fusing with the cell membrane, researchers reveal that these processes have a lot in common: Certain molecules handle cargo moving in both directions.

July 1, 2009 | honors and awards
Michael Young receives Gruber Foundation’s 2009 Neuroscience Prize

Michael W. Young, Richard and Jeanne Fisher Professor and head of the Laboratory of Genetics at Rockefeller University, has received the 2009 Neuroscience Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation for groundbreaking discoveries of the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms in the nervous system.

June 17, 2009 | science news
Genome-wide map shows precisely where microRNAs do their work

MicroRNAs are the newest kid on the genetic block. By regulating the unzipping of genetic information, these tiny molecules have set the scientific world alight with their therapeutic potential and wide-ranging applications. But the question remains: How do they work? By using a technique that molecularly cements proteins to RNAs, Rockefeller scientists have decoded a map of microRNA-messenger RNA interactions in the mouse brain, an advance that holds promise for biology and human disease.

June 16, 2009 | honors and awards
Jeffrey Friedman receives Shaw Prize for discovery of leptin

Jeffrey Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at Rockefeller, received the 2009 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. He shares the $1 million award, known as the Nobel Prize of the East, with the Jackson Laboratory's Douglas L. Coleman for their work leading to the discovery of leptin, a hormone that regulates food intake and body weight.

June 7, 2009 | science news
Research identifies 3D structure of key nuclear pore building block

New research into the molecular machine that filters all information traveling in or out of the cell nucleus contributes to an unfolding picture of cellular evolution that shows a common architecture for the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and the vehicles that transport material between different parts of the cell. Scientists have for the first time glimpsed in three dimensions the subcomplex of the NPC that is its key building block.

June 2, 2009 | science news
Report identifies early childhood conditions that lead to adult health disparities

The origins of many adult diseases can be traced to early negative experiences associated with social class and other markers of disadvantage. Confronting the causes of adversity before and shortly after birth may be a promising way to improve adult health and reduce premature deaths, researchers argue in a paper published today in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

June 1, 2009 | science news
Misreading of histone code linked to human cancer

The development of blood from stem cell to fully formed blood cell follows a genetically determined program. When it doesn’t work properly, genetic mutations can cause the developing cells to turn cancerous. In research published in the journal Nature, Rockefeller University scientists show for the first time that a misreading of blood cells’ histone code is responsible for acute myeloid leukemia, a rare form of the deadly blood cancer.

May 29, 2009 | science news
Genetic profiling reveals genes active in the earliest brain circuit construction

Screening for genes that guide the earliest formation of the embryonic brain, researchers identified 229 specifically responsible for subplate neurons, which form the initial scaffolding for assembling cortical circuits. The work indicates the breadth of factors involved in initial neurogenesis and provides investigators with a biochemical handle to start investigating the various contributions.

May 27, 2009 | appointments and promotions
New Rockefeller faculty member studies mechanisms of DNA repair

Agata Smogorzewska, a physician-scientist whose research focuses on DNA repair and on the molecular basis of Fanconi anemia, a genomic instability syndrome that leads to leukemia and other forms of cancer, will join The Rockefeller University as head of the Laboratory of Genome Maintenance.

May 26, 2009 | science news
To spread, skin cancer attacks immune dendritic cells

By knocking out or beguiling dendritic cells, some cancer cells can slip the defenses of the immune system and sack the unsuspecting body. Dendritic cells taken from one of the most common types of skin cancer have most of the known genetic and physiologic hallmarks of their able-bodied fellows in healthy skin tissue. But they fail to stimulate an effective immune response.

May 18, 2009 | honors and awards
Rockefeller University names Robert Sapolsky 2008 Lewis Thomas Prize winner

Primatologist and Stanford University neuroscientist Robert M. Sapolsky has been named the recipient of Rockefeller University’s Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science for 2008. The award recognizes Sapolsky’s 2001 publication A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons and will be presented to him at a ceremony at the university’s Caspary Auditorium on June 2.

May 14, 2009 | science news
For different species, different functions for embryonic microRNAs

Researchers at The Rockefeller University have discovered that a family of microRNAs that regulates early embryonic development is evolutionarily conserved from fish to amphibians and humans, but its function is not. The findings are a warning: Scientists should not assume that what they learn about microRNAs in animal studies will hold true for people.

May 13, 2009 | science news
Scientists develop tool to study a deadly parasite’s histone code

In a genome-wide study, scientists are the first to map the epigenetic changes that are likely to play a role in the molecular origami of transcription initiation in Trypanosoma brucei, the deadly single-celled parasite responsible for African sleeping sickness.

May 6, 2009 | science news
New tag could enable more detailed structural studies of mammalian proteins

By effectively expanding the genetic code, new research reveals a method that could theoretically be adapted to place a fluorescent probe at any position in any protein in a mammalian cell. The new technology could enable single-molecule fluorescent studies in live cells.

May 5, 2009 | honors and awards
Eric Siggia joins National Academy of Sciences

Eric D. Siggia, whose laboratory is interested in applying informatics approaches to study gene expression and other biological problems, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

April 29, 2009 | science news
New sequencing technique to prod medical benefits from killer venom

Any given venom can contain hundreds of toxins with different functions, but teasing them out of a venom sample is no mean feat. Researchers at Rockefeller University have developed a method of protein sequencing that can speed up the decoding of these toxins by orders of magnitude, raising the prospect that they will be able to test a great many of these molecules for their medical potential.

April 28, 2009 | studies and trials
New clinical study probes how light fights psoriasis

A new clinical trial under way at The Rockefeller University Hospital will literally shine light on psoriasis in hopes of finding out exactly how phototherapy works. Narrowband ultraviolet light B (UVB) therapy is known to kill off T cells, which are partly to blame for the inflammation caused by the disease. Exactly how it does that remains a mystery.

April 27, 2009 | science news
Level of cellular stress determines longevity of retinal cells

Scientists expose neurons in the fruit fly retina — and other cells — to moderate cellular stress and find a protective effect, shedding light on potential therapeutic targets that can protect against or delay the onset of neurodegeneration.

April 24, 2009 | honors and awards
Ralph Steinman awarded 2009 Albany Medical Center Prize

Head of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology and the discoverer of dendritic cells, Ralph M. Steinman is one of three recipients of this year’s Albany Medical Center Prize, at $500,000 the largest scientific prize in the country.

April 22, 2009 | grants and gifts
$10 million gift from the Simons Foundation to support new initiative with Institute for Advanced Study

A new joint initiative, which builds on the complementary strengths of the institute and the university, will involve biologists, mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists exploring quantitative and theoretical approaches to biological problems. Rockefeller’s Stanislas Leibler will be the initiative’s first joint professor.