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February 9, 2010 | science news
Research identifies gene with likely role in premenstrual disorder
| Some women are especially sensitive to the natural flux of hormones in the menstrual cycle. New research points to a gene that likely influences how women respond to swings in estrogen levels and could help diagnose and treat premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a condition marked by extreme mood swings and irritability. The work also provides insight into the historically understudied area of medically relevant differences between men and women. |
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January 27, 2010 | science news
Brain arousal heightens sexual activity in male mice
| Ever since the dawn of time, teenage boys have been defined by their sexual urges. Stereotype or not, the same fate has now befallen male mice. In new research that harkens back to those awkward high school moments and uncomfortable coming-of-age memories, scientists now show that male mice genetically selected for high levels of nervous energy act like sex-crazed teenage boys: highly motivated, but awkward and inefficient. |
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January 20, 2010 | studies and trials
Clinical trial to explore link between vitamin D and cholesterol
| An unusual finding in previous studies of vitamin D-deficient patients has prompted a new clinical study at The Rockefeller University Hospital. Investigator Manish Ponda aims to discover if there is a causative relationship between vitamin D supplementation and elevated levels of small LDL cholesterol. The hospital is currently recruiting subjects for the study. |
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January 8, 2010 | science news
Loss of epigenetic regulators causes mental retardation
New findings, published in recent issues of Neuron and Science, indicate that malfunction of a protein complex that normally suppresses gene activation causes mental retardation in mice and humans and may even play a role in promoting susceptibility to drug addiction.  |
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January 8, 2010 | science news
Loosely coiled DNA helps trypanosomes make their escape
| Some animals use camouflage to outsmart their prey; others use mimicry or fake their own death. But Trypanosoma brucei, the wily parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, is the only organism we know of that can change its molecular identity on command to escape the grip of the human immune system. New research reveals a key discovery that has eluded scientists for decades: To avoid capture, trypanosomes must strategically uncoil their DNA. |
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December 28, 2009 | science news
DNA ‘barcoding’ reveals 95 species of life in NYC homes, students show
| Armed with the latest high-tech DNA analysis techniques, two New York City high school students examined every nook and cranny of their homes and were astonished to discover a veritable zoo of 95 animal species surrounding them, in everything from fridges to furniture. |
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December 23, 2009 | science news
Genomic differences identified in common skin diseases
| If you have dry skin, wet it, if wet skin, dry it. This has been a general rule of dermatology for centuries, but scientists are working to develop more precise treatments for the dozen-plus inflammatory skin diseases that afflict people. New research details the fine genetic and immunological differences between two of the most common skin diseases, psoriasis and atopic eczema, presenting a new way to classify the disorders as well as possible novel therapeutics. |
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December 23, 2009 | honors and awards
Titia de Lange awarded grant, named American Cancer Society Research Professor
| The head of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics has received a $400,000 grant from the American Cancer Society and has been named an American Cancer Society Research Professor. The five-year grant, which is effective January 1, 2010, will fund de Lange’s continuing research on telomeres, the strings of extra DNA that cap and protect the ends of chromosomes through numerous cycles of cell division. |
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December 18, 2009 | grants and gifts
Rockefeller University receives nearly $27 million in ARRA grants
| Investigators at The Rockefeller University have so far been awarded 41 federal grants and supplemental awards through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) — the so-called “stimulus” legislation passed by Congress last winter. Ranging in size from about $5,000 to nearly $4.6 million, the grants will fund new and ongoing projects in biomedical and clinical research and training. |
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December 17, 2009 | science news
Mutation leads to new and severe form of bacterial disease
| Everybody gets sick, but how sick you get is in your genes. New research now reveals a mutation on a gene that makes children susceptible to a severe form of mycobacterial disease. The work not only supports a controversial idea that certain genes evolved to combat specific bacteria but also reveals new mechanistic details of how the immune system fights off one of the planet’s fiercest pathogens. |
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December 4, 2009 | honors and awards
Rockefeller postdoc wins GE & Science Prize
| Michael Crickmore has been named Grand Prize winner in the essay competition, which recognizes outstanding graduate students in molecular biology. Crickmore’s essay, titled “The Molecular Basis of Size Differences,” comes with $25,000 and publication in Science. |
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IN THE NEWS
February 5, 2010
“It’s not unusual for both halves of a two-scientist couple to work in the same field, and it can be a painful dilemma to forge parallel but separate careers. But Michael Crickmore and Dragana Rogulja, both postdoctoral researchers at Rockefeller University in New York City, credit much of their success to their partnership. In their art-filled Manhattan apartment, conversations flow effortlessly from practical family matters to the latest art exhibition to the experiments they’re working on. During those conversations, they work out many of their scientific ideas — ideas that they hope will propel them into labs of their own someday. ‘We’re on the same team,’ Crickmore says.”
February 1, 2010
“Jesse Ausubel, a futurologist at Rockefeller University in New York, fears ‘the twilight of the west’ as Europe’s population thins and ages. ‘Civilisations have simply melted away because of poor reproductive rates of the dominant class ... The question may now be whether, underneath the personal decision to procreate, lies a subliminal social mood influencing the process. The subliminal mood of Europe could now be for a blackout after 1,000 years on stage.’”
January 25, 2010
“Dr. David Ho was sitting in the audience during an AIDS meeting in 2007 when the presenter flashed a cartoon onscreen to make a point. Along with his colleagues, Ho chuckled at the image of a blindfolded baseball player swinging mightily at an incoming pitch. But as amused as the scientists were, they were sobered too; they knew that the player in the cartoon was them. A swing and a miss, the image was saying, one of many in the long battle against AIDS.”
December 26, 2009
“Few of Brenda Tan’s classmates at Trinity School in Manhattan understood what she was doing when she went around requesting a single strand of hair from each of them. But after subjecting the hair to DNA testing and research, she was able to repay their trust with a reassuring conclusion. ‘They were all human,’ Ms. Tan said. The test was part of a project that Ms. Tan, 17, and another Trinity student, Matt Cost, 18, conducted with Rockefeller University and the American Museum of Natural History to study DNA barcoding. That process involves identifying species based on a single gene rather than the compete set of genes in a cell or organism.”
December 3, 2009
But despite the relatively slow start for American stem-cell research, Rockefeller's Ali Brivanlou is hopeful that the NIH approvals mark the beginning of a new era in our understanding of human development. "I consider it a shame that at the beginning of the 21st century, we know more about how development works in the worm, the fruit fly and the mouse than we know about our own development. And it's not because of scientific limitations or technological limitations," he says. "It would be nice if someday people are allowed to ask basic questions simply about where we come from as human beings. I'm optimistic that we are experiencing the first steps in the right direction."
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