Glands and Ducts Reveals Roles in Homeostasis and Wound Repair
Herpes in STAT1 deficiency
Scale invariance in the dynamics of spontaneous behavior
Mechanistic basis for low threshold mechanosensitivity in voltage-dependent K+ channels
Tiki1 Is Required for Head Formation via Wnt Cleavage-Oxidation and Inactivation
Apoptotic and antitumor activity of death receptor antibodies require inhibitory Fcγ receptor engagement
Mouse model of endemic Burkitt translocations reveals the long-range boundaries of Ig-mediated oncogene deregulation
Telomere-driven tetraploidization occurs in human cells undergoing crisis and promotes transformation of mouse cells
Dynamics of TGF-β signaling reveal adaptive and pulsatile behaviors reflected in the nuclear localization of transcription factor Smad4
dSarm/Sarm1 Is Required for Activation of an Injury-Induced Axon Death Pathway
Contingency and statistical laws in replicate microbial closed ecosystems
Expression of the zinc finger transcription factor zDC (Zbtb46, Btbd4) defines the classical dendritic cell lineage
Radio-wave heating of iron oxide nanoparticles can regulate plasma glucose in mice
Viral-induced encephalitis initiates distinct and functional CD103+ CD11b+ brain dendritic cell populations within the olfactory bulb
Skin cells that have lost their luster flake off and are replaced by new ones that push their way up to the surface. In new research that further dissects how stem cells specialize into tissue cells, scientists now show how these new skin cells arise — work that may one day hold promise for burn victims. More »
Two proteins enable skin cells to regenerate
Tags: regeneration, skin, stem cells
New research supports model for nuclear pore complex
The pores that control what passes in and out of the cell nucleus play a crucial role in the cell’s metabolism and signaling. Defects in structure and function of these gatekeepers, known as nuclear pore complexes, can have lethal consequences. New research reveals secrets about what may be a key design feature of these structures, a flexibility enabling the import and export of large molecules. More »
Tags: nuclear pore complex
Scientists identify stomach’s timekeepers of hunger
The problem with dieting is that it leaves you hungry. But scientists have now identified specific cells in the stomach that are behind the body’s craving for food. In new research that has implications for the treatment of obesity, scientists have shown that these cells release the hormone ghrelin, which in animals causes foraging behavior even when they’re not hungry. The findings could help researchers develop drugs that would curb dieters’ appetites before that first bite. More »
Tags: circadian clock, hunger
Anthrax bacteria conspire with viruses to stay alive
New research suggests that anthrax-causing bacteria work synergistically with viruses to extend each other’s life spans. The work puts scientists on a new playing field in the fight against biological warfare and antibiotic-resistance, and also calls into question the degree to which our genomes are the sole masters of our fates. More »
Tags: Anthrax
Model suggests how life’s code emerged from primordial soup
It would seem a stunning improbability for a whirlwind to spin through a junkyard and leave behind a fully assembled jumbo jet. This colorful metaphor by astronomer Fred Hoyle points out the difficulties encountered by scientists when they try to understand how life could have emerged billions of years ago. Researchers at Rockefeller University now show how crude pieces of a genetic system could self-assemble and generate the rules of life’s most fundamental code. More »
Tags: Amino acids, Building blocks, Life, RNA
Acute stress improves working memory, research suggests
Stress is no fun. Chronic stress can ruin your health. But the body’s response to troubling situations is not without benefit. New research shows that after a brief encounter with a stressful scenario, the resulting acute stress actually makes you smarter. Or at least it improves the working memory of rats by ramping up production of neurotransmitters in the prefrontal cortex, a key region of the brain controlling emotion and cognition. More »
Tenure awarded to RNA researcher Thomas Tuschl
The university promotes a biochemist who researches RNA interference (RNAi), the process by which small RNA molecules interfere with gene expression. More »
Tags: RNA, Thomas Tuschl
Songbirds’ elaborate cries for food show first signs of vocal learning
How a handful of social animals ever learned to actively style their vocal communication is a question that has dogged biologists for generations. New research in chipping sparrows suggests that the talent originally appeared in these songbirds as a competition for food among siblings and later evolved into vocal imitation used in territorial defense and courtship. More »
New imaging studies reveal mechanics of neuron migration
In the developing brain, generations of young neurons undergo a staged migration, with the earliest-born cells staying relatively close to their birthplace and subsequent generations traveling further, ultimately stratifying into six neuronal layers in the mature brain. For the first time, imaging studies have identified the “motors” that propel this unique form of cell migration, giving insight into the delicate layering of the brain that underlies the formation of synaptic circuitry. More »
Tags: Mary E. Hatten, Neurons
Head of Rockefeller University Press named 2009 SPARC Innovator
Mike Rossner, executive director of The Rockefeller University Press, has been named the newest SPARC Innovator by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Announced last week, the award honors Rossner for his work as a proponent of data integrity in and wider public access to scientific publishing. More »
By manipulating oxygen, scientists coax bacteria into a wave
Bacteria know that they are too small to make an impact individually. So they wait; they multiply, and then they engage in behaviors that are only successful when all cells participate in unison. There are hundreds of behaviors that bacteria carry out in such communities. Now researchers have discovered that bacteria form an unusual solitary wave, a behavior that has never been observed or described before in a living system. More »
Tags: Albert J. Libchaber, bacteria
Handle with care: Telomeres resemble DNA fragile sites
Although telomeres are fragile, they don’t have to be handled with care. Researchers at Rockefeller University now show that what keeps our fragile telomeres from falling apart is a protein known as TRF1 that ensures the smooth progression of DNA replication to the end of a chromosome. The work not only shows how telomeres help chromosomes protect their vulnerable ends but also reveals how the genome is made more stable by them. More »
Tags: Telomeres, Titia de Lange
Research suggests core nuclear pore elements shared by all eukaryotes
About 1.7 billion years ago, the cell nucleus burst onto the scene, sequestering the cell’s genetic material inside a protective inner membrane and setting the stage for the evolution of increasingly sophisticated creatures from yeast, say, to plants and human beings. Now research shows that one of the most basic design principles of this new eukaryotic life-form — the gatekeeper to the cell nucleus known as the nuclear pore complex — is largely shared across even the most distantly related eukaryotes. More »
Tags: eukaryotes, nuclear pore complex
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. More »
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. More »
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. More »
Tags: MicroRNAs, Robert B. Darnell
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. More »
Tags: Jeffrey M. Friedman
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. More »
Research 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. More »
Tags: Bruce S. McEwen
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. More »
Tags: C. David Allis
