News & HighlightsNews
New method enables scientists to see smells
Animals and insects communicate through an invisible world of scents. By exploiting infrared technology, researchers at Rockefeller University just made that world visible. With the ability to see smells, these scientists now show that when fly larvae detect smells with both olfactory organs they...
Active mechanism locks in the size of cell's nucleus
Cells know that size matters, especially when it comes to the nucleus. In the early 1900s, German scientists first proposed that the size of a nucleus is always proportional to the size of its cell. Now, more than a century later, researchers at Rockefeller University show that an active mechanis...
Most carriers of Fanconi anemia genes are not at a higher risk of cancer
For almost 50 years, Fanconi anemia has been associated with leukemia. Not just among those who have the genetic disorder but among their family members, whose genes, they were told, made them highly susceptible to a variety of malignancies. But a new study to examine links between 13 specific Fa...
New method exploits old mechanism to turn genes on and off at will
Since our ancestors first harnessed fire, we’ve used heat to cook burgers, forge steel and power rockets. Now, Rockefeller University researchers are using heat for another purpose: turning genes on and off at will. By exploiting the heat shock response, an ancient mechanism that protects cells f...
Cells use Velcro-like mechanism to keep viruses from spreading
Like mobsters, cells keep their friends close and their enemies — at least some of them — closer. According to new results from HIV researchers at Rockefeller University, one way that human cells prevent certain viruses from raging out of control is by blocking new viral particles from ever leav...
Small experience during critical period alters brain
Unlike the circuitry of the visual system, that of the olfactory system was thought to be hardwired: Once the neurons had formed, no amount of sensory input could change their arrangement. Now researchers at Rockefeller University and their collaborators have upturned this scientific dogma by sho...
Rendering of ion channel suggests how neurons fire
Four years ago, Roderick MacKinnon, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at Rockefeller University, together with several members of his lab, published the first ever structure of a voltage-dependent potassium ion channel — a protein that controls the flow of potassium ...
Multi-lab collaboration yields first detailed map of nuclear pore complex
A cell’s membrane-bound nucleus contains precious contents — its DNA — so it must be very careful about what enters and leaves this important space. To do this, it uses hundreds to thousands of nuclear pores as its gatekeepers, selective membrane channels that are responsible for regulating th...
Data suggest community involvement is the key to controlling infectious disease
The battles against infectious diseases are challenging enough in Western countries with stable infrastructure and deep-pocketed pharmaceutical firms. In an impoverished section of Latin America, they are much more difficult. But new research from Rockefeller University’s Joel E. Cohen suggests t...
Recently discovered cell is unexpected player in psoriasis
When the FDA assesses a drug, it looks closely at its safety and its effectiveness, but it doesn’t require a precise understanding of how the drug works. A new study by Rockefeller University scientists shows that a strikingly successful psoriasis drug, etanercept, may not act on the immune cells...
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