https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Rockefeller University Decades of reliance on the antibiotic rifampicin have fueled the rise of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). But as the bacterium mutates to protect itself from the drug, it also creates new weak points that other therapies could exploit. Now, a new study published in Nature Microbiology shows that the most common rifampicin-resistance mutation slows bacterial RNA polymerase, creating vulnerabilities that future combination therapies may be able to target. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-germ-drug-resistance-achilles-heel.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:49:44 EDT news699540338 If you ask a child to draw an animal that doesn't exist, they'll often cobble together components from real ones—say, the body of a seal with an elephant's trunk, four octopus arms, and one lizard eye. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-neural-basis-thought.html Wed, 20 May 2026 12:58:43 EDT news698500344 While much is mysterious about the aging process, change over time remains its cornerstone. The biological shifts that accompany aging seemingly occur in many cells in the body. The problem is, we have tens of billions of cells, and what the changes may be in most of those cells remains unknown, in part due to traditional technical limitations. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-genomic-approaches-uncover-cellular-dynamics.html Tue, 12 May 2026 15:40:02 EDT news697815181 Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) are among the most promising new treatments for HIV, offering the potential to forego traditional daily doses of antiretroviral drugs. In one recent clinical study of bNAbs identified and developed into therapies at Rockefeller University, participants who received a single dose of two bNAbs maintained a nearly undetectable viral load for up to 20 weeks, and a third did so for about a year. These outcomes suggest a potential future of treatment-free, long-term control of the virus. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-hiv-reveals-mutations-antibody-therapies.html Tue, 12 May 2026 04:00:23 EDT news697777155 When we think about genetic inheritance, we usually leap to DNA, the four-letter code containing the instructions for building a living organism. Scientists know that DNA encodes everything from hair and eye color to a person's likelihood of developing hereditary diseases like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-hidden-inheritance-disease-dna-qa.html Mon, 11 May 2026 07:40:02 EDT news697701902 The enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP) carries out transcription, copying DNA into RNA. It's the first step in gene expression, and a process fundamental to all life. But the inner workings of this essential enzyme have long baffled scientists. Trying to work out how it performs its core chemical reaction, which stacks new RNA building blocks one nucleotide at a time, has proven especially difficult. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-captured-mid-reaction-rna-polymerase.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:17 EDT news696763261 Some 254 million people live with a chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection that is often asymptomatic for decades, only to emerge in an advanced stage of disease that turns to fatal cirrhosis or liver cancer in nearly a million people every year. The development of effective treatments for HBV infections has been stymied because we lack a good small animal model for studying the entire viral lifecycle, host response, and disease progression. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-clues-hepatitis-species-restriction-infection.html Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:20:06 EDT news696090062 Cells constantly probe their environments, searching for physical cues that guide their behavior. And yet a cell's response to its environment is always biochemical, mediated by the chemistry of its internal protein machinery. So how does a cell convert mechanical information into a molecular process? It's a long-standing mystery of cell biology, with various implications for cancer and other diseases. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-cells-mechanical-biochemical.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:00:26 EDT news696069241 In the past several years, Rockefeller University's Kivanç Birsoy and his team in the Laboratory of Metabolic Regulation and Genetics have revealed remarkable details about the antioxidant glutathione, which plays many essential roles in the body, from clearing free radicals to repairing cellular damage. Among other things, they've discovered the transporter that shuttles glutathione to where it's needed, how glutathione keeps iron levels in check, and the metabolite's complicated relationship with mitochondria, the energy center of the cell, where it both keeps the lights on yet can drive the metastasis of breast cancer. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-antioxidant-glutathione-play-key-role.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 17 Apr 2026 16:00:01 EDT news695651461 An innovative gene-editing strategy could establish a new way for the body to manufacture therapeutic proteins—including certain kinds of highly potent antibodies that are naturally difficult to produce—by reprogramming the immune system itself. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-immune-therapeutic-proteins.html Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:08 EDT news695550288 Diseases like cancer or neurodegeneration are known to arise from genetic misfires. But treating such complex conditions hasn't been simply a matter of identifying the malfunctioning genes involved. With hundreds of genetic mutations spanning diverse pathways at play, connecting the dots between a constellation of mutations and a specific outcome has proved to be enormously difficult. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-powerful-cancer-tracks-hundreds-mutations.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:00:16 EDT news695395322 Liver cancer is one of the world's deadliest cancers, and most cases are linked to chronic viral hepatitis. Yet scientists have lacked an animal model that faithfully recapitulates how the disease unfolds in people, from initial infection with a virus to liver inflammation, scarring, and cancer. Now, researchers at The Rockefeller University have developed that model, as described in the Journal of Hepatology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-mouse-virus-driven-liver-cancer.html Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:20:04 EDT news694706621 Beyond both being viruses, HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 don't seem to have a lot in common. HIV-1 is a retrovirus that integrates with its host's DNA for life and can be passed down from mother to child, while SARS-CoV-2 is contagious but temporary and cannot be inherited. And while antivirals can repress the symptoms caused by each infection, effective vaccines exist only for one. But for Rockefeller virologist Theodora Hatziioannou, the viruses have one very important thing in common: They both cause deadly pandemics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-qa-viruses-strategies-potent-antiviral.html Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:50:07 EDT news694109462 One of the most puzzling aspects of common chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis is how they become chronic. What allows an ongoing condition to stay dormant for months or even years, then seemingly spring back out of nowhere? https://phys.org/news/2026-03-lab-deep-machine-key-driver.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:00:05 EDT news693735600 Microtubules, the dynamic filaments that form the cell's internal scaffolding, have long been viewed as mere passive structural supports. But a new study reveals they play a far more active signaling role. The findings, published in Science Advances, demonstrate that microtubules are in fact regulators of enzymatic reactions through reshaping the geometry of the enzyme's substrate proteins attached to them and controlling when key events occur to conduct cell division. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-microtubules-play-role-chromosomes-cell.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:10:08 EDT news693677401 For ants, the ability to instantly distinguish nestmates from outsiders who might hijack the colony is crucial. Now, a new study shows that the system that ants use to determine who belongs in the colony is far more flexible than once thought. The findings, published in Current Biology, demonstrate how clonal raider ants update their sense of nestmate identity throughout adulthood through repeated exposure, while still retaining an intrinsic recognition of their kin. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-clonal-raider-ants-friend-foe.html Plants & Animals Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:00:01 EDT news693216061 Mass spectrometry is already a powerful tool for determining what kind and how many molecules are present in a given sample. But most instruments still analyze their molecules one or just a few at a time, an approach that is inefficient and costly, and in which rare, but significant molecules can easily fall between the cracks. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mass-spectrometers-molecules-reengineered-prototype.html Biochemistry Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:00:14 EDT news693053817 Cancers emerge from many different paths. One path begins early, in embryonic development, when a protein complex called PRC2, which regulates cell differentiation, identity, and plasticity, becomes dysfunctional. PRC2 has well-established links to breast, prostate, blood, and skin cancers, among others. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-cancer-therapies-epigenetic.html Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:40:06 EDT news692454784 Inside each of your cells lies a nucleus, its master command center. Protected inside each nucleus are your chromosomes, containing all the genetic instructions for making proteins. To keep the body operating smoothly, proteins, RNA molecules, and molecular signals must constantly flow in and out of this cellular HQ, mediating which genetic instructions are used when. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-qa-tiny-cellular-portal-vast.html Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:20:10 EDT news692291821 Our immune system relies on T cells to fight infections. But T cells don't just show up and react—first, they train, get a game plan, and coordinate their defenses in lymphoid organs. Researchers have struggled to understand how this counteroffensive evolves across these sites. Now, a new tool from researchers at The Rockefeller University and Biohub allows scientists to permanently tag recently activated T cells with a fluorescent protein to track how they travel and change during an infection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-tracking-tool-reveals-cells.html Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:00:09 EST news691938481 As we age with each passing year, we become more susceptible to chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and dementia. Scientists have long focused on fighting these conditions one at a time. Recently, however, many have begun to wonder whether they can slow aging itself. But to ward off age-related changes to the body, they must first understand what triggers them. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-atlas-aging-reshapes-cells-entire.html Gerontology & Geriatrics Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:40:03 EST news691338361 Inside every cell, thousands of molecular signals collide, overlap, and compensate, obscuring the true drivers of gene expression. Scientists have now developed a way to silence that cellular noise, revealing transcription drivers by reconstructing transcription outside of the cell. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-method-reveals-hidden-gene.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:20:04 EST news691066801 Every time a cell divides, it must copy its entire genome so that each daughter cell inherits a complete set of DNA. During that process, enzymes known as polymerases race along the DNA to copy its code and build new strands. To prevent these machines from detaching mid-copy, a clamp-like protein tethers the polymerases to DNA, while another protein, Replication Factor C (RFC), snaps that ring into place. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-protein-thought-play-role-dna.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:08:34 EST news688835281 A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that rare cases of brain inflammation linked to live-attenuated yellow fever and Chikungunya vaccines were due to autoantibodies carried in a small subset of the population, most often older adults. The FDA suspended the U.S. license for the live-attenuated chikungunya vaccine in August 2025 after adverse effects were reported; the only vaccine currently available in the U.S. cannot replicate or cause infection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-rare-cases-autoantibodies-severe-reactions.html Immunology Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:50:08 EST news688664256 Navigating the world is no mean feat, especially when the world pushes back. For instance, airflow hitting a fly on its right side can, after a turn, become a headwind. To stay on course, the fly's brain must interpret sensations that constantly shift with each turn of its body. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-brain-reveals-function-unconventional-electrical.html Neuroscience Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:32:34 EST news688235521 Obesity causes hypertension. Hypertension causes cardiovascular disease. And cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. While the link between fat and high blood pressure is clearly central to this deadly chain, its biological basis has long remained unclear. What is it about fat that impacts vascular function and blood pressure control? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-beige-fat-blood-pressure.html Cardiology Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:09 EST news687697682 Enzymes are the molecular machines that power life; they build and break down molecules, copy DNA, digest food, and drive virtually every chemical reaction in our cells. For decades, scientists have designed drugs to slow down or block enzymes, stopping infections or the growth of cancer by jamming these tiny machines. But what if tackling some diseases requires the opposite approach? https://phys.org/news/2026-01-qa-scientists-blocking-enzymes-disease.html Biotechnology Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:20:01 EST news687165330 When a baby smiles at you, it's almost impossible not to smile back. This spontaneous reaction to a facial expression is part of the back-and-forth that allows us to understand each other's emotions and mental states. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-brain-choreographing-scientists-facial-gestures.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:00:06 EST news687004201 Seals give birth only when conditions are right. After mating, a female seal can delay implantation of the embryo in the uterine wall—pausing pregnancy until she senses that her fat reserves are aligned with the season. This strategy, known as embryonic diapause, is practiced by hundreds of mammals, from mice to moose. But how does an embryo, built to follow a strict developmental schedule, seamlessly halt and restart? https://phys.org/news/2025-12-mammals-pregnancy-cancer.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 22 Dec 2025 07:55:28 EST news685612502 Attention disorders such as ADHD involve a breakdown in our ability to separate signal from noise. The brain is constantly bombarded with information, and focus depends on its ability to filter out distractions and detect what matters. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-homer1-gene-calms-mind-attention.html Genetics Mon, 22 Dec 2025 05:00:07 EST news685283142