A new study from the Cao lab in Cell Reports maps—cell by cell—how caloric restriction reshapes the aging mammalian brain. The team profiled over 500,000 brain cells from mice across three ages, comparing mice on a diet versus those eating normally. They found that restricting calories curbed the age-related expansion of inflammatory cells and preserved cells that support blood vessels and myelination. It also reduced senescence-linked genes and revived circadian-clock genes, especially in ventricles and white matter. Region-specific gene programs tied to cognition and myelin maintenance were partially restored, suggesting targeted protection of brain functions. Although these findings are in mice, the integrated single-cell and spatial approach reveals concrete pathways and potential therapeutic targets for mimicking or amplifying the beneficial effects of caloric restriction to rescue brain aging. Read the full study below.
Applications for faculty positions at Rockefeller are now open! We are dedicated to recruiting the most brilliant biomedical research scientists, allowing them to choose their scientific pursuits, providing them with comprehensive support, and surrounding them with collaborative and energetic colleagues who are leaders in their fields. We invite applications from outstanding candidates for tenure-track positions, and also welcome applications from tenured scientists in early stages of their careers. Applications from physician-scientists are encouraged. We are committed to creating and supporting a faculty of collaborative individuals from different scientific backgrounds with a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Learn more below.
Applications for faculty positions at Rockefeller are now open! We are dedicated to recruiting the most brilliant biomedical research scientists, allowing them to choose their scientific pursuits, providing them with comprehensive support, and surrounding them with collaborative and energetic colleagues who are leaders in their fields. We invite applications from outstanding candidates for tenure-track positions, and also welcome applications from tenured scientists in early stages of their careers. Applications from physician-scientists are encouraged. We are committed to creating and supporting a faculty of collaborative individuals from different scientific backgrounds with a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Learn more below.
Applications for faculty positions at Rockefeller are now open! We are dedicated to recruiting the most brilliant biomedical research scientists, allowing them to choose their scientific pursuits, providing them with comprehensive support, and surrounding them with collaborative and energetic colleagues who are leaders in their fields. We invite applications from outstanding candidates for tenure-track positions, and also welcome applications from tenured scientists in early stages of their careers. Applications from physician-scientists are encouraged. We are committed to creating and supporting a faculty of collaborative individuals from different scientific backgrounds with a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Learn more below.
Applications for faculty positions at Rockefeller are now open! We are dedicated to recruiting the most brilliant biomedical research scientists, allowing them to choose their scientific pursuits, providing them with comprehensive support, and surrounding them with collaborative and energetic colleagues who are leaders in their fields. We invite applications from outstanding candidates for tenure-track positions, and also welcome applications from tenured scientists in early stages of their careers. Applications from physician-scientists are encouraged. We are committed to creating and supporting a faculty of collaborative individuals from different scientific backgrounds with a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Learn more below.
In an interview with El Médico Interactivo, a Medscape Network platform, Rockefeller researcher Svetlana Mojsov reflects on how her discovery of GLP-1 has helped millions of people manage their diabetes and obesity, as well as the importance of mentorship, collaboration and translation in science. Read the full interview here: https://wb.md/4o4jFOv
A new comprehensive bibliography of more than a thousand works by René Dubos has just been published on Rockefeller's institutional repository. The e-book, assembled and annotated by our own Carol Moberg, includes books, research articles, essays, short pieces, and unpublished manuscripts. Together, they shed light on Dubos’ evolving philosophy, his earnest convictions and prescient warnings, along with his perspectives which remain relevant today. Affiliated for more than 50 years with Rockefeller, René Dubos (1901–1982) was a prominent 20th century scientist, humanist, and philosopher. His studies ranged from antibiotics and the role of bacteria in human diseases to formulating broad ecological and environmental questions affecting human health and disease. His seminal writings explore a lifelong belief that a living organism—whether microbe, human being, society, or the Earth itself—could best be understood through its relationships with everything else. Available for download below.
For many ant species, caste determines destiny. Queens grow large, sprout wings, and lay eggs; workers stay small, wingless, and industrious. But how these castes develop—and how a young ant’s future is determined by genetics and the environment, was unclear. Now, a new study suggests that body size and caste go hand in hand. Bigger ants generally become queens, while smaller ants become workers, and both genes and the environment influence how big an ant grows. But the findings, published in PNAS, also suggest that genetics alone defines the threshold for becoming a queen. Across colonies, genetically different ants of the same size, reared in the same environment, can differ in caste morphology. These results demonstrate that genes not only influence size—they change what a given size means for the colony. Two relatively small ants could have vastly different probabilities of becoming queens. “One of our goals is to understand how an insect society functions,” says Daniel Kronauer, the Stanley S. and Sydney R. Shuman Professor at Rockefeller. “Studying how individuals differentiate in a colony can inform our understanding of the types of caste systems, from queens to workers to soldiers, that can evolve in the thousands of ant species out there.”
A study from Rockefeller's Sebastian Klinge in collaboration with colleagues at Princeton University and Université libre de Bruxelles reveals how the nucleolus gives rise to ribosomes—and how scientists can use that knowledge to reshape the nucleolus itself. “We can now design and manipulate the architecture of an entire organelle,” says Sebastian Klinge, head of the Laboratory of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry. “This brings us closer to bridging the gap between atomic structure and cellular organization—and to uncovering the precise molecular mechanisms that govern organelles’ forms and functions.” Learn more here:
Most genes are ancient and shared across species. But a small subset of genes are relative newcomers, spontaneously emerging from stretches of DNA that once encoded nothing at all. Now, after nearly a decade of charting these genes in fruit flies, researchers have discovered how these de novo genes are regulated. In complementary studies, in Nature Ecology & Evolution and PNAS, the team showed how transcription factors and genomic neighbors switch these genes on and integrate them into cellular networks—the first studies to identify these master regulators. Together, the findings shed light on how new genes become functional, with broad implications for understanding evolutionary biology and gene regulation—and diseases born from their dysfunction. “The more we know about de novo regulation, the more information we have about gene expression and regulation itself,” says Li Zhao, head of the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics at Rockefeller. “That’s important not only for evolutionary biology but also for the study of diseases like cancer, which are associated with rapid genetic dysregulation.” Learn more here:
