Maggie Gustafson is a fifth-year doctoral student in the field of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology and this year’s winner of the Harry and Samuel Mann Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Her research in Chris Fromme’s lab is unlocking the secrets of a protein decision-making process that few knew existed until it was discovered at Cornell four years...

Fromme has been selected as a Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall, one of the colleges of University of Cambridge (U.K.), where he will conduct research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular...

Cells perform some moves you definitely shouldn’t try in yoga class. As immune cells hunt down invading microbes, for example, they contort themselves to fit into the narrow gaps between other...

Because they have narrow bodies and no collarbones, mice are able to squeeze through holes as small as a quarter-inch in diameter. Cancer cells similarly are able to migrate through extremely tight quarters but with a major difference: The journey often comes at a price – the deformation and, in some cases, rupture of the outer lining of a cell’s nucleus. A research group headed by Jan Lammerding, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been studying this phenomenon in hope of using it to develop both treatment and diagnostic solutions for the millions of people who deal with cancer every...

As the first person in her family to pursue a doctoral degree and a research career, Katherine Herleman did not know what to expect. During her first year at Cornell as an M.S./Ph.D. student in the field of geological sciences, she found herself “doing a lot of trailblazing” and relying on informal mentorship from her peers to find her way. Aaron Joiner, a doctoral student in the field of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, also found himself in need of peer guidance during his first year as he “struggled a lot with ‘impostor...

Research on a modified protein around which DNA is wrapped sheds light on how gene regulation is linked to aging and longevity in nematodes, fruit flies and possibly humans. The research has implications for how gene expression is regulated, and could offer a new drug target for age-related...

Adrienne Roeder, Assistant Professor in Plant Biology, was one of twelve Cornell faculty members have been awarded research grants by Affinito-Stewart Grants Program. The program, administered by the President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW), aims to increase long-term retention of women on the Cornell faculty by supporting the completion of research that is important in the tenure...

Each cell needs to constantly remodel the landscape of its surface because the thin membrane that surrounds all cells is fragile and must be renewed to protect the cell from lysis and death. And that’s where the trouble begins. To remove aged and damaged cell-surface proteins, the membrane-sculpting macromolecular machine creates vesicles. These vesicles function as “molecular trash bags,” which carry old and misfolded membrane proteins from the surface into internal recycling plants, where the waste is degraded and components are reused. That’s why Shaogeng Tang – a fourth-year doctoral student in the field of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology and recent recipient of the Harry and Samuel Mann Outstanding Graduate Student Award – is studying the ways these machines...

Cornell researchers have developed a new technique to understand the actions of key proteins required for cancer cells to proliferate. The technique will help guide the development of drugs currently in clinical trials for anti-cancer treatments that inhibit this class of proteins, called...

Receiving more than $2.8 million to further their research, six early-career Cornell professors have been named recipients of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Awards. Prof. Richard Daziano, civil and environmental engineering; Prof. Jan Lammerding, biomedical engineering; Prof. Gregory Fuchs, applied and engineering physics; Prof. Ashutosh Saxena, computer science; Prof. John Foster, computer science; and Prof. Peter Frazier, operations research and information engineering were granted the prestigious...

Integrating techniques from both engineering and biology, Prof. Jan Lammerding, cell and molecular biology, biomedical engineering, is investigating how mutations in cell nuclear proteins cause conditions ranging from inherited heart disease to premature...

Cornell researchers have uncovered the basic cell biology that helps explain heart defects found in diseases known as laminopathies, a group of some 15 genetic disorders that include forms of muscular dystrophy and between 5 percent and 10 percent of all cases of inherited heart...

To remove waste from cells, a class of membrane-sculpting proteins create vesicles — molecular trash bags — that carry old and damaged proteins from the surface of cellular compartments into internal recycling plants where the waste is degraded and components are...

Scott Emr has been reappointed to a five-year term as director of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, announced Robert Buhrman, Cornell’s senior vice provost for...

Prof. Adrienne Roeder, plant biology, is new to Cornell. She is continuing her postdoctoral work researching the role of cell division in the development of plant tissues.  Roeder works in both the Department of Plant Biology and the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular...

For the first time, a new computational method allows researchers to identify which specific molecular mechanisms are altered by genetic mutations in proteins that lead to disease. And they can apply this method to any genetic...

TORC1 is a master regulator in cells, playing a key role in such diverse processes as gene expression and protein synthesis. While previous studies have described the role that TORC1 plays in these processes, a new Cornell study has discovered yet another process where the molecule is a central player: It maintains the composition of proteins in a cell’s plasma membrane, the organelle that defines the outer surface of the...

TORC1 is a master regulator in cells, playing a key role in such diverse processes as gene expression and protein synthesis. While previous studies have described the role that TORC1 plays in these processes, a new Cornell study has discovered yet another process where the molecule is a central player: It maintains the composition of proteins in a cell’s plasma membrane, the organelle that defines the outer surface of the cell. “The problem is you have hundreds of different proteins at the cell’s surface, and all of them must be turned over in a certain, regulated way,” said Jason MacGurn, a postdoctoral researcher in the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, who co-led the study with graduate student, Pi-Chiang Hsu. MacGurn and Hsu work in the lab of...

Although all cells in an organism have the same DNA, cells function differently based on the genes they express. While most studies of gene expression focus on activities in the cell’s nucleus, a new Cornell study finds that processes outside the nucleus — along the cell membrane — also play important roles in gene...

Cornell’s Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology is on track to becoming fully operational by 2013, says Director Scott Emr. The institute, made possible with a gift from Sanford ’55 and Joan Weill, opened its labs and offices in 2008 in Weill Hall. The state-of-the-art research building is part of Cornell’s New Life Sciences Initiative to drive revolutionary advances in the life sciences by integrating biology with the physical sciences, social sciences, chemistry, engineering and computer science. The institute aims to place Cornell at the forefront of cell biology research with scientists who seek to answer basic questions on the structure, function and dynamics of living...