A Cornell multidisciplinary research center that studies chronic fatigue syndrome has received a five-year, $9.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease – funding that will enable experts from disparate fields to work together on the mysterious and debilitating condition.
The Cornell Center for Enervating Neuroimmune Disease,…
Provided/Leslie Babonis
Developing stinging cells (magenta and aqua) in a larva of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.
When scientists disabled a single regulatory gene in a species of sea anemone, a stinging cell that shoots a venomous miniature harpoon for hunting and self-defense shifted to shoot a sticky thread that entangles prey instead, according to a new study.
The research, carried out in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, shows how disabling a gene, called NvSox2, enabled a transition from a…
A seminal fluid protein transferred from male to female fruit flies during mating changes the expression of genes related to the fly’s circadian clock, Cornell research has found.
A seminal fluid protein transferred from male to female fruit flies during mating changes the expression of genes related to the fly’s circadian clock, an innovative technique has revealed.
The finding, published Jan. 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help explain how this protein, called sex peptide, alters the female’s behavior.
Post-mating, sex peptide…
The Office of Academic Integration has announced 14 new Multi-Investigator Seed Grants to foster multidisciplinary collaborations between Cornell’s Ithaca and New York City campuses – the latest in a series of efforts creating new opportunities for researchers to work together and leading to more than $64 million in federal funding over the past four years.
The current round of grants,…
Warden Lab/Provided
The lateral habenula in the mouse brain, with axons streaming down to dopaminergic and serotonergic centers.
A tiny but important area in the middle of the brain acts as a switch that determines when an animal is willing to work for a reward and when it stops working, according to a study published Aug. 31 in the journal Current Biology.
“The study changes how we think about this particular brain region,” said senior author Melissa Warden, assistant professor and Miriam M. Salpeter Fellow in the…
Another Believer/Creative Commons license 3.0
Interior of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
An agricultural economist, a theoretical physicist, a plant biologist and a physiologist have each been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the academy announced May 3.
The newly elected members include Chris Barrett, the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business;…
Junpeng Lai/Binghamton University
An orb-weaver spider perched in the hub of its wheel-shaped web. The “claw” at the tip of each leg is “hooked” gently onto strategically placed strands of web silk and positioned to “listen” to the miniscule vibrations induced by sound waves that pass through the web.
Charlotte’s web is made for more than just trapping prey.
A study of orb weaver spiders finds their massive webs also act as auditory arrays that capture sounds, possibly giving spiders advanced warning of incoming prey or predators.
In experiments, the researchers found the spiders turned, crouched or flattened out in response to sounds, behaviors that spiders have been known to exhibit…
Scott Pitnick/Syracuse University
Fruit fly sperm with heads labelled with a red or a green fluorescent protein, swimming inside a female fruit fly’s reproductive tract.
Long considered exclusively male, it turns out that sperm become partly female after mating, according to a new study of fruit flies.
The paper, published March 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, revealed that by four days after a sperm enters a female, close to 20% of its proteins are female-derived.
The researchers discovered that first seminal fluid…
Matthew Meiselman/Provided
Dorsal neurons (green) express AstC peptide (magenta) in the female fly brain.
Scientists have uncovered a set of neurons in fruit flies that shut down in cold temperatures and slow reproduction, a system conserved in many insects, including mosquitoes, which could provide a target for pest control.
Their study, published Feb. 16 in the journal Current Biology, takes a step toward understanding how a fly’s brain contributes to sensing the cold and limiting reproduction…
Assistant professors Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz, Daniel Halpern-Leistner, Pamela Chang, and Peter McMahon have won 2022 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowships support early-career faculty members’ original research and education related to science, technology, mathematics and economics.
Fernandez-Ruiz is in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior…
Cedric Feschotte, professor of molecular biology and genetics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, studies endogenous retroviruses – bits of viral DNA, originating from ancient infections, that have become incorporated in the human genome.
Thanks to a seed grant from Cornell’s Office of Academic Integration, Feschotte has teamed up with Douglas Nixon, professor of…
Kellogg Lab provided
A cryo-electron microscopy image of TnsC filaments.
A new study describes how an interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers used a state-of-the-art microscopy technique to reveal protein structures and key steps of a CRISPR-Cas system that holds promise for developing an improved gene editing tool.
Eventually, these findings could lead to a reliable CRISPR-Cas system that allows scientists to insert larger cargoes of genetic information into…
A new Penn State and Cornell study describes an effort to produce the most comprehensive and high-resolution map yet of chromosome architecture and gene regulation in yeast, a major step toward improving understanding of development, evolution and environmental responses in higher organisms.
Specifically, the study mapped precise binding sites of more than 400 different chromosomal…
Since the genetics revolution, biologists have been working to understand the roles that individual genes play, often with the help of advanced techniques.
One such method, mosaic analysis, has led to many discoveries of the functions of genes. Although mosaic analysis has been widely used in Drosophila, a popular model organism, it is much harder to implement in other organisms.
A new…
The development of primary visual cortex and other primary sensory areas in the brain are well studied and understood. But very little is known about how higher cortical areas develop after the primary ones are in place. These secondary areas surround the primary areas and further integrate information in subsequent stages of processing.
Similarly, very little is known about how these…
Scientists have known that females of many species eat more to meet the demands of reproduction, and that females undergo widespread physiological and behavioral changes after mating. The mechanisms of these changes, however, are not well understood. A new study of the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has identified a protein in the male’s seminal fluid that triggers the female’s…
Scientists have detected signs of a frog listed extinct and not seen since 1968, using an innovative technique to locate declining and missing species in two regions of Brazil. The frog, Megaelosia bocainensis, was among seven total species – including four other declining species, and two that had disappeared locally for many years – that were detected. The findings appeared in a paper, “Lost…
While many other animals are known to engage in group fidelity, where one male mates and socially bonds exclusively with two or more females, a new study documents this behavior for the first time in an amphibian. The study, “Unexpected Reproductive Fidelity in a Polygynous Frog,” appeared August 12 in the journal Science Advances. The male Thoropa taophora (T. taophora) river frog in the…
Antonie Blackler, professor emeritus of zoology and an expert on developmental biology, died June 3 in Ithaca. He was 88. He was known for groundbreaking fundamental work on the origin of sex cells in vertebrates. His experiments with African claw-toed frogs yielded important insights into the development and reproduction of amphibian embryos, with implications for other animals and humans. His…
Cornell scientists have developed a new technique for imaging a zebrafish’s brain at all stages of its development, which could have implications for the study of human brain disorders, including autism. Zebrafish are translucent when young, making them good models for live imaging, but they become opaque with age, which has prevented researchers from seeing into a live adult brain. Now, an…
In labs for the class Mushrooms, Molds and More, students are discovering fungi in their areas and sharing photos of them via Instagram and using online resources to identify mushrooms. And in the class Hands-On Horticulture for Gardeners, Professor Marvin Pritts has asked students to design their own experiments, such as determining whether music helps plants grow, or what the best method might…
When Mariana Wolfner, a Cornell geneticist and molecular biologist, learned March 15 she needed to suspend all noncritical research as part of the university’s effort to stem the coronavirus outbreak, she had two main concerns.The first was how best to help her students.“Everyone is just stunned ..., obviously because of the coronavirus, but also because of their research suddenly stopping or…
Gene drives use genetic engineering to create a desired mutation in a few individuals that then spreads via mating throughout a population in fewer than 10 generations.A CRISPR gene drive that carries a red fluorescent protein as payload is spread through a population of fruit flies in laboratory experiments.In theory, such a mechanism could be used to prevent malarial mosquitoes from…
With the recent emergence of the coronavirus from China’s Hubei province, another “virus” has the potential to spread, a Cornell faculty member said Tuesday at a wide-ranging panel discussion on the outbreak.“It’s very clear that the epidemic, the coronavirus, is rapidly spreading and changing,” said Wendy Wolford, vice provost for international affairs and professor of global development. “[I]t…
Cornell researchers have uncovered the structure of a regulatory mechanism unique to bacteria, opening the door for designing new antibiotics targeted to pathogens.As the threat of antibiotic-resistant germs grows, the discovery offers hope for finding an alternative way to target disease-causing bacteria.The researchers’ study, “Structural Basis for tRNA Decoding and Aminoacylation Sensing by T…
The second annual Intercampus Cancer Symposium, Oct. 11 at the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, will highlight the wide range of cancer research taking place at Cornell’s Ithaca campus and at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.Cutting-edge cancer research at Cornell occurs across many different departments, colleges and the two campuses, yet historically there has not been a unified…
When chemical biologist Jeremy Baskin played piano as a child, his parents noticed something unusual: He loved to improvise.“I was always noodling around to see what new and interesting things could happen,” said Baskin, an assistant professor and Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Weill Institute for Cell…
While human relations with honeybees date back about 4,500 years, little has been known about how bees live in the wild.Now, a new book describes the biology and behaviors of wild honeybees and takes lessons from nature to inform small-scale beekeepers on how to manage their hives to better face modern challenges.The book, “The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild” …
Tyler Barr learned about leadership under pressure while attending a summer program at officer candidate school as a midshipman in the Marine Corps ROTC program at Cornell.He called it “by far the most difficult six weeks of our lives,” as he recounted sleeping and eating very little while being pushed to his physical limits.“That’s when you really learn what you’re made of and you get to utilize…
A Cornell researcher, who is a leader in developing a new type of gene editing CRISPR system, and colleagues have used the new method for the first time in human cells – a major advance in the field.The new system, called CRISPR-Cas3, can efficiently erase long stretches of DNA from a targeted site in the human genome, a capability not easily attainable in more traditional CRISPR-Cas9 systems…
A fungal disease that afflicts amphibians has led to the greatest loss of biodiversity ever recorded due to a disease, according to a paper published March 29 in Science.The fungus – which degrades the skin of amphibians – has caused the worldwide decline of at least 501 species of frogs, toads and salamanders, including 90 extinctions.Human trade and development have helped spread…
Two operations research and information engineers, two electrical engineers and two mathematicians from Cornell have received National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program awards. Over the next five years, each researcher will receive up to $500,000 “to build a firm scientific footing for solving challenges and scaling new heights for the nation, as well as serve as…
Cornell and Binghamton University researchers report for the first time that mosquitoes can hear over distances much greater than anyone suspected.The findings were published Feb. 7 in the journal Current Biology.Until now, it was believed that organisms required eardrums for long-range hearing, and that the feathery antennae with fine hairs that mosquitoes and some insects use to hear only…
Lack of varied seasons and temperatures in tropical mountains have led to species that are highly adapted to their narrow niches, creating the right conditions for new species to arise in these areas, according to a new study published Nov. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Still, the same traits that make tropical mountains among the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth…
In 1959, Russian scientists began an experiment to breed a population of silver foxes, selecting and breeding foxes that exhibited friendliness toward people. They wanted to know if they could repeat the adaptations for tameness that must have occurred in domestic dogs. Subsequently they also bred another population of foxes for more aggressive behavior.After 10 generations, a small fraction of…
A project to develop topical therapies for skin diseases associated with DNA damage and another to investigate bone-binding polymers to relieve bone-on-bone pain for those with severe osteoarthritis are two of nine projects awarded 2018-19 Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) grants.CAT is housed in Cornell’s Institute of Biotechnology.The one-year grants are given to faculty in life sciences…
Cornell researchers have discovered there is a division of labor among immune cells that fight invading pathogens in the body.The study, published June 14 in the journal Cell, finds for the first time that fetal immune cells are present in adults and have specialized roles during infection. In fact, the first immune cells made in early life are fast-acting first responders to microbes in…
As the Cornell Institute of Host-Microbe Interactions and Disease(CIHMID) wraps up its first year, the launch of its Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) proved to be a highlight, say institute leaders.CIHMID serves as a hub for the spokes of host-microbe biology and disease across Cornell and includes researchers in departments in the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arts and…
Genes in an area of the brain that is relatively similar in fish, humans and all vertebrates appear to regulate how organisms coordinate and shift their behaviors, according to a new Cornell study.The paper on plainfin midshipman fish, published Jan. 18 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, highlights a suite of genes in the preoptic area – anterior hypothalamus (POA-AH) that are expressed…
President Martha E. Pollack has committed the university to a new multi-institution initiative to make public data pertaining to career outcomes for life sciences doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers.Specifically, nine universities and one research institute announced the Coalition for Next Generation Life Science in a policy article in the Dec. 15 issue of Science, authored by each…
When honeybee colonies get larger, common sense suggests it would be noisier with more bees buzzing around.But a study recently published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiologyreports that bigger honeybee colonies actually have quieter combs than smaller ones.“The surprising result was that – and at first I thought something must be wrong – when there are more bees on the comb, the vibrations are…
Maren Vitousek, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has received a two-year, $500,000 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award to study links between stress, social connectedness, health and future performance. The DARPA Young Faculty Award program provides funding, mentoring and industry and Department of Defense contacts to awardees early in…
Five Cornell faculty members, including one in the College of Arts & Sciences, have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.AAAS elected 396 new fellows for 2017, honoring their efforts to advance research and its applications in scientifically or socially distinguished ways. New fellows will…
Reducing antibiotic resistance in animals and developing a lubricating formula in joints for people suffering from arthritis are two of seven projects that received Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) annual grants.
Since 1983, the one-year grants support biotechnology research that shows market potential. The grants are given to faculty in such life sciences fields as biomedical…
What began as a Twitter joke between two researchers has turned into a four-year, $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant to take 3-D digital scans of 20,000 museum vertebrate specimens and make them available to everyone online.Cornell’s Museum of Vertebrates, with 1.3 million fish specimens, 27,000 reptiles and amphibians (called herps), and 57,000 bird and 23,000 mammal specimens, is…
“How do we reconcile stable truth with multiple understandings of truth?” Bruce Lewenstein, professor of science communication, posed that question during an academic symposium, “Universities and the Search for Truth,” held Aug. 24 in Bailey Hall. The event was part of the celebration of Martha E. Pollack’s inauguration as Cornell’s 14th president.Faculty members from a range of disciplines – law…
David B. Wilson, professor of molecular biology and genetics and a world leader in the field of enzymology, died April 29. He was 77.Wilson was a pioneer in the study of cellulases, which are enzymes from bacteria, fungi and plants that have evolved to decompose cellulose, the principal structural component of plant cell walls and the most abundant polymer in the biosphere. Cellulases break down…
