2005 News Stories

December 20, 2005

Novel mechanism for blood disease may lead to new drugs Researchers have discovered an unusual mechanism underlying myeloproliferative disease.

December 12, 2005

Cell-based nano machine breaks record A long, fibrous coil grown by a single-cell protozoan is far more powerful for its weight than a car engine.

December 8, 2005

David Page elected Director of Whitehead Institute The Whitehead Institute Board of Directors has announced that faculty Member David Page has been elected the fourth director of the Institute.

November 29, 2005

MicroRNAs shape evolution of most genes Researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member David Bartel have found that a class of small RNAs called microRNAs influence the evolution of genes far more widely than previous research had indicated.

November 24, 2005

Flatworms yield insights into the mystery of regeneration Scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and University of Utah School of Medicine have begun to understand the biological processes of how the planarian flatworm achieves complete regeneration of damaged tissue.

November 16, 2005

Signals for war Your immune system is an army on full alert. How does it recognize the enemy when it's under attack?

November 9, 2005

The grand challenge What we don't know about human embryonic stem cells could fill labs all around the world.

November 2, 2005

New tools for an old can of worms "Regeneration is one of the great mysteries of biology that has puzzled developmental biologists for well over a century," says Whitehead Associate Member Peter Reddien. But that's changing quickly as researchers bring the powerhouses of modern biological analyses to studying these processes-with the hope that a better understanding of regeneration may eventually find medical applications.

October 26, 2005

Within the folds, outside the box Feverishly hot climates. Dizzying alcohol and sugar binges. Heavy metals. Toxic drugs. Genetic mutations. Over the years, yeast, fruit flies, mustard plants and mice have struggled through their own versions of an extreme reality TV show in the laboratory of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist.

October 17, 2005

Researchers offer proof-of-concept for Altered Nuclear Transfer Scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have successfully demonstrated that a theoretical-and controversial-technique for generating embryonic stem cells is indeed possible, at least in mice.

October 5, 2005

Getting signals straight at Symposium 2005 How do organisms carry out signaling between and within their cells? Leading biologists detail their advances in understanding cell circuitry.

September 29, 2005

Pathogenic fungi reveal new mechanism for evolution Researchers in the laboratory of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist have identified a key mechanism that enables pathogenic fungi to evolve drug-resistant capabilities with such distressing rapidity.

September 21, 2005

Leah Cowen awarded Genzyme Fellowship Leah Cowen, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist, has been selected by a Whitehead committee to receive the Genzyme Postdoctoral Fellowship at Whitehead Institute.

September 14, 2005

Thijn Brummelkamp named one of the world’s top young innovators by MIT’s Technology Review magazine Whitehead Institute Fellow Thijn Brummelkamp has been chosen as one of the world's 35 Top Young Innovators by MIT's Technology Review magazine. The TR35 consists of 35 individuals under 35 years of age whose innovative work in business and technology has a profound impact on the world.

September 8, 2005

Researchers discover key to embryonic stem-cell potential Researchers working with human embryonic stem cells have uncovered the process responsible for the single-most tantalizing characteristic of these cells: their ability to become just about any type of cell in the body, a trait known as pluripotency.

September 4, 2005

Researchers discover why melanoma is so malignant Whitehead researchers discover that, unlike other cancers, melanoma is born with its metastatic engines fully revved.

August 31, 2005

Human Y chromosome stays intact while chimp Y loses genes The human and the chimpanzee Y chromosomes went their separate ways approximately 6 million years ago. But ever since this evolutionary parting, these two chromosomes have experienced different fates, ne research indicates.

August 8, 2005

Study yields insights into pathogenic fungi—and beer Chemotherapy or organ transplantation not only take a huge toll on patients, but they can compromise the immune system and leave patients vulnerable to infections from microbes such as pathogenic fungi—the fastest-growing cause of hospital-acquired infections.

July 20, 2005

Whitehead scientist uncovers the regenerative secrets of flatworms Chop a planarian flatworm in half and you end up with two healthy, wiggly worms. Unfortunately, not so with a lab mouse or fruit fly. Peter Reddien, who joins the Whitehead faculty as Associate Member this August after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah, is determined to find out why.

July 13, 2005

Whitehead's Sabatini named "Distinguished Young Scholar" by W. M. Keck Foundation Whitehead Associate Member David Sabatini has been chosen by the W.M. Keck Foundation as one of this year’s grant recipients under the Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research program.

July 6, 2005

The double life of Christopher Hug Splitting their time between lab and clinic, Whitehead physician-scientists bring research and reassurance to patients.

June 28, 2005

Knockout punch: the promise of RNAi Deep in your DNA, a gene has gone haywire and is driving up the production of a protein that is messing with your body. Wouldn’t it be great to sift through all your 20,000-something genes, find the offender, and swat it like a fly? Fortunately, a new technique eventually could do just that.

June 22, 2005

Fat chance: the biology of obesity Better understanding of fat-cell hormones will help us attack the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Harvey Lodish, a Founding Whitehead Member and professor of biology at MIT, has pioneered this field.

June 15, 2005

David Bartel honored by French academy Whitehead Institute Member David Bartel is one of two scientists to receive the annual Louis-D. Prize from the Institut de France, an organization similar in many respects to the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

June 15, 2005

Kennedy brings stem cell quest to Whitehead The United States should follow the lead of Massachusetts in legalizing responsible human embryonic stem cell research, Senator Edward Kennedy declared on June 2 at Whitehead.

June 8, 2005

Unweaving amyloid fibers to solve prion puzzles Amyloid fibers are best known as the plaque that gunks up neurons in people with neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease—the human analog of mad cow disease. But even though amyloids are common and implicated in a host of conditions, researchers haven’t been able to identify their precise molecular structures.

May 25, 2005

Array for the cell Figuring what a gene does is hard work, but it’s vastly easier than it was a few years ago. Back then, you would laboriously isolate a single gene, tinker with it to get some inkling about its purpose, and then start speculating about how it might collaborate with other genes. Now, microarrays let researchers gather exponentially more data about gene expression.

May 11, 2005

Phillip Sharp appointed to Whitehead Board of Directors Phillip Sharp, Nobel laureate and founding director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been named to the Board of Directors of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

May 5, 2005

Researchers discover mechanism for multiplying adult stem cells Researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Rudolf Jaenisch have discovered a mechanism that might enable scientists to multiply adult stem cells quickly and efficiently.

May 5, 2005

Cancer exploits the body's wound-healing process, study finds Scientists have known for the last decade that a link exists between wound healing and cancer. Now scientists in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Robert Weinberg have discovered the process by which tumors hijack normal wound-healing processes and use them for their own purposes.

May 4, 2005

David Page named to National Academy of Sciences Whitehead Institute Interim Director David Page is one of 72 new members of the National Academy of Sciences elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

April 27, 2005

When cells divide Cells are dividing all the time, and that’s a good thing. If they didn’t, our tissue and organs couldn’t replenish themselves, and pretty soon we’d be done for. But when cell division goes wrong, it can have disastrous results, such as cancer and birth defects. Scientists in the lab of Whitehead Member Terry Orr-Weaver have uncovered one of the primary mechanisms governing cell division.

March 30, 2005

Hidde Ploegh joins Whitehead Institute faculty Molecular biologist Hidde Ploegh has just been appointed to the faculty of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

March 22, 2005

David Bartel wins HHMI appointment   2005 is off to a good start for Whitehead Member David Bartel. In January, he and his colleagues published a landmark paper in the journal Cell. A week later he was honored with the National Academy of Science's prestigious Award in Molecular Biology. And in March, Bartel was appointed Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

March 16, 2005

RNAi Consortium to accelerate genetic research Whitehead Institute has joined ten other leading biomedical organizations in an $18 million, three-year public-private consortium that will create a comprehensive library of gene inhibitors to be made available to the entire scientific community.

March 3, 2005

Whitehead Board of Directors Member Bob Langer named MIT Institute Professor Robert S. Langer, the Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, has been named Institute Professor, the highest honor awarded by the MIT faculty and administration.

February 17, 2005

Researchers identify target for cancer drugs For nearly a decade, scientists have been trying to fully understand a particular communication pathway inside of cells that contributes to many malignant brain and prostate cancers.

February 9, 2005

Cell Signaling: Switches, Connectors and Circuits From yeasts to flies and worms, to mice and humans, cells signal each other in countless ways. Cell signaling is essential for normal development and for stem cells to replace aged and malfunctioning cells. On September 26, Whitehead Symposium XXIII will bring together leading scientific experts to discuss signaling molecules.

January 27, 2005

David Bartel receives NAS Award in Molecular Biology  The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has recognized the work of Whitehead Member and MIT Professor of Biology David Bartel by presenting him the NAS Award in Molecular Biology. Each year a medal and a prize of $25,000 goes to a young scientist for a recent notable discovery in molecular biology.

January 14, 2005

One-third of human genome regulated by RNA   Researchers from Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered that a kind of RNA molecule called microRNA regulates more than 5,300 human genes, or nearly one-third of the genome’s protein coding regions.

January 12, 2005

The genome club A growing list of mammals is joining humans, mice, and chimpanzees in the exclusive club of those whose whole genome has been sequenced—giving complete and matching sets of each animal's DNA, and offering researchers the opportunity to rebuild biology and medicine from the ground up.

January 5, 2005

Of peas and patterns In the 19th century, mathematical formulas didn’t figure much into biology. But when Austrian monk Gregor Mendel crossed and counted his round and wrinkled peas, he found something unexpected: a pattern.

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Last updated December 20, 2005.