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Cancerous tumors are diverse communities of cells, which in addition to cancer cells may contain vascular cells, immune cells, and connective tissue-generating fibroblasts. Cancer cells can manipulate other cell types to help the cancer grow and spread, while cancer therapies can manipulate other cell types to prevent cancer growth or even kill cancer cells. As researchers learn more about how cancer cells interact with other cell types and components of the tumor microenvironment, they not only learn more about how cancer progresses, but also discover new opportunities to treat cancer.

Researchers at Whitehead Institute are developing models and approaches that capture more of the rich context in which biological processes are typically immersed, in order to learn more about them and their roles in health and disease. Learn more about how their work is revealing new insights that only become apparent when studying a process within the context of larger systems in which it operates.

Humans don't regrow body parts after an injury, but certain animals can and do. The planarian, a tiny, water-dwelling flatworm, is one such organism. This multipart video explainer follows the journey of a neoblast — a versatile cell in the planarian crucial for regeneration — and explores what regeneration research could mean for human health.

Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman and colleagues, together with collaborators in Xiaowei Zhuang’s laboratory at Harvard University, developed an approach to collect multiple types of imaging and sequencing data from the same set of cells in animals, leading to new insights into liver biology in mice.

Science in 60 breaks down the latest research at Whitehead Institute through one-minute explainers. In this video, Xochitl Luna discusses investigating the role of microglia—the brain’s resident immune cells—in multiple sclerosis.

Colleagues and former students gathered, on the occasion of his retirement, to reflect on Fink’s extraordinary career and his transformative role in science.

Whitehead Institute’s physician-scientists—researchers who also practice medicine—are highly motivated by the goal of improving patients’ outcomes. What drew them to Whitehead Institute is the possibility of making paradigm-shifting discoveries that can lead to major advances in medicine.