Gehring Lab

Endowed chairs are generally created through philanthropic gifts from individual donors, organizations, or groups of donors honoring a specific person. The chairs — of which Whitehead Institute currently has five — provide steady, predictable funding to support investigations in Members’ labs.

Despite their distinct evolutionary histories, different species can sometimes arrive at similar solutions for survival. The work of various researchers at Whitehead Institute investigates this fascinating phenomenon, called convergent evolution, through the lens of shared mechanisms governing reproduction, development, and regeneration across a range of species.

Honoring one of the world’s most accomplished and respected scientists—and the Founding Director of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research—Whitehead Institute has established the David Baltimore Chair in Biomedical Research.

To avoid widespread famine and malnutrition, the world must double current food production by 2050, and do so in the face of climate-driven pressures. That is why a key thrust of the Whitehead Initiative on Biology, Health, and Climate Change focuses on plant seeds, the source of more than two-thirds of calories currently consumed globally.

Evolution is often furthered through conflict. New research from the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Mary Gehring zeros in on how parent plants butt heads over control of gene expression in the nutrient rich tissue called the endosperm.

$3 Million grant will underwrite bioengineering of orphan crops as a method for enhancing global food security
 

Researchers are settling into a cautious equilibrium as the world enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Mary Gehring created a new way to study a family of enzymes that control gene expression in plants. Their method reveals how these enzymes affect key decisions in plant development, including when to produce flowers.

Some of the most important tools in researchers’ toolkits are the model organisms they use to study biological questions. How do researchers decide which species, out of the millions that exist, to develop as models? Whitehead Institute researchers have had a hand in establishing and promoting the use of several model organisms over the years.