Jaenisch Lab

Click here to view the latest multimedia piece in the Unusual Labmates series and learn more about how researchers at Whitehead Institute are using bat biology to study questions about viral infection, immunity, cold tolerance, and more. 

Our latest Research Highlights video features three exciting new findings from Whitehead Institute: New work from the Jaenisch lab helps explain bats' impressive resistance to viruses; researchers in the Young lab identify a common denominator underlying chronic disease states; and researchers in the Cheeseman lab identify precise regulatory mechanisms controlling the production of protein variants during mitosis.

Whitehead Institute Member Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues took an interdisciplinary approach to develop a new stem cell-derived model of vascular cells, with which they identified how SARS-CoV-2 can cause vascular complications such as blood clots and strokes.

Bats rarely get sick from deadly viruses like Ebola and Nipah despite carrying them. Now, Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues have found that while the SARS-CoV-2 virus can enter bat cells, the innate immune system prevents it from replicating and hijacking the cell's machinery.

In order for researchers to understand the biology of living organisms, they must consider what is happening across the size scale. Interactions between molecules drive interactions between cells that affect traits and behaviors. Experiences and decisions made by the organism can lead to changes at the cellular and molecular level. In order to understand the full picture, Whitehead Institute researchers study everything from molecules to cells to whole organisms.

Researchers at Whitehead Institute are employing cutting-edge techniques that combine layers of data — from the function of individual genes to the interactions of all molecules within a living organism — to investigate biological phenomena with unprecedented depth and breadth. Their efforts are yielding a richer understanding of the mechanisms involved in health and disease.

Whitehead Institute Member Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues found that Rett Syndrome can cause significant mitochondrial dysfunction in astrocytes, a brain cell type that supports neurons, and in neurons that later acquire these mitochondria.

In Parkinson’s disease, clumps of sticky proteins trigger inflammation in the brain, leading to neuronal death. Whitehead Institute’s Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues have now found that a mutation causing these proteins to misfold and become sticky can also turn the brain’s immune cells from friends to foes, possibly accelerating the progression of the disease.

Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues developed an approach to isolate and analyze phagosomes, which are an important organelle in microglia, a type of immune cell found in the brain. Microglia are involved in brain development, as well as neurodegeneration, brain cancer, and more so understanding their biology has many potential implications.