Lucila Scimone is a staff scientist in Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien’s lab studying how cells build and regenerate body parts in the flatworm planarian. We sat down with Lucila to talk about her experiences as a staff scientist and her interests in and out of the lab.
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.
Learn about the role of swarm cells in ovarian development; the single-step fate model in planarian neoblasts; and a new gene-editing technique, CRISPRoff. Our latest research highlights video features work from the labs of Ruth Lehmann, Peter Reddien and Jonathan Weissman.
Researchers at Whitehead Institute propose a new model for how the stem cells in aquatic worms called planarians commit to a specific fate. Instead of a long, slow process that occurs over many generations, the researchers suggest that the transition from “blank” stem cells to specialized cells could happen in a single division.
In this special episode of AudioHelicase, we talk to three researchers about the cells in our bodies that can regenerate – and those that can’t. We ask, why can some cells no longer renew themselves? And, importantly, can we change that?
In this video, six Whitehead Institute researchers share what they have learned from the living world, and why it's more important than ever to conserve it.
In this video, learn about new findings from Whitehead Institute researchers including a potential way to make cancer drugs more effective, how malaria-causing parasites could become less susceptible to an essential drug, and how regenerating flatworms rewire their eyes to their brains.
Kutay Deniz Atabay is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien’s lab investigating regeneration, including how neuronal circuits regenerate in various organisms including planarians, a type of flatworm. We sat down with Atabay to learn more about him and his experiences in and out of the lab.