Cell Biology

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.

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.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is part of everyday life and has innumerable uses — from summarizing a book or designing a poster, to recommending a TV show or parking your car. But how can AI be useful in biology? In this video narrated by Whitehead Institute Member Rick Young, learn how scientists are taking advantage of AI to greatly accelerate biological discoveries.

Questions about biology, human health, and disease from area students answered by Whitehead Institute scientists in our Ask a Scientist series. Watch the latest Ask a Scientist video or learn more at BioNook.

Valhalla Fellow Lindsey Backman explains what the microbiome is and the roles that different members of our microbiomes play in health and disease. She also discusses how her lab studies adaptations that some microbes have evolved to tolerate oxygen-containing environments, and how researchers may be able to use what she learns to create better antibiotics and probiotics.

Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman and colleagues used large-scale systematic genetic screens to identify the molecules and pathways that populate the mitochondrial surface with important and diverse signaling proteins. They deciphered the logic by which the cell ensures the proper delivery of these proteins. These findings may have important implications for understanding the impact on health and disease when these processes go awry.

The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) has elected Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman as a Fellow of the Society.

Whitehead-Broad team harnesses new pooled, image-based screening method to probe the functions of over 5,000 essential genes in human cells.

Much of biology is defined by activity: the rapid growth of an embryo, or the adventurous life cycle of a parasite, or the frenzied evolution of cancer cells. But for two Whitehead Institute researchers, there is much to learn by studying periods of rest.