Diabetes

Jesse Platt is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member Richard Young’s lab studying mechanisms of insulin resistance. He is also a practicing gastroenterologist and hepatologist. We sat down with Jesse to learn more about him and his experiences in and out of the lab.

Whitehead Institute researchers have uncovered a molecular mechanism underlying type 2 diabetes. The new finding reveals that insulin receptors, the signaling molecules that sense insulin, normally function by clustering together in cells and that this clustering is defective in insulin resistance, the basis of type 2 diabetes. The researchers hope that this work will bring about a better understanding of diabetes at a molecular level and lead to the development of new therapies.

Researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch designed a way to turn human pluripotent stem cells into insulin-resistant fat cells, providing a useful model for studying type 2 diabetes, a complex and slow-to-onset disease. 

A cartoon explainer illustrating the metabolic basis of diabetes and work being done at the Institute to work toward better therapies and improved understanding. 

Founding Member Harvey Lodish has been twice honored by the international science community for his path-breaking scientific accomplishments and intellectual leadership.

A new experimental system shows how insulin-producing beta cells react under autoimmune attack during type 1 diabetes; the results could lead to better treatments.

Whitehead Institute researchers investigate methylation, the chemical tags that help define gene expression during development and disease.