Genetics + Genomics

Maintaining food security in the face of climate change is a complex, multifaceted problem of global importance, and so researchers are tackling it from many different angles. Whitehead Institute Member Mary Gehring is starting to work on ways to engineer crops that can better survive the effects of climate change and continue to produce high yields with high nutritional value.

This entry of Unusual Labmates features fireflies, including the American species Photinus pyralis and the Japanese species Aquatica lateralis, which graduate student Tim Fallon in Whitehead Insitute Member Jing-Ke Weng's lab is using to better understand the ability to emit light.

Whitehead Institute researchers have used thermal profiling to match a potential antiparasitic drug to its target in Toxoplasma gondii, providing insight into the parasite’s calcium signaling pathways that could help in the development of therapeutics to treat infection.