Immunology

A new study led by Whitehead Institute researchers reveals how tissues that serve as barriers between the body and the outside environment tune their sensitivity to match the severity of a threat, balancing protection with its side effect of tissue damage.

Whitehead Institute Member Zuri Sullivan and colleagues propose that sickness behavior — fatigue, loss of appetite, altered sleep, and social withdrawal — is not merely a byproduct of illness, but part of an integrated, organism-wide defense system that helps promote survival.

Cancerous tumors are diverse communities of cells, which in addition to cancer cells may contain vascular cells, immune cells, and connective tissue-generating fibroblasts. Cancer cells can manipulate other cell types to help the cancer grow and spread, while cancer therapies can manipulate other cell types to prevent cancer growth or even kill cancer cells. As researchers learn more about how cancer cells interact with other cell types and components of the tumor microenvironment, they not only learn more about how cancer progresses, but also discover new opportunities to treat cancer.

Whitehead Institute’s physician-scientists—researchers who also practice medicine—are highly motivated by the goal of improving patients’ outcomes. What drew them to Whitehead Institute is the possibility of making paradigm-shifting discoveries that can lead to major advances in medicine.

Researchers across Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined faculty from Boston Children’s Hospital for a research matchmaking event, aiming to foster collaboration in fields ranging from rare disease and immunology to cancer.