By learning from nature without overtaxing it, Whitehead Institute Member Jing-Ke Weng aims to help develop potent new drugs for a plethora of medical problems while addressing some of the environmental concerns of typical drug development.
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.
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 special episode of AudioHelicase, we’ll hear from researchers at the Institute that are pursuing creative solutions to sustainability that combine a passion for making a difference with boundless curiosity for the living world.
Whitehead Institute researchers are shedding light on the intricacies of plant biology in order to provide insights into plant development that could contribute to improved crop yield and global food security; discover plant-derived medicines and other valuable natural products; and improve our fundamental understanding of biological processes, including gene regulation and protein folding.
Roland Kersten is a postdoctoral researcher who investigates plants to find new natural product chemistry and biosynthetic pathways in the lab of Whitehead Member Jing-Ke Weng.
Nymphaea thermarum is a tiny waterlily with big potential as a research tool to learn about the evolution of flowering plants. The fact that this research can happen is quite remarkable, because N. thermarum went extinct in the wild around 2009.