Researchers at Whitehead Institute have discovered the master regulator necessary for the pervasive parasite Toxoplasma gondii to chronically infect its host. This finding provides important insights into the parasite’s biology and allows scientists in the laboratory to control if and when the parasite can differentiate into its chronic stage, which may inform research into prevention and treatment of infection.
Kacper Rogala is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member David Sabatini’s lab investigating the structure and interactions of proteins involved in an important metabolic pathway. We sat down with Rogala to learn more about him and his experiences in and out of the lab.
Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered that particular signaling pathways, which transmit environmental cues and effect changes in gene expression, rely on phase-separated condensates to find, occupy, and activate the right genes in each cell type
Pena, who hails from Brazil, studies in Whitehead Institute Member David Sabatini's lab how cells calibrate their growth, metabolism, and proliferation based on nutrient availability
Whitehead Institute and Broad Institute researchers determine that cancer cells commonly change their energy source, creating a weakness that the drug elesclomol exploits to resensitize cancer cells to proteasome inhibitors
