News

A new Whitehead Institute study investigates the role a family of proteins called Sestrins plays in sensing the presence of the essential amino acid leucine, as well as adapting to its absence. The presence of Sestrin allows fruit flies to choose foods rich in leucine over foods without the nutrient.

Haley Licon is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member Sebastian Lourido’s lab studying how the parasite Toxoplasma gondii switches between stages during infection. We sat down with Haley to learn more about her and her experiences in and out of the lab. 

Researchers at Whitehead Institute uncover the 3-D structure of GATOR2, a protein complex that plays a critical role in a signaling pathway that regulates cell growth.

Whitehead Institute researchers find a role for condensates, droplets involved in corralling proteins inside of cells, in disease. They provide a catalog of disease-causing mutations that likely affect condensates as a resource for future research.

The amino acid leucine is necessary to build and maintain muscle. Researchers at Whitehead Institute reveal how the presence or absence of leucine is communicated to a key metabolic pathway in mice.

Gabe Lopes first attended Expedition: Bio, Whitehead Institute’s summer science program for middle school students, in 2019. He loved the experience so much that he attended again the next year. Now a high schooler, Gabe has decided to return to Expedition: Bio once more, this time as a teaching assistant.

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. 

The Pew Charitable Trusts has selected Whitehead Institute Member Ankur Jain to be a 2022 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. The Pew program provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise who work in areas of science relevant to the advancement of human health.

Arash Latifkar is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member David Bartel’s lab studying RNA viruses to learn more about the lifecycle of RNA. We sat down with Arash to learn more about him and his experiences in and out of the lab.

Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman and collaborators used their single-cell sequencing tool Perturb-seq on every expressed gene in the human genome, linking each to its job in the cell and creating a free resource for other researchers to address their own questions.