News

Jesse Platt is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member Richard Young’s lab studying mechanisms of insulin resistance. He is also a practicing gastroenterologist and hepatologist. We sat down with Jesse to learn more about him and his experiences in and out of the lab.

Meet Anthony (Tony) Mahowald, a former university professor and department chair, and—during a scientific career spanning nearly 70 years—a bench researcher who has explored the structure of pole cells, polar granules, and oogenesis in Drosophila. At 90 years old, Tony is still working in the lab here at Whitehead Institute.

Research from Whitehead Institute Member David Page’s lab shows that the so-called inactive X chromosome, the mostly silent second X chromosome in females, plays a much more active role in gene expression and gene regulation than previously thought, with implications for how we think about sex differences in health and disease.

Researchers from Whitehead Institute Member Jing-Ke Weng’s lab figured out how a newly- discovered plant enzyme performs its unique chemistry, helping plants make a heart-healthy molecule.

Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues have developed molecular genetic tools that can rescue neurons affected by Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder linked to intellectual disability.

Tobiloba Oni and Kipp Weiskopf are Valhalla Fellows at Whitehead Institute who are researching ways to harness our natural defenses to combat cancer, an approach called immunotherapy.

Clumps of abnormal RNA are known to build up in some neurological disorders including Huntington’s disease and ALS. New research from Whitehead Institute Member Ankur Jain shows that these clumps can form outside of the cell’s nucleus, becoming more toxic to cells.

Researchers in Whitehead Institute Member Robert Weinberg’s lab identified two molecules active in cancer stem cells that control whether the cells can form new tumors.

Whitehead Institute researchers have uncovered a molecular mechanism underlying type 2 diabetes. The new finding reveals that insulin receptors, the signaling molecules that sense insulin, normally function by clustering together in cells and that this clustering is defective in insulin resistance, the basis of type 2 diabetes. The researchers hope that this work will bring about a better understanding of diabetes at a molecular level and lead to the development of new therapies.

We invite you to explore our 2022 Annual Report, and learn about the work we are doing, the scientific advances we are making, and our diverse and collaborative community.