News

Using T cells primed for the infectious disease toxoplasmosis, Whitehead Institute researchers have created novel mouse models of the immune system that more accurately reflect how immune cells actually respond to pathogens in their presence.

Whitehead Member Iain Cheeseman has been awarded a Young Investigator grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). The grant will fund a team including Cheeseman to study how a structural scaffold of proteins, called the spindle matrix, prepares a cell for cell division.

Yasemin Sancak, a researcher in the lab of Whitehead Member David Sabatini, has received a 2010 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, which honors outstanding biology graduate students for the quality, originality, and significance of their work.

For the third year in a row, Whitehead Institute has been named one of the best places in the country for postdoctoral researchers to work in 2010.

Normal vertebrate brain ventricle formation relies upon the stretchiness or “relaxation” of the neuroepithelium, which is regulated by the motor protein myosin. This process was discovered in zebrafish and may play a role in the proper expansion of tubes in other organs throughout development.

The first comprehensive comparison of Y chromosomes from two species sheds new light on Y chromosome evolution.  Contrary to a widely held scientific theory that the mammalian Y chromosome is slowly decaying or stagnating, new evidence suggests that in fact the Y is actually reinventing itself through continuous, wholesale renovation.

Several structurally similar small molecules appear capable of protecting cells from alpha-synuclein toxicity, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease, according to Whitehead Institute researchers.

Whitehead Institute researchers have developed a new approach for genetics in human cells and used this technique to identify specific genes and proteins required for pathogens.

Whitehead Institute scientists have determined that a protein known as YOD1 plays a critical role in the disposal of misfolded cellular proteins. The researchers identified YOD1’s role by blocking its function, a manipulation that halts the elimination of errant proteins entirely. The finding should help bring greater understanding to this vital but complex cellular process.

Whitehead Institute Member David Sabatini has been awarded the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research in recognition of his discovery of a key pathway regulating cell growth and survival.