News

The world of life sciences research has changed a great deal in recent decades. Advances in technology and biology have enabled scientists to pose questions they never before dreamed they might be able to ask — or answer.

Showcasing the similarities between science and art is one motivation behind a special photography exhibit in New York that features Whitehead Institute scientists Susan Lindquist and Eric Lander.

Whitehead Director Susan L. Lindquist received the 2003 Dickson Prize in Medicine Sept. 24 during Science 2003: Improving the Human Condition, a three-day showcase of research held at the University of Pittsburgh.

When biologists want to compare different sequences of DNA or protein, it’s as simple as plugging the information into a browser and pressing enter. Within 15 seconds, an online software tool contrasts one sequence of DNA with up to 18 million others catalogued in public databases. Now, a software tool developed by Whitehead Institute scientists promises to apply this same computational muscle to the far more intricate world of protein interaction networks, giving researchers a new view of the complexities of cellular life.

Scientists at the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research (WICGR) have publicly released a high quality draft genome sequence of Ustilago maydis, commonly known as corn smut, an important model system for the study of plant fungal diseases. In the United States, U. maydis poses a significant economic threat to agriculture.

Making drugs is a difficult and costly business. Even before companies spend exorbitant amounts on clinical trials (most of which fail), they already have spent significant time and money identifying the best drug candidates for those trials. Brent Stockwell has developed a possible shortcut for this early drug-development stage.

Rarely, if ever, are theme parks built around a biological theme – and never do such parks fit inside a test tube. Almost never. Scientist David Bartel is hard at work on what might seem an impossibility – a microscopic theme park whose motif, the origins of life, is of equal interest to both scientists and philosophers.

About four years ago, a group of Whitehead researchers created the first genetically engineered human cancer cells in the lab. They infected normal cells in mice with cancer-causing genes, and waited for tumors to form. Some cells formed large tumors, but others yielded only small, harmless bumps. What went wrong? they wondered. Or rather, What went right?

David Guertin, a postdoctoral associate in the Sabatini lab, received the distinguished Damon Runyon Fellowship Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Making a medical diagnosis today often relies on symptomology, bacterial cultures, stain tests, experience – and luck. But new research by systems biologists at Whitehead aims to offer physicians new diagnostic tools by uncovering important differences in the way immune cells respond to bacteria.