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Although cases of adult-onset diabetes have skyrocketed in the United States, researchers still don’t know much about the biological processes that predispose so many people to the disease. But in research that will be published in the Oct. 16 issue of the journal Nature, scientists say they’ve found a protein that plays an essential role in regulating a cell’s ability to absorb glucose.

A team of researchers from Whitehead Institute and MIT have developed a new computational method that will give a boost to the field of systems biology.

Research in the life sciences has fueled advances that have fostered gains inpublic health and in the development of detection methods to improve America’s defenses against biological threats. But some of the technologies that lead to medical benefits also could be used to create biological weapons.

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.