News

Research into the mechanics of microRNAs, tiny molecules that can selectively silence genes, has revealed a new mode of gene regulation that scientists believe has a broad impact on both plant and animal cells.

Whitehead Member Terry Orr-Weaver has been elected president of the Genetics Society of America, a nonprofit scientific organization whose members specialize in genetic studies.

Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Limor Livnat, chairperson of the Wolf Foundation Council, announced that the 2004 Wolf Prize in Medicine, in the amount of $100,000, was jointly awarded to Whitehead founding Member Robert Weinberg.

Scientists have discovered a new process for how memories might be stored, a finding that could help explain one of the least-understood activities of the brain.

The story of life and all its associated processes takes place within a vast universe of proteins and their interactions, a bountiful frontier ripe for exploration.

For scientists who study embryonic development, insects, amphibians and marine invertebrates provide a unique window on the early stages of an embryo’s life. These organisms differ from higher life forms by having a simpler system for cell division, but it’s a system on fast forward: The embryos receive a maternal care package that permits their DNA replication and chromosome segregation to go into overdrive.

Scientists know that in patients with Parkinson’s disease, certain proteins in the brain form clusters that somehow contribute to cell death and, eventually, lead to the onset of the disease’s debilitating symptoms. Whitehead scientists have succeeded in duplicating the disease’s most critical features in the most readily manipulated model organism in existence.

Scientists have been fascinated by miRNAs ever since the abundance of these tiny RNAs was discovered in 2001. Rather than code for proteins, miRNAs serve as regulators that turn protein-coding genes off. Now, new studies by scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research are offering insight into the role miRNAs play in mammalian development.

Lydia Villa-Komaroff, chief operating officer and vice president for research at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, has been named to the board of directors for Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. (TKT), a Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company.

A national report says postdoctoral researchers are "indispensable" to the advancement of science, a fact often overlooked by institutions and funding agencies. Now postdocs are pushing for change. And people are listening.