News

Eric Lander, a member of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., has been named “Scientist of the Year” by the National Disease Research Interchange in recognition of his leadership in the field of genomic research and development.

Sixteen graduate students from North America and Europe, including Kevin Eggan of the Jaenisch lab, have been selected to receive the 2003 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, which is sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Most cancer patients face an all or nothing dilemma. Aggressive chemotherapy can and often does kill cancerous cells, shrink tumors and increase a patient’s chance for survival. But chemo’s toxic chemicals kill healthy cells too, causing severe side effects like anemia, organ damage and even memory loss.

Researchers have devised a way to identify genetic mutations that will cause resistance to targeted anti-cancer drugs, even before patients are treated – a finding that will aid scientists involved in drug development and allow physicians to monitor patients for resistance problems before they occur.

Only 1 percent to 3 percent of animals cloned from adult cells survive to birth; many die mysteriously very early in development, around the time of implantation.

The discovery of micro-sized RNA molecules (miRNAs)—a breakthrough described as "the biological equivalent of dark matter, all around us but almost escaping detection"—earned the coveted 2001-2002 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize.

When the $100M HapMap project was announced late last year, it stoked a decades-long debate surrounding the “common-disease, common variant” hypothesis. Can hunting for links between common genetic variants and common diseases help reveal why some individuals are more susceptible to common diseases like diabetes and hypertension than others?

Whitehead Institute recently released for public use a new computational tool that can help researchers more precisely silence gene function, streamlining drug discovery and disease research efforts.

Save the dates for this year's spring lecture series at the Boston Museum of Science, March 5, 12, and 19. This year's series, "Beyond the Double Helix," will feature Whitehead researchers who are taking a variety of new approaches to elucidate how genes and proteins coordinate cell activity and, in some cases, cause disease.

On January 1, the Whitehead Institute welcomed Lydia Villa-Komaroff and Maxine Singer to its leadership ranks. Villa-Komaroff was named Vice President of Research and Chief Operating Officer for the Whitehead Institute; Singer assumed the Chairmanship of the Institute's Board of Directors.