Series

Tool and Method Development at Whitehead Institute

Where there's a will, there might need to be a new scientific way. 

Two mountaineers look up at a mountain of data.

Scientists at Whitehead Institute are in relentless pursuit of discoveries that change and deepen our understanding of the biological world. Often, they pose ambitious questions that cannot be answered with the tools and methods that currently exist, but that does not deter them. When our researchers hit a wall, they invent what they need to scale it. In this multimedia series, we explore some of the tools and methods, both experimental and computational, that Whitehead Institute researchers have created in order to answer otherwise unsolvable questions. Read, listen, and watch to learn about these tools and methods, what the researchers have discovered with them, and how what they have created can be widely applied in other research.

Media

Some of the most important tools in researchers’ toolkits are the model organisms they use to study biological questions. How do researchers decide which species, out of the millions that exist, to develop as models? Whitehead Institute researchers have had a hand in establishing and promoting the use of several model organisms over the years.