Whitehead Innovation Initiative
The Whitehead Innovation Initiative is a bold program advancing cutting-edge bio-AI leadership, which sponsors community-building and educational programs, funding opportunities, and computational resources at Whitehead Institute. The goal of the initiative is to spark innovation at the intersection of biomedical research and AI, foster partnerships between biomedical and computational researchers, facilitate collaboration, and support individual projects through expanded, state of the art computational infrastructure, educational resources, funding opportunities and social events.
Ruth Lehmann (Director, WI)
Rick Young (Committee Chair, WI)
Regina Barzilay (MIT CSAIL)
Vanessa Almendro (Danaher Corporation)
Allison Hamilos (Valhalla Fellow, WI)
Administration
Alexa Pagliaro
The Whitehead Innovation Initiative supports Whitehead Fellow Na Sun.
Existing WII investigators:
Olivia Corradin
Iain Cheeseman
Peter Reddien
Jonathan Weissman
Rick Young
Regina Barzilay
New WII investigators:
Allison Hamilos
Siniša Hrvatin
Ankur Jain
Pulin Li
Sebastian Lourido
Na Sun
Seminars feature collaborative bio-AI work funded by the Whitehead Innovation Initiative, as well as special guest speakers from the broader bio-AI community. Seminars take place in the Whitehead McGovern Auditorium and are open to the public.
- '25-'26 series seminars to be announced summer 2025
D48s are dinner gatherings for biomedical researchers and computational science experts, providing a small-group setting to exchange ideas, discuss how AI is accelerating life science discoveries, and explore the future of biotechnology and medicine. Typically held in the Kendall Square area, D48s are open to members of the Whitehead Institute, MIT CSAIL, the Biology Department, and the Broad Institute communities.
Deep Lunches are gatherings of small groups of computational scientists and biologists to network, brainstorm and learn from one another in a round-table setting. These are similar to D48 events, but take place within WIBR. Come hang out with experts, enthusiasts and like-minded colleagues. A catered lunch is served. Lunches happen every other month on Wednesdays, 12:30-2. Watch for communications with opportunities to sign up!
WII bio-AI tutorials and journal clubs will take place in a supportive, closed door setting to educate, empower and prepare members of the WI community to pitch innovative bio-AI projects and serve as effective collaborators with AI experts. Educational primers are open to members of the WI community and take place in the 7th floor classroom.
Previous primers:
Deep learning for biomolecular modeling (June 4, 2025)
Presented by Peter Mikhael, Barzilay Group, MIT CSAIL
Learning how to build a genome (March 19, 2025)
Presented by Erik Owen and Ben Feng, Page Lab, Whitehead Institute
Single-cell foundation models (Dec 11, 2024)
Presented by Na Sun, Whitehead Fellow, Whitehead Institute
Applying Protein Language Models to Fundamental Biological Questions (Oct 1, 2024)
Presented by Matteo di Bernardo, Cheeseman Lab, Whitehead Institute
Our WII social chairs plan social and educational events, including the WII kick off seminar, D48s, the WII seminar series, and educational primers. Members of the WI and MIT communities are welcome to join as leaders. To get involved, please contact Allison Hamilos [ahamilos [at] wi [dot] mit [dot] edu].
Our current community leaders are:
Allison Hamilos (chair)
Matteo Di Bernardo
Avery Mizrahi
Xinlei Gao
Anna Meglan
Monica Concepcion (logistics)
WII proposal submission is currently closed. The next funding cycle will be announced in the spring (2026).