Whitehead Institute

Latest from Whitehead Institute's AI Fellow Na Sun 👇

Learn more about her work at the intersection of AI and biology: shorturl.at/K1AXP

Scientists and clinicians convene to bridge gaps in rare disease research and care | Whitehead Institute Rare disease treatment and care relies on the combined efforts of clinicians, researchers, and families. Yet these people rarely find themselves in the same room. BridgeRD brought together stakeholder...

Rare disease treatment relies on the combined efforts of clinicians, researchers, and families. Yet these people rarely find themselves in the same room. BridgeRD brought them together last week to address the challenges of understanding, diagnosing, and treating rare diseases.

🔗 shorturl.at/pJXcu

Whitehead Institute’s Innovation Centers are hubs of collaboration. Each center provides specialized expertise that expand what individual labs can achieve.

Read how this collaboration drives Whitehead Institute science forward: shorturl.at/jQTPM

World-renowned cell biologist Ron Vale will join Whitehead Institute this December as a Member. Known for discovering the motor protein kinesin, he will explore how proteins function under different stressors—a direction that aligns with the Institute's focus on resilience.

🔗 shorturl.at/28Gpl

"Our biggest struggle is connecting with clinicians," says @jimmy-ly.bsky.social, who co-organized the event with Dawn Chen of @broadinstitute.org. "When we see a mutation in ClinVar, we can't fully interpret its role in disease without patient context."

At BridgeRD today, clinicians and researchers are teaming up to tackle one of the biggest hurdles with rare diseases: connecting what's seen in the lab to patient experiences in the clinic. 1/2
#RareDisease #BridgeRD

Our Seminar Series for High School Teachers is underway! Postdoc Henry Kilgore of the Young Lab shared his latest research on how proteins reach their destinations within the cell.

We’re thrilled to bring teachers and researchers together to help inspire the next generation of scientists!

Alternate proteins from the same gene contribute differently to health and rare disease | Whitehead Institute Iain Cheeseman and colleagues reveal the underappreciated role of single genes producing multiple proteins in atypical presentations of rare disease, and present case studies of affected patients thro...

From an accidental discovery of hidden biology to a new framework to understanding and diagnosing rare disease. Thrilled to share the most recent work from our lab and the amazing Jimmy Ly.

wi.mit.edu/news/alterna...

1/ Happy to share important work done with my co-author Andrew Khalil in the labs of Rudolf Jaenisch @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social @mit.edu and David Mooney @harvard.edu @wyssinstitute.bsky.social trying to assess and fix the major problem of transgene silencing in human ESC/iPSC based work

Meet a Whitehead Postdoc: Julia Wucherpfennig | Whitehead Institute Julia Wucherpfennig is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member and director Ruth Lehmann’s lab studying the relationship between Wolbachia bacteria, which infect many insects around the world, and the...

"Fruit flies have a lot of fun gene names. Some of my favorites are Asterix and Obelix, which are named after a French comic book, because I have childhood associations with them," postdoc Julia Wucherpfennig says. wi.mit.edu/news/meet-wh... #WhiteheadPostdocProfiles

Panchito proudly sports his Whitehead bandana while plotting his next purrfect experiment. #PetsofWhitehead

Alumni, grab your own pet bandana by joining our alumni LinkedIn group: www.linkedin.com/groups/12483...

In celebration of Massachusetts STEM Week, students from Prospect Hill Academy Charter School toured the Yamashita lab and got an introduction to fruit fly research. Thanks to everyone who participated!

In celebration of Massachusetts STEM Week, students from Prospect Hill Academy Charter School toured the Yamashita lab and got an introduction to fruit fly research. Thanks to everyone who participated!

If you're an alum, join our LinkedIn alumni page to hear about future meet ups: www.linkedin.com/groups/12483...

A huge thank you to all the alumni and current trainees who joined us at Trillium Brewing in Fort Point last week. From swapping stories about lab days to hearing where your careers have taken you, the conversations were inspiring (and the good food and drinks didn’t hurt either).

Sometimes, one research project is an unexpected spin off of another project. That's exactly what happened in the Yamashita lab, where researchers identified a novel mechanism that keeps the "selfish" gene Stellate in check. wi.mit.edu/news/one-lab... #ResearchThreads

Pawfessor Jake reporting for duty! #PetsofWhitehead

Alumni, grab your own pet bandana by joining our alumni LinkedIn group: www.linkedin.com/groups/12483...

@science.org High-resolution spatial mapping of cell state and lineage dynamics in vivo with PEtracer | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @lukekoblan.bsky.social @weissmanlab.bsky.social @zhuanglab.bsky.social @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social et al.

This week, I was grateful to be named a semifinalist for the ASHG Trainee Research Excellence Award. I also gave my first platform talk, detailing my work with @geneticsmike7.bsky.social on noncoding MS SNPs in microglia. Missed the talk? See our MedRXiV preprint: tiny.cc/gallagher-luna-2025

Inflammation jolts “sleeping” cancer cells awake, enabling them to multiply again | Whitehead Institute Chemotherapy-induced injury of organ tissue is the culprit, Whitehead Institute Founding Member Robert Weinberg and colleagues have found.

What causes dormant cancer cells to erupt into a frenzy of growth and division? New work from the Weinberg lab points to inflammation as a trigger. wi.mit.edu/news/inflamm...

The 2025 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize Awarded to Rudolf Jaenisch Jaenisch is recognized for his trailblazing contributions to epigenetics and stem cell biology, which have shaped modern regenerative medicine.

Rudolf Jaenisch is recognized for his trailblazing contributions to epigenetics and stem cell biology, which have shaped modern regenerative medicine.

@whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social
@cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social

Meet a Whitehead Postdoc: Julia Wucherpfennig | Whitehead Institute Julia Wucherpfennig is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member and director Ruth Lehmann’s lab studying the relationship between Wolbachia bacteria, which infect many insects around the world, and the...

"Fruit flies have a lot of fun gene names. Some of my favorites are Asterix and Obelix, which are named after a French comic book, because I have childhood associations with them," Julia Wucherpfennig says. #WhiteheadPostdocProfiles wi.mit.edu/news/meet-wh...

On Wednesday, former White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy joined our Director Ruth Lehmann in conversation about cultivating trust in science. Thanks to all who joined us! Stay tuned for upcoming Director's Dialogues, and watch past talks on our website: wi.mit.edu/directors-di...

Most cells in our body live and die. But the germline, the cells that produce eggs and sperm, must carry on forever. Our first #ResearchThreads follows a string of discoveries made in the Yamashita lab that tease apart how the germline remains immortal. wi.mit.edu/news/one-lab...

For more details and information about future events, join our Postdoc and Alumni LinkedIn page: www.linkedin.com/groups/12483...

Attention Whitehead alumni — please join us for an informal evening of connection and conversation during the ASHG meeting on October 16. For details and to RSVP, please contact alumni@wi.mit.edu. (Photos are from our alumni event last month!)

Next Tuesday our director Ruth Lehmann joins Gina McCarthy, former White House National Climate Advisor and EPA Administrator, for a conversation about science, policy and public trust. RSVP: www.eventzilla.net/e/science-tr... @harvardkennedy.bsky.social @mitclimateproject.bsky.social

Julia Wucherpfennig studies Wolbachia — a bacteria that lives inside about half of all insects, generally without harming them. The research has real-world implications for pest control. Read our latest postdoc Q&A: wi.mit.edu/news/meet-wh... #WhiteheadPostdocProfiles @remlehmann.bsky.social

Locally produced proteins help mitochondria function | Whitehead Institute Jonathan Weissman and colleagues developed an optogenetic approach to study where in the cell proteins get made and used it to characterize two groups of proteins produced next to mitochondria. This c...

ICYMI: A new tool, LOCL-TL, maps where proteins are made in the cell. @jswlab.bsky.social developed this tool and used it to characterize translation happening at the mitochondria.

Join our director Ruth Lehmann and Gina McCarthy, former White House National Climate Advisor and EPA Administrator, for a conversation about the role of science in policy, public trust, and protecting the well-being of people and the planet. www.eventzilla.net/e/science-tr...