HHMI scientists have deconstructed the brain circuits that control parenting behavior in mice, and identified discrete sets of cells that control actions, motivations, and hormonal changes involved in nurturing young animals.
A drug that reverses the effects of a cellular stress response restores learning and memory in mice with concussions. Now researchers can see the atomic-scale details of how the drug interacts with its protein target.
HHMI researchers have built mosquitobrains.org, the first map of the female mosquito brain. The new resource may ultimately uncover the circuitry behind biting and other behaviors.
Fueled by advances in analyzing DNA from the bones of ancient humans, scientists have dramatically expanded the number of samples studied – revealing vast and surprising migrations and genetic mixing of populations in our prehistoric past.
Technology that’s been used to edit genomes can also spot snippets of DNA. Such detective work may enable rapid, reliable ways to identify infections and cancer.
In fruit flies, repeating genetic elements shrink with age, but then expand in future generations, a resurgence that may help explain how some cells stay immortal.
For the first time, scientists can see in minute-time resolution how cells package chromosomes into highly condensed structures prior to cell division.
A method developed by HHMI investigators sifts through hundreds of millions of potential targets to find a precise cancer beacon. The results may lead to better immunotherapies, which harness the immune system to attack tumors.
A single treatment of a genome editing agent partially preserved hearing in mice with genetic deafness. The work could one day help scientists treat certain forms of genetic hearing loss in humans.
Thousands of undergraduates engage in real scientific discovery through HHMI’s Science Education Alliance. A new analysis finds that they are more likely to persist in science than students who take traditional laboratory courses.
HHMI Investigators Joanne Chory and Peter Walter are among five scientists honored for transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life.
Neuroscientists who want to follow the nervous system’s cellular conversations will soon have access to easy-to-use technology that simultaneously monitors neural activity at hundreds of different sites within the brain.
A microscope lens implanted deep inside a mouse’s brain shows different patterns of neural activity when the mouse interacts with males, females, or other stimuli. Now, researchers have discovered that sexual experience can trigger long-term changes in these brain patterns.
A new type of DNA editing enzyme, developed in HHMI Investigator David Liu’s lab, lets scientists directly and permanently change single base pairs of DNA from A•T to G•C. The process could one day enable precise DNA surgery to correct mutations that cause human diseases.
Four HHMI investigators have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine, an organization that honors professional achievement in the health sciences.
An analysis of the complete genomes of 2,064 people reveals that multiple genetic variations could contribute to autism. The work suggests that scanning whole genomes may one day be useful for clinical diagnostics.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced today that Michael Rosbash, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at Brandeis University, Jeffrey C. Hall of Brandeis University and Michael W. Young of the Rockefeller University are the recipients of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.
The upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea demonstrates the three hallmarks of sleep and represents the first example of sleep in animals without a brain, HHMI researchers report.
HHMI announces the selection of 15 exceptional early career scientists as the first group of HHMI Hanna Gray Fellows. The 2018 Hanna Gray Fellows competition is now open, with applications due on January 10, 2018.
New HHMI research reveals how three proteins help brain cells synchronize the release of chemical signals. A similar interaction may play a role in how cells secrete insulin and airway mucus, too.
Scientists at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus have developed a new method for fine-tuning the structure of rhodamine dyes, and can now create a colorful palette of fluorescent molecules.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has selected 39 new Gilliam fellows, exceptional doctoral students who have the potential to be leaders in their fields and the desire to advance diversity and inclusion in the sciences.
After creating mutant Indian jumping ants with no sense of smell, HHMI Investigator Danny Reinberg and colleagues saw profound abnormalities in the ants’ behavior and brains. The results show that the sense of smell is fundamental to maintaining colony harmony.
Proteins in archaea bend strands of DNA in a way that’s similar in eukaryotes, new research from HHMI investigator and colleagues reveals. That similarity hints at the evolutionary origin of the elaborate folding that eukaryotic cells use to cram their genome into a nucleus.
HHMI Investigator Arul Chinnaiyan is using comprehensive tumor sequencing to better capture the drivers of metastatic cancer and treat the disease more effectively.
A new analysis of genome sequences from the ancient Minoans and Mycenaeans by HHMI investigator and colleagues offers insight into the origins of these Bronze Age cultures.
For some developmental genes one allele must stay silent, otherwise debilitating syndromes and cancers can arise. HHMI Investigator Yi Zhang and his colleagues have uncovered a new imprinting mechanism cells use to keep these genes quiet in mice.
Scientists at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus created comprehensive brain maps linking different groups of neurons to specific behaviors, using a machine-learning program that annotated more than 225 days of videos of flies – a feat that would have taken humans some 3,800 years.
HHMI has selected 24 schools in the first round of the Inclusive Excellence initiative, a program that aims to help increase the capacity of colleges and universities to effectively engage all students so that they can be successful in science, especially undergraduates who enter four-year institutions via nontraditional pathways.
Janelia Research Campus scientists have uncovered new clues about how fruit flies keep track of where they are in the world. Understanding the neural basis of navigation in flies may reveal how humans accomplish similar feats.
In studies with mice, Janelia researchers discovered that to maintain certain short-term memories, the brain’s cortex relies on connections with the thalamus.
HHMI, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation announce the selection of 41 International Research Scholars, early-career scientists poised to advance biomedical research across the globe.
Hypoxia reverses brain damage caused by mitochondrial dysfunction, HHMI team finds. The approach might one day point to new therapies for people with Leigh syndrome and other mitochondrial disorders.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Medical Research Fellows Program has selected 79 talented medical and veterinary students to conduct in-depth, mentored biomedical research. Each fellow will spend a year pursuing basic, translational, or applied biomedical research in the U.S.
New research adds to growing evidence that Parkinson's disease may arise in part from neurons’ failure to recycle the materials used to package and transport neurotransmitters.
Janelia scientists have developed the first adaptive light-sheet microscope — an instrument that continuously analyzes and adapts to dynamic changes in a specimen and thereby improves spatial resolution.
Using novel computational and biochemical approaches, HHMI scientists have designed and built from scratch 10 large protein icosahedra that are similar to viral capsids that carry viral DNA.
An international team of scientists has sequenced the whole genomes and epigenomes of more than 1,000 Arabidopsis thaliana plants, sampled from geographically diverse locations. The collection of 1,001 genomes and 1,001 epigenomes not only illuminates new aspects of its evolutionary history, but also provides a comprehensive, species-wide picture of the interaction between genetic and epigenetic variation in this important model plant.
If you pull an all-nighter or stay up late to binge-watch Game of Thrones, you will probably be grumpy the next day. But if you don’t get enough sleep for weeks or months on end, you may develop depression or other lasting mood problems, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have now discovered a possible reason why.