When a protein misfolds, the results can be disastrous. An incorrect change in the molecule's shape can lead to diseases including Alzheimer's and Huntington's. But scientists have discovered that misfolded proteins can have a positive side, helping cells navigate the dicey current of natural selection.
A team has successfully grafted human breast tissue into the mammary glands of mice. As a result, the mice formed functional breasts capable of producing human breast milk. More importantly, some of these mice were engineered to form early stage breast tumors like those found in humans.
Researchers have developed a method for scanning the entire human genome to successfully map the location of key gene regulators, mutated forms of which are known to cause type 2 diabetes. This marks the first time that human organs have been analyzed in this way.
Scientists have discovered a new process for how memories might be stored, a finding that could help explain one of the least-understood activities of the brain. The key player in this process is a protein that acts just like a prion "“ a class of proteins that includes the deadly agents involved in mad cow disease.
Scientists know that in patients with Parkinson's disease, certain proteins in the brain form clusters that somehow contribute to cell death and, eventually, lead to the onset of the disease's debilitating symptoms. The quest to figure out how these clusters form "“ and how to prevent them "“ has been slow and difficult.
Researchers still don't know much about the biological processes that predispose people to Type 2 diabetes. But scientists say they've found a protein that plays an essential role in regulating a cell's ability to absorb glucose, an important step toward understanding diabetes' underlying causes.
Researchers at Whitehead Institute have developed a systematic approach to the discovery of novel combination drugs, a method they used to identify several new pairings with significant therapeutic promise, including a new combination that kills an infectious, drug-resistant strain of the yeast Candida albicans while leaving human cells unharmed.
The male-determining Y chromosome has seen its gene supply shrink in a downward trend predicted to continue until the Y disappeared altogether. But two studies suggest that the rumors of the Y's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Like weeds in a lawn, pathogenic fungi and yeasts can invade and overtake our bodies. In people with healthy immune systems, cells called macrophages and neutrophils engulf these pathogens, nipping them in the bud. But when the immune system is weakened by disease or drugs, fungi ˆ much like weeds in your garden ˆ can grow unchecked.
In biology, size matters. Cell growth, the process whereby cells increase in mass, is critical to many life functions and has been implicated in diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Spurred by the discovery of a cellular pathway that helps switch cell growth on and off, new research links growth to a cell"šs ability to sense nutrients in its environment.
A class of regulatory genes found in humans called miRNAs have long gone undetected by traditional gene hunting methods because they do not code for proteins, the benchmark typically used to define genes within a genome. Now, scientists have developed a new, streamlined way to identify miRNAs in different animals.
It is well known that genetic mutations frequently cause some cancers. Research now points to another culprit in tumor formation, a process that can cause chromosomal instability through changes in the methylation of DNA. The findings are important as some anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials attack diseased cells by triggering the process under study.
Researchers have developed a new strategy to identify chemical compounds that are active only in the presence of certain cancer-causing genes and proteins, and used the method to select nine compounds that fit that profile, including one previously unidentified compound that seems to kill cancer cells through a different mechanism than many conventional cancer drugs.
The same characteristics that make misfolded proteins known as prions such a pernicious medical threat in neurodegenerative diseases may offer a construction toolkit for manufacturing nanoscale electrical circuits.
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 human genome project has provided researchers with a growing list of genes-- a cast of thousands of characters, running life inside the cell. But the key to understanding life, both in health and sickness, is the script that outlines how these cellular players interact, communicate, and cue each other. Whitehead Member Richard Young and MIT's David Gifford have developed the first comprehensive script describing how the yeast genome produces life.
Research from Whitehead Institute Director Susan Lindquist and Jiyan Ma, Ohio State University, suggests a unifying theory that can help explain how devastating prion diseases get started and how they kill. The results show that small amounts of PrP prion protein accumulating in the cellular space called the cytosol kill neurons in cultured cells and transgenic mice.
Environmental stress can reveal hidden genetic variation in plants, resulting in novel traits that might provide an alternative to genetic modification of crops. They have linked this phenomenon to the actions of a particular molecule, the heat stress protein Hsp90.
Scientists have used a mouse model to establish for the first time that a combination of nuclear transplantation, gene therapy, and embryonic stem cell differentiation can be used to create custom-tailored cellular therapies for genetic disorders.
Researchers have proved for the first time that fully differentiated adult cells can form clones, but they found the process is extremely inefficient. It is more likely that elusive adult stem cells, which exist in tiny numbers along with the mature adult cells, are actually the ones to form clones. This finding tells us that adult cells are not very labile and difficult to clone, which is important for future therapeutic cloning research.
Scientists in Richard Young's lab of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research are eavesdropping on the cross talk between invading microbes and the immune cells of our body, using DNA microarrays. They studied the response human macrophages have to a variety of bacteria, and as a result, discovered clues to making safer, more potent vaccines.
Using DNA microarray technology, researchers have discovered that a type of human immune cell, known as a dendritic cell, initiates tailor-made immune responses depending on whether a bacteria, virus, or fungus attacks. By measuring gene activity in these cells as they respond to pathogens, researchers hope to gain information about the strengths and vulnerabilities of the microbes and our own immune response to infection.
In companion papers, researchers report findings that set the stage for the next steps in the Human Genome Project--mapping and identifying all the genes that predispose us to common diseases. One study suggests that large segments of the genome may be modular, with genetic variations traveling together as large blocks that come in very few varieties. The other study identifies a common haplotype wherein lies a gene for susceptibility to Crohn's disease.
For the first time, researchers have mapped the complete circuit of one of life's most fundamental processes--the cell cycle, which tells cells when to divide. Important in all aspects of life, in all living organisms, dissecting the cell cycle is key to understanding the breakdowns in diseases such as cancer, where cells divide uncontrollably. Mapping the fundamental circuits involved in health and disease is one of the next steps of the Human Genome Project.
Acclaimed molecular biologist Susan L. Lindquist was appointed director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Scientists have found the first evidence to show that even seemingly normal-looking clones may harbor serious abnormalities in gene expression that may not manifest themselves as outward characteristics. The findings confirm the previous suspicion that reproductive cloning is not only inefficient, but may actually be unsafe.
In some of the strongest evidence yet to support the RNA world--an era in early evolution when life forms depended on RNA--scientists at the Whitehead Institute have created an RNA catalyst, or a ribozyme, that possesses key properties needed to sustain life in such a world.
A new study led by the Whitehead Institute traces the origin of two major problems plaguing the field of animal cloning. They report that poor survival rate of clones is influenced by the genetic background of the donor cell, and the gross overgrowth of clones results from the cloning procedure.
Scientists at the Whitehead Institute have found that SNPs -- the single letter DNA differences that underlie disease susceptibility and individual variation -- in northern Europeans travel together in blocks that are much larger than previously thought. The finding has major implications for mapping disease genes and dissecting human population history.
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