A large-scale analysis of Y chromosomes from more than 20,000 men finds that two spontaneously recurring deletions along a complex region of the Y chromosome are responsible for approximately 8% of cases of failed sperm production, according to Whitehead Institute researchers.
Whitehead Institute researchers report that common assumptions employed in the generation and interpretation of data from global gene expression analyses can lead to seriously flawed conclusions about gene activity and cell behavior in a wide range of current biological research.
The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia today named Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch one of eight 2013 Laureates—esteemed individuals honored for their pioneering achievements in science, technology, and business leadership.
Three Members of the Whitehead Institute faculty are poised to play significant roles in the establishment of a new stem cell research center based at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skolkovo Tech) in suburban Moscow.
Whitehead Institute researchers have determined the mechanism used by c-Myc to increase the expression of all active genes in cancer cells. Elevated levels of c-Myc are linked to increased rates of metastasis, disease recurrence, and mortality in cancer patients. Guided by this new model, researchers hope to find ways to restrict c-Myc’s activity to eradicate cancer cells that become dependent on c-Myc for their survival.
New genetic markers identified by researchers at Whitehead Institute and MIT could help make the process for reprogramming regular body cells into pluripotent stem cells more efficient, allowing scientists to predict which treated cells will successfully become pluripotent.
Using a stepwise trans-differentiation process, Whitehead Institute researchers have turned skin cells into embryonic Sertoli-like cells.
By examining the results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in conjunction with experiments on mouse and human red blood cells, researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Founding Member Harvey Lodish have identified the protein cyclin D3 as regulating the number of cell divisions RBC progenitors undergo, which ultimately affects the resulting size and quantity of RBCs.
Whitehead Institute researchers have found that an ancient, highly conserved cell survival factor drives expression of a specific set of genes that is strongly associated with metastasis and death in patients with breast, colon, and lung cancers.
Whitehead Institute researchers have created a complete catalog of genes active in the planarian eye. Several identified genes are known to have versions that play a role in the vertebrate eye, including genes involved in eye development and age-related macular degeneration and Usher syndrome, a disorder that causes progressive retinal degradation.
Whitehead Institute researchers have determined and analyzed the crystal structure of a yeast Argonaute protein bound to RNA, which plays a key role in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway that silences genes.
Fish cannot display symptoms of autism, schizophrenia, or other human brain disorders. However, a team of Whitehead Institute and MIT scientists has shown that zebrafish can be a useful tool for studying the genes that contribute to such disorders.
A clinical trial involving collaboration between researchers at Whitehead Institute and Dana Farber Cancer Institute is now enrolling patients with recurrent or metastatic estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. The trial will test the effects of hormonal therapy in conjunction with an inhibitor of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90).
Whitehead Institute researchers have created a three-step algorithm, lobSTR, that in one day accurately and simultaneously profiles more than 100,000 short tandem repeats (STRs) in one human genome sequence—a feat that previous systems could never complete.
The drug rapamycin extends lifespan in lab animals, yet it's linked to two hallmarks of diabetes. By teasing apart its activity, researchers at Whitehead Institute and the University of Pennsylvania have determined that inhibiting only the protein cluster known as mTORC1 prolongs life in mice without adversely affecting glucose tolerance or insulin sensitivity.
For the second year in a row, Whitehead Institute has been dubbed the best place in the United States for postdoctoral researchers to work. The honor was bestowed by The Scientist magazine, which conducts an annual survey of postdocs at research institutions internationally.
Devising a novel method to identify potential genetic regulators in planarian stem cells, Whitehead Institute scientists have determined which of those genes affect the two main functions of stem cells.
If you were to discover that a fundamental component of human biology has survived virtually intact for the past 25 million years, you’d be quite confident in saying that it is here to stay. Such is the case for a team of Whitehead Institute scientists, whose latest research on the evolution of the human Y chromosome confirms that the Y—despite arguments to the contrary—has a long, healthy future ahead of it.
Whitehead Institute scientists have tested nearly 700 wild yeast strains isolated from diverse environments for the presence of known and unknown prion elements, finding them in one third of all strains. All the prions appear capable of creating diverse new traits, nearly half of which are beneficial. These unexpected findings stand as strong evidence against the common argument that prions are merely yeast “diseases” or rare artifacts of laboratory culture.
A team of scientists from Whitehead Institute and other institutions has shown for the first time how two long intergenic noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) contribute to a location-dependent switch for the yeast FLO11 gene to toggle between active and inactive states. The mechanism of the FLO11 switch is one of only a handful that have been characterized in detail, and will serve as a model for how other ncRNAs operate.
Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric mitosis.
Whitehead Institute researchers have determined the critical role one enzyme, lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), plays as mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) differentiate. This research may provide targets for developing drugs to push cells with dysfunctional gene expression programs back to a more normal, healthier state.
Whitehead Institute scientists report that the growing fruit fly brain instructs glia cells that form the blood-brain barrier to enlarge by creating multiple copies of their genomes in a process known as polyploidization. Cell layers in other organs such as the human placenta and skin may employ a similar strategy.
Whitehead Institute scientists have identified conserved, long intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) that play key roles during brain development in zebrafish, and went on to show that the human versions of these RNAs can substitute for the zebrafish lincRNAs.
A long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) prevents programmed cell death during one of the final stages of red blood cell differentiation, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. Preventing normal cell death is a key step in the development of leukemias and other cancers.
Tweaking the levels of factors used during the reprogramming of adult cells into induced pluriopotent stem (iPS) cells can greatly affect the quality of the resulting iPS cells, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. This finding explains at least in part the wide variation in quality and fidelity of iPS cells created through different reprogramming methods.
By irradiating typical polystyrene lab plates with ultraviolet (UV) waves, Whitehead Institute and MIT scientists have created a surface capable of tripling the number of human embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that can be grown in culture by current methods.
Whitehead Institute scientists report that patients whose estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancers have high levels of an ancient cellular survival factor experience poor outcomes—including increased mortality.
In a development that sheds new light on the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Whitehead Institute scientists have identified connections between genetic risk factors for the disease and the effects of a peptide toxic to nerve cells in the brains of AD patients.
Whitehead Institute scientists have determined that master transcription factors determine the genes regulated by key signaling pathways. By manipulating these pathways, scientists may find new ways to treat cancer and other diseases.
For the second straight year, President Barack Obama is recognizing a member of the Whitehead Institute faculty with the nation’s highest scientific honor.
Using an unusual human cell line of this type, Whitehead Institute researchers and their collaborators performed a genetic screen and identified a protein used by Ebola virus to gain entry into cells and begin replicating. The discovery may offer a new approach for the development of antiviral therapeutics.
New findings by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Whitehead Institute point to a decentralized society in tumors, with cancer cells able to interconvert between different types. These results have potential implications for the treatment of tumors, in particular, that attacking cancer stem cells alone may not be enough to fight cancer.
Whitehead Institute researchers have uncovered a novel association between two fungal recognition receptors on the surface of certain immune cells, called macrophages. The interaction of these receptors (dectin-1 and galectin-3) sheds new light on how the innate immune system discriminates between non-pathogenic and pathogenic fungi.
Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered how yeast cells protect themselves against a novel type of chromosome fragility that occurs in repeated DNA during meiosis—the cell division that produces spores in fungi or eggs and sperm in plants and animals.
Whitehead Institute researchers have identified a protein that is essential in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer. When the expression of the gene that codes for this protein—PHGDH—is suppressed in tumors and cell lines with an overabundance of the protein, the rate of cellular growth declines markedly. PHGDH is overexpressed in approximately 70% of ER-negative breast cancer patients.
Using two methods, Whitehead researchers have manipulated targeted genes in both human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. In one case, scientists employed proteins known as ZFNs to change a single base pair in the genome, allowing them either to insert or remove mutations known to cause early-onset Parkinson’s disease (PD).
The Pew Charitable Trusts has named Whitehead Institute Member Mary Gehring a 2011 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.
Whitehead Institute researchers have identified signals impinging on breast epithelial cells that can induce those cells to acquire and stably display migratory and self-renewing characteristics. Interrupting these and other extracellular signals strips the various types of stem cells of the migratory and self-renewal abilities used by cancer stem cells to seed new tumors.
Whitehead Institute researchers have found that depriving human melanoma cells of the amino acid leucine can be lethal to the cells, suggesting a possible strategy for therapeutic intervention. The cells studied have a mutated RAS/MEK pathway—the most common mutation found in the deadliest form of skin cancer.
A little-studied gene known as notum plays a key role in the planarian’s regeneration decision-making process, according to Whitehead Institute scientists. At head-facing wounds, the gene acts as a dimmer switch to dampen the Wnt pathway—an signaling circuit that operates in all animals—and promote head regeneration.
Whitehead Institute researchers have found that the planarian flatworm regenerates missing tissues using pluripotent adult stem cells. Until now, scientists could not determine if the dividing cells in planarians are a mix of specialized stem cells that regenerates specific tissues, or if individual neoblasts are pluripotent and able to regenerate all tissues.
Whitehead Institute scientists report that two proteins once thought to have only supporting roles, are the true “stars” of the kinetochore assembly process in human cells. The kinetochore is vital to proper DNA distribution during cell division.
Whitehead Institute Director David Page has been named a recipient of the 2011 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. The prize honors Page’s groundbreaking body of research on the human Y chromosome.
In a research collaboration blind to affairs of politics, ethnicity, and religion, an international team led by Israeli scientists has identified the genetic cause of a neurological disorder afflicting members of a Palestinian family.
Certain differentiated cells in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. Until now, scientific dogma has stated that differentiation is a one-way path; once cells specialize, they cannot return to the flexible stem-cell state on their own.
Renowned cancer researchers Robert Weinberg and Douglas Hanahan and have updated the “Hallmarks of Cancer”, their seminal review that codified the traits that all cancers have in common. The revised work incorporates information gleaned from the past eleven years of cancer research.
Whitehead Institute scientists have created a method that site-specifically modifies proteins to exert control over their properties when administered therapeutically. The technique should be useful to increase potency, slow metabolism, and improve thermal stability of therapeutically useful proteins.
So-called model organisms have long been at the core of biomedical research, allowing scientists to study the ins and outs of human disorders in non-human subjects.
For the second time in three years, Whitehead Institute has been named the best place in the country for postdoctoral researchers to work.
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