Congratulations to our AI Fellow Na Sun on receiving the 2026 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award! This award recognizes both her innovative research and the strength of the Whitehead Fellows Program, which supports recent MDs and PhDs in launching independent labs:
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We are deeply saddened by the passing of Brit d’Arbeloff, Director Emerita of the Board and longtime supporter of the Institute. Her legacy is profound and includes advancing our efforts to understand of how sex differences influence health and disease.
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Crops are facing increasing stress from heat, drought, and poor soil conditions. Now Whitehead researchers have created a gene expression “map” of seed development that could help guide future efforts to improve crop yield, nutrition, and resilience: shorturl.at/CLWq1
How do organs fight infection while keeping inflammation in check? Latest research at Whitehead Institute shows lung immune sensitivity is organized in tiers: surface cells respond cautiously, while deeper cells sound the alarm when threats break through.
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“I’ve also really valued the richly collaborative community, and being able to take a lot of risks in how I address the questions I have the opportunity to pursue,” says graduate student Giselle Valdes, reflecting on her time at Whitehead Institute and @mit.edu.
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Excited to share a new preprint from the lab led by @lukekoblan.bsky.social and William Colgan in which we describe our efforts to define a quantitative cell fate map of mouse embryogenesis! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Gene editing can target the genetic causes of disease, but getting the editing machinery into the right cells in the body remains a challenge.
Learn how Whitehead Valhalla Fellow Aditya Raguram and colleagues are tackling this problem: tinyurl.com/5n7hxdtv
Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
Congratulations to Whitehead Institute trainees Elizabeth Black, Juntao Yu, and Tatsat Banerjee for being named as Damon Runyon Fellows — 3 of just 13 selected nationwide!
Learn more about their efforts to advance cancer research: tinyurl.com/4dvhtzwr
Fatigue, appetite loss, and poor sleep — are they just side effects of being sick? Whitehead Institute Member Zuri Sullivan and colleagues argue they may be part of a coordinated immune strategy that helps us fight infection.
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Video
Our Spring Lecture Series for High School Students returned for another successful year!
Over the course of three days, 43 students participated in hands-on experiments, interactive lab modules, and had conversations with scientists to get a feel for how research unfolds.
Whitehead Institute
Jonathan Weissman Lab
Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
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Giselle Valdes, a PhD student in the MIT Department of Biology, studies stem cell regeneration and teaches and mentors other MIT biology students, as well as local middle and high school students.
