Research achievements


	Take a virtual tour of selected research achievements.

Whitehead research has illuminated important problems in biomedicine and changed the landscape of contemporary biology.

Institute scientists initially focused on human genetics, cancer, heart disease, AIDS, immunology and developmental biology. Whitehead was the core institution for one of the six original National Cooperative Vaccine Development Groups for AIDS (established by the National Institutes of Health to speed the development of an AIDS vaccine). By the mid-1990s, Whitehead had also emerged as a major center for the newly organized U.S. Human Genome project (see Center for Genome Research for details). In recent years, Institute scientists have been recognized for their research on stem cells, protein folding, the Y chromosome, RNA and more. Some of their achievements are listed in our timeline and below.

Selected achievements:

Isolated the first tumor suppressor gene, the retinoblastoma gene, and created the first genetically defined human cancer cells (Weinberg)

Provided definitive evidence for protein-only inheritance (Lindquist)

Isolated key genes involved in diabetes, hypertension, leukemia, and obesity (Lodish)

Mapped and cloned the male-determining Y chromosome, revealing a unique self-repair mechanism that allows the Y to protect some of its most important genes (Page)

Developed a method for genetically engineering salt and drought tolerant plants (Fink)

Developed the first comprehensive cellular network describing how the yeast genome produces life (Young)

Pioneered the automation and informatics strategies for DNA sequencing and contributed one-third of all human genome sequence assembled by the Human Genome Project (Lander)

Identified more than 50 genes in frogs involved in the formation of nerve tissue, paving the way for new strategies to repair damaged nerve cells in humans (Sive)

Identified mechanisms by which prions propagate, work that is relevant for understanding conditions such as mad cow disease (Lindquist)

Developed the first transgenic mouse model of a severe human genetic disease, as well as the first mouse clone carrying an inserted gene (Jaenisch)

Innovated devices with silicon chips to produce hand-held diagnostic tools and to speed DNA identification (Matsudaira)

Created novel approaches to the development of cancer, HIV, and tuberculosis vaccines (Young)

Identified critical steps in the progression from healthy breast tissue to breast cancer (Weinberg)

Used therapeutic cloning to correct immune deficiency in mice (Jaenisch)

Discovered proteins in fruit flies that ensure proper partitioning of hereditary material, leading to new understanding of Down's syndrome and other common genetic diseases (Orr-Weaver)

Discovered new ways to fight stubborn fungal diseases (Fink)

Found that microRNAs affect most human protein-coding genes (Bartel)

Reported a new mechanism by which dendritic cells sense the presence of antigens and instruct the immune response (Ploegh)

Repaired a biological pathway and restored normal neurological function in certain animal models with Parkinson’s symptoms (Lindquist)

Last updated September 10, 2006.