High-flying Fellows
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Dec. 15, 2004) — For many,
the freedom of the Fellows program opened up extraordinary
careers.
In 1986 a mathematician from Harvard University dreamed
of applying mathematics and computer technology to the
study of genetics. Recognizing that this was precisely
the kind of innovation that the Fellows program was
born to support, Whitehead offered the young scientist—an
exuberant Eric
Lander—a lab bench and a computer.
A few years later, Lander founded the Whitehead/MIT
Center for Genome Research, the largest contributor
to the public Human Genome Project. Now a Whitehead
Member and professor of Biology at MIT, Lander is also
the founding director of Broad Institute—a collaboration
between Whitehead, MIT and Harvard University.
Other former Fellows include David
Bartel, now a Whitehead Member, who has made major
contributions to recent advances in understanding the
roles that RNA plays in contemporary biology. For example,
Bartel’s lab has discovered hundreds of tiny RNAs,
known as microRNAs, which are thought to regulate gene
expression in animal and plant cells. Bartel has successfully
demonstrated that microRNAs play important regulatory
roles during the development of mammals and plants,
spawning a spate of promising research into how microRNAs
may be an aid in therapy for disease.
Angelika Amon, another former Fellow
and now an associate professor of biology at MIT, has
made important progress in understand-ing how regulatory
networks ensure accurate segregation of genetic material
during cell division—a process vital to understanding
both normal cell division and the abnormal cell division
that leads to cancer.
George Daley is now an associate professor
of biological chemistry and pediatrics at Harvard Medical
School, where he studies blood stem cells. As a Whitehead
Fellow, he had worked closely with Rudolf Jaenisch in
a landmark 2002 study that demonstrated the viability
of therapeutic cloning in mice. This Syear he was one
of nine recipients of the NIH Director’s Pioneer
Award.
And Peter Kim tackled tough questions
about the relationship between the structure and function
of molecules. In particular, the former Fellow’s
studies shed new light on the structure and function
of the viral envelope proteins that make diseases such
as HIV so deadly. After several highly productive years
as a Whitehead Member, in 2001 Kim was named executive
vice president of research and development at Merck
Research Laboratories, where he is now president.
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