An on-off switch for gene editing

New, reversible CRISPR method can control gene expression while leaving underlying DNA sequence unchanged

13-Apr-2021 - Over the past decade, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized genetic engineering, allowing scientists to make targeted changes to organisms' DNA. While the system could potentially be useful in treating a variety of diseases, CRISPR-Cas9 editing involves cutting DNA strands, ...

Cellular recycling complexes may hold key to chemotherapy resistance

03-Sep-2015 - Altering the protein recycling complexes in human cells, including cancer cells, allows the cells to resist treatment with a class of drugs known as proteasome inhibitors, according to Whitehead Institute scientists. "This is why some cancers can be so difficult to treat with chemotherapy, ...

Brain glia cells increase their DNA content to preserve vital blood-brain barrier

17-Jan-2012 - The blood-brain barrier is essential for maintaining the brain's stable environment— preventing entry of harmful viruses and bacteria and isolating the brain's specific hormonal and neurotransmitter activity from that in the rest of the body.In addition to nerve cells, the brain contains glia ...

How yeast chromosomes avoid the bad breaks

09-Aug-2011 - The human genome is peppered with repeated DNA elements that can vary from a few to thousands of consecutive copies of the same sequence. During meiosis—the cell division that produces sperm and eggs—repetitive elements place the genome at risk for dangerous rearrangements from genome ...

Whitehead member Rudolf Jaenisch honored for groundbreaking stem cell research

17-Feb-2011 - Israel's Wolf Foundation has named Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch a recipient of the prestigious 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine. Jaenisch will share this year's prize with Kyoto University's Shinya Yamanaka for what the Wolf Foundation describes as "their groundbreaking ...

RNA snippets control protein production by disabling mRNAs

18-Aug-2010 - Short pieces of RNA, called microRNAs, control protein production by causing the proteins' RNA templates (known as messenger RNA or mRNA) to be disabled by the cell, according to Whitehead Institute scientists. Researchers have known that mammalian microRNAs control protein production by causing ...

Gene mutation alone causes transmissible prion disease

28-Aug-2009 - For the first time, Whitehead Institute researchers have shown definitively that mutations associated with prion diseases are sufficient to cause a transmissible neurodegenerative disease. The discovery is reported in Neuron. Until now, two theories about the role mutations play in prion ...

Technique enables efficient gene splicing in human embryonic stem cells

14-Aug-2009 - A novel technique allows researchers to efficiently and precisely modify or introduce genes into the genomes of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, according to Whitehead scientists. The method uses proteins called zinc finger nucleases and is described in ...

Putting microRNAs on the stem cell map

11-Aug-2008 - Embryonic stem cells are always facing a choice - either to self-renew or begin morphing into another type of cell altogether. It's a tricky choice, governed by complex gene regulatory circuitry driven by a handful of key regulators known as "master transcription factors," proteins that switch ...

454 Life Sciences Initiates Collaborative Research Agreement with the Broad Institute

Collaboration Aims to Facilitate Disease-Related Genomic Studies

21-Dec-2005 - 454 Life Sciences Corporation announced the initiation of a collaborative research agreement with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a research collaboration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and its hospitals and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical ...