Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

ot bound to a particular research area or disease focus, we empower our scientists to be nimble, free to pursue the big questions; letting their interests evolve and draw from any discipline to which they lead. From artificial intelligence to neuroimmunity, Whitehead Institute does science at the interface between disciplines.

A common denominator is our strong basic science approach, enabling a mechanistic understanding of biological processes crucial to understanding health and disease at its most elemental levels, essential for reconstituting the complexity with which organisms function. We believe that understanding this complexity is essential to identifying the causes of disease and developing evidence-based therapies.

Jack Whitehead and David Baltimore founded Whitehead Institute in 1982 with a goal of uncovering fundamental principles in developmental biology. The Institute’s Founding Members, and those that joined subsequently, embraced the charge and since its inception, the Institute has been instrumental in some of the most significant accomplishments in biomedical science including the human genome project and the discovery of the first oncogene. Our path of discovery has now led us to the natural progression of our focus on development -– the biology of renewal and resilience.

Understanding our scientific vision, Renewal and Resilience, means understanding how an organism performs the fundamental tasks of life—replenishing its cells and tissues, reproducing—--as well as the adaptive responses by the organism to challenge. What happens when its systems are perturbed, or stressed?

Renewal and Resilience touches the research of each of our principal investigators. Their laboratories work on questions  ranging from how our germ cells renew and replenish our genetic material to studying connections between aging and hibernation and torpor; from learning how some organisms regenerate organs and functions to understanding the genetics underlying sex differences in health and disease; and from spurring immune cells to fight cancer to developing more productive and resilient food crop plants.

Whitehead Institute scientists transcend disciplines, pursuing their interests without limits and meeting biological complexity with the incisive context needed to uncover the big picture of a healthier tomorrow.