Cell Renewal

Researchers in Richard Young’s lab at Whitehead Institute and collaborators have discovered how certain cancer therapeutics concentrate within cells -- a finding that could change the way scientists think about drug design.

The internationally renowned developmental biologist will be the inaugural incumbent of the Susan Lindquist Chair for Women in Science at Whitehead Institute.

Whitehead Institute researchers have expanded their set of tools for investigating individual organelles, providing a new level of accuracy and detail to the study of cell metabolism.

Ally Nguyen is a postdoc in Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman’s lab investigating genes involved in chromosome segregation during mitosis. We sat down with Nguyen to learn more about her and her experiences in and out of the lab.

Leah Bury  is a postdoc in the lab of Whitehead Member Iain Cheeseman, where her research is focused on understanding transcription of DNA into RNA at the centromere, a region of the chromosome important in cell division.

For more than 125 years, scientists have been peering through microscopes, carefully watching cells divide. Until now, however, none has actually seen how cells manage to divide precisely into two equally-sized daughter cells during mitosis. Such perfect division depends on the position of the mitotic spindle (chromosomes, microtubules, and spindle poles) within the cell, and it’s now clear that human cells employ two specific mechanisms during the portion of division known as anaphase to correct mitotic spindle positioning.

Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric mitosis. 

Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered how yeast cells protect themselves against a novel type of chromosome fragility that occurs in repeated DNA during meiosis—the cell division that produces spores in fungi or eggs and sperm in plants and animals.