Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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Scientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Genetics Institute, Inc. have identified a new gene called derriere that plays a key role in the development of the frog embryo from the neck down, including the neural tube and the muscles flanking the spinal cord.

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Genetic studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have shown that some boys will be infertile as adults because they have inherited a genetic defect from their fathers through a commonly used method of assisted reproduction known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

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Researchers led by Dr. Robert A. Weinberg of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have made the first genetically defined human cancer cells, according to a report published in the July 29 issue of Nature. This achievement brings scientists one step closer to understanding the complex process by which human cells become cancerous.

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Whitehead Institute scientists have achieved a major step toward finding a new class of oral drugs to treat HIV infection. They have identified a class of compounds that prevent HIV infection by stopping the virus at its port of entry into the cell.

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New research at the Whitehead Institute sheds light on how sex chromosomes evolved from an ordinary pair of autosomes. In a study published in Friday's Science, scientists report that they have reconstructed the stages of sex chromosome evolution and the time course over which these chromosomes were built.

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Scientists have found a way to turn a fruit fly into a surrogate mosquito, able to carry malaria and infect chickens with the deadly disease. Their approach may pave the way for better anti-malarial, transmission-blocking vaccines, and engineered mosquitoes that are resistant to malaria (Science, 6-30-00).

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Researchers from the Whitehead Institute and the University of Hawaii provide the first molecular evidence for the egg's ability to reprogram an adult cell back to its embryonic state showing X-inactivation in clones is similar to normal development. (Science, 11-24-00)

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Researchers at Whitehead Institute and Corning Inc. have invented a powerful new microarray technique that can decipher the function of master switches in a cell by identifying the set of genes they control. The technique allows researchers to unravel in a week what takes years to achieve by conventional methods. (Science, 12-22-00)

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In a promising advance in the war against AIDS, scientists have designed a potent, new protein that can prevent HIV infection by blocking its entry into human cells. The protein could therefore serve as the basis for a new class of broad-spectrum, injectible drugs against HIV. (ScienceExpress, 1-11-01)

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A florid fungus can be a dangerous beauty, able to coat medical implants with thin films causing complications and even death in patients with medical implants. Researchers have found a gene that allows fungi to stick to plastic surfaces and form thin coatings called biofilms. (Science, 2-2-01)