Tag Archives: Whitehead Institute

AudioHelicase Special: How researchers at Whitehead Institute are building a more sustainable future

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Making our world more sustainable to preserve it for future generations will take not just one but many solutions. Researchers at Whitehead Institute are exploring how the natural world could teach us how to improve the sustainability of how we produce food, how we make medicines, how we make products more durable, and potentially how we remove carbon from the atmosphere.  In this special episode of AudioHelicase, we’ll hear from researchers at the Institute that are pursuing creative solutions to sustainability that combine a passion for making a difference with boundless curiosity for the living world.

 

Interviews by Greta Friar and Eva Frederick. Music by Pierce Murphy (CC BY 4.0) and Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 3.0). Produced and hosted by Conor Gearin.

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Whitehead Institute’s Silvi Rouskin on solving the structure of the coronavirus genome

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In this episode of AudioHelicase Podcast, Whitehead Fellow Silvi Rouskin discusses her research on solving the structure of the novel coronavirus’s RNA genome, with the goal of revealing weak points in the virus’s gene regulation that new drugs could potentially target.

Music: “Versailles” by Pierce Murphy (CC-BY 4.0). Produced by Conor Gearin.

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Whitehead Institute’s Olivia Corradin on a New Way to Probe Disease Genetics

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On this episode of AudioHelicase podcast, Whitehead Fellow Olivia Corradin talked about investigating the genetic underpinnings of diseases through a new technique she developed, the outside variant approach. Applying the method to study the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS), Corradin and colleagues identified a role for a cell type in the brain in MS, offering a new way of understanding the disease. She also discussed running a lab during the COVID-19 pandemic, and evaluating scientific information in a time of uncertainty.

Music: “Versailles” by Pierce Murphy (CC-BY 4.0). Produced by Conor Gearin.

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Whitehead’s Jing-Ke Weng on COVID-19 treatments taking root in plant science

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Plants have been used as medicine for thousands of years; could they contribute to a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic? This is what Whitehead Institute Member Jing-Ke-Weng set out to address in a new paper, published May 20 in the journal Molecular Plant.

We talked to Weng about an herbal treatment being used to treat COVID-19 in China derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine, the work necessary for such a treatment to be translated to an FDA-approved drug, and why the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for basic, fundamental research in plant science and beyond.

Music: “Versailles” by Pierce Murphy (CC-BY 4.0), “The Minutes” by Scott Gratton (CC-BY-NC 4.0) Produced by Eva Frederick and Conor Gearin.

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Whitehead Institute’s Pulin Li on creating multicellular patterns in a Petri dish

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In this episode of AudioHelicase, Whitehead Institute Member Pulin Li talks about how her lab engineers cells in Petri dishes to communicate with each other and form patterns, recreating processes seen in embryo development—and how this work could eventually inform efforts to grow tissues in the lab.

 

Produced by Conor Gearin

Music: Pierce Murphy, “Versailles” (CC-BY 4.0)

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Whitehead Institute’s Ankur Jain on RNA clumps and the neurodegenerative diseases they are associated with

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In this episode of AudioHelicase, Whitehead Institute Member Ankur Jain discusses how RNA can clump in cells and the diseases, such as Huntington’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), that are associated with these aggregations.

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