This past July marked four years since I returned to Whitehead Institute to serve as director. Recently, the Institute’s board of directors appointed me to a second five-year term beginning in 2025, which has prompted me to reflect on the past four years and to ponder what the future may hold.

When I began, in the summer of 2020, the world was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disease’s physical toll, coupled with economic dislocation and political turmoil marked the period. Our institute pulled together as a community, and together we forged a path to safely keep our science moving and spirit intact. 

Today, looking forward, I could not be more excited. Our now 42-year path of discovery — broadly defined by Jack Whitehead and David Baltimore as uncovering fundamental principles in developmental biology — has brought us organically to our new scientific vision, Renewal and Resilience. Guided by this vision, we strive to understand how organisms perform the fundamental tasks of life. We’re asking questions such as: How do organisms replenish their cells and tissues? How do they reproduce? How do they respond to challenges like disease and climate change?

Renewal and Resilience encompasses the breadth of research conducted by our principal investigators. Their work ranges from exploring how our germ cells renew and replenish our genetic material to tracing the effects of hibernation and torpor on aging; from learning how certain species regenerate organs and functions to understanding the genomics 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 are extraordinarily well-positioned to address these important challenges because we are guided by an ethos of science without limits: a commitment to multidisciplinary, foundational biology fueled by curiosity, creativity, and the courage to take on intellectual risk in pursuit of discovery.

Not bound to a particular research area or disease focus, our researchers are nimble, free to pursue the big questions. They let their interests evolve and draw from any area of biology that can advance their investigations. Indeed, embracing science without limits in an institutional sense, we leverage our affiliation with the world-class expertise of our colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and we pursue collaborations with researchers around the world.

Whitehead’s strong basic science approach drives a mechanistic understanding of biological processes that is crucial to understanding health and disease at its most elemental levels — and that is essential for reconstituting the complexity with which organisms function. We believe that understanding this complexity is critical for identifying the causes of disease and developing evidence-based therapies. 

I am proud of all that Whitehead Institute has accomplished thus far. And I’m enthusiastic about the limitless science our investigators will pursue in the years to come.

Sincerely, 

Ruth Lehmann 
President and Director

A scientific vision that unites our research

Over more than 40 years of groundbreaking work, Whitehead Institute scientists have solved some of the most fundamental questions in developmental biology such as: How do we coax stem cells to become particular cell types? Which genes help make cells stop dividing and can cause cancer when they go awry?

Building on these discoveries and many others, Whitehead Institute scientists are now addressing what is next—understanding the processes and players that drive renewal and resilience in living things. 

A snapshot of this work includes:

• Siniša Hrvatin, studying how animals may increase resilience by entering states of torpor and hibernation
• Mary Gehring, investigating how to make crops such as the pigeon pea plant more resilient to climate change
• Yukiko Yamashita, researching how the germline remains effectively immortal, transmitting genetic information to the next generation
• Peter Reddien, studying how certain stem cells can create a positional map, so they know what type of cell to create during regeneration
• Olivia Corradin, investigating the genetic factors that may help an individual be resilient to opioid addiction

We are focused on these questions, and others like them, not only to better understand our own biology and world but to provide critical insights into complex, chronic diseases and the pressing global challenges we face. Both within our building and through our affiliation with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and beyond, our scientists work closely with researchers across disciplines and can integrate thinking and approaches from them to tackle difficult questions impenetrable by a single discipline. These integrated approaches are needed to understand previously intractable problems in the science of renewal and resilience that will inform our understanding of health and disease. Explore the Our Science section of the annual report to learn more about the compelling questions our scientists are investigating.

Stories of science in every shape and size

Whitehead Institute researchers investigate a diverse array of questions. In the first collection of multimedia stories below, learn about research that spans the scales of size, time, and process to build a deeper understanding of biology. In the second collection, read, watch, and listen to stories that highlight different aspects of Whitehead Institute research. Learn about how researchers make use of tools from the natural world in their work, and how foundational biological research can lay the groundwork for medical advances.

Scale of size:

No gear is an island — just as a machine relies on the precise operation of its mechanical components, an organism depends on the coordinated function of its building blocks. Molecules, the basic building blocks of life, come together to form organelles, which are specialized structures within cells. Groups of cells then unite to form tissues that collaborate on a specific task. These tissues are interconnected by networks of genes that synchronize the life processes of an organism.

Through the study of life at every scale, researchers at Whitehead Institute are able to piece together how each “component” of a living organism acts as part of a vital machine—and how these parts may go awry in the case of disease.

Scale of time:

Take a deep dive into the journey of life. It starts with a single fertilized egg cell dividing to form two new cells. These cells then continuously divide to produce thousands of cells, driving processes like growth, aging, and disease throughout an organism's lifetime. Over millions of years, as genetic instructions within these cells accumulate epigenetic changes or mutations, species evolve. But through all this, life persists as organisms survive and reproduce.

By studying life through its various stages — from a single cell division to the lifespan of an organism and evolutionary changes in a species — researchers at the Whitehead Institute gain a comprehensive understanding of how disruptions at any stage impact the health and survival of individual organisms and entire species.

Scale of process:

Genes, like instruments in an orchestra, produce proteins that keep the symphony of life running smoothly. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute are exploring the scale of this symphony, from the function of individual genes to how they work together in a complex system, by leveraging advanced genomic techniques and computer modeling. Their work offers a reimagined view of the intricate workings of cells and what life looks like from the micro to the macro level.

Dive into this multimedia collection to learn more.

The Whitehead Innovation Initiative advances AI use in biomedical research

In April 2024, philanthropists Michael and Victoria Chambers announced a $10 million gift to establish the Whitehead Innovation Initiative, which will catalyze novel research at the intersection of biology and artificial intelligence (AI). The Initiative will also empower Whitehead Institute scientists to explore the power of AI tools to advance discoveries underpinning new ways of preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease.

“The Whitehead Innovation Initiative will enable our researchers to be even more agile, creative, and pioneering in the questions they ask and the approaches they use,” says Whitehead Institute President and Director Ruth Lehmann, who is also professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “ It will also fuel innovative new collaborations among Institute labs and with outside partners.”

"There's no setting more suited than the Whitehead Institute, under the expert guidance of Dr. Lehmann, to pioneer the melding of AI and biology,” explains Michael Chambers, who is a member of the Institute’s board of directors. “We embrace this venture with great enthusiasm and support, foreseeing a future rich with scientific advancement.”

Hitting the ground running

The Initiative got off to a very fast start.

An advisory committee was immediately appointed to provide strategic advice on advancing AI-based research, education, and community-building efforts. Chaired by Richard Young, Whitehead Institute Member and a professor of biology at MIT, its members include: Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health at MIT; Allison Hamilos, Valhalla Fellow in the Whitehead Fellows Program; and Vanessa Almendro, Vice President of Science and Technology and Head of Innovation at Danaher Corporation.

With the advisory committee’s input, five new studies received seed funding from the Whitehead Innovation Initiative. “These are one-year grants that are enabling the scientists to use AI-based methods to begin testing their hypotheses and developing proof-of-concept data,” Young explains. “Our hope is that the results of these initial studies will support successful applications for external grants to fund underwrite next-stage investigations.” (For more information on these studies, see the accompanying article "Using AI to Drive Discovery.")

Using AI to drive discovery

Five exciting new research projects have received the Whitehead Innovation Initiative’s first set of seed grants:

• The Cheeseman lab is using AI-driven analysis of its growing cell image repository to build knowledge about each gene’s contribution to biological function. The group anticipates that the resulting data would underpin systematic approaches for eliminating specific genes and uncover biologically meaningful patterns underlying critical features and functions of the cell. 
• The Corradin lab is using machine learning methods to leverage more than 5,000 distinct genome-wide association studies and exome sequencing-based studies reflecting myriad human diseases. In using these rich datasets, the group will attempt to infer the function of previously uncharacterized genes and the role they may play in disease. The group has a particular interest in opioid use disorder, and their work could also yield key insights into the epigenetic variations found to be prevalent in opioid use disorder.
• Leveraging existing machine learning expertise and deep knowledge about the planarian regeneration model, the Reddien lab seeks to develop new AI-based methods to help explain how stem cells are differentiated into specific cell types and how cells are able to organize into complex structures and tissues.
• The Weissman lab is using machine learning to study the inner workings and intercellular communication of cells to understand how collections of cells self-organize to create tissues and organs. This effort has the potential to broadly inform our understanding of distinct organ functions and the underlying causes of disease.
• In a collaboration with the Barzilay lab at MIT, the Young lab is using AI to learn how proteins gather into functional compartments in cells, providing potentially revolutionary insights into how diseases develop and which ultimately may suggest specific types of therapeutics that would be optimal for patients.

While those five studies got under way, a new, AI-focused principal investigator role was created and the first incumbent recruited. In September 2024, Na Sun, a recent PhD graduate of MIT, became the inaugural AI Fellow within the Whitehead Fellows Program. “Her appointment is significant in many ways,” observes Whitehead Institute Director and President Ruth Lehmann. “Not only is she pursuing novel studies in her own lab, she offers new kinds of knowledge and technical skills from which our principal investigators and staff scientists can draw inspiration.”

Sun welcomes opportunities to collaborate with scientists across Whitehead Institute to employ AI and other deep learning techniques to advance studies on a broad range of questions. “It’s the fact that the Whitehead Institute culture supports interactions among many kinds of scientific expertise and perspectives that makes this new role particularly exciting for me,” she says. (For background on Na Sun, see the accompanying article "Computational Biologist Becomes the First AI Fellow.")

A community comfortable with computation

“Michael and Victoria Chambers recognized that important scientific discoveries will occur at the intersection of biology and AI, and we are dedicated to seeing that realized at Whitehead,” says Richard Young.  “My confidence in this comes from the powerful innovations that are occurring in each of the fields of biology and AI, the remarkable community of talented researchers we have at Whitehead and at MIT, and our history of innovation in multidisciplinary research.”

Young believes that to realize the tremendous opportunity for discovery, Whitehead Institute needs to be very intentional about preparing its scientists to use AI tools and about fostering partnerships between biomedical and computational researchers. “In particular,” he suggests, “we need to help researchers recognize the value in moving beyond their comfort zones.”

Toward that end, Allison Hamilos stepped up to help create a multifaceted program of AI-focused education, mentoring, and community building. “We launched our activities soon after the Whitehead Innovation Initiative was established,” Hamilos explains, “and we’ve had fantastic engagement across Whitehead, from principal investigators and staff scientists to postdocs to students."

“Our goal is twofold: to help them be familiar with the growing array of tools available; and to connect them with the expertise and technical capacities they need to employ the right tools given their scientific objectives,” she notes. “But through our programming, we also are striving to nurture a robust culture of learning about — and intellectual risk-taking in — the application of AI tools to biological discovery.”

To those ends, the advisory committee is sponsoring an ongoing series of seminars and talks about specific AI-based methods and other computational biology tools. It has also held periodic social events that create informal opportunities for traditional bench scientists to surmount the typical institutional or disciplinary hurdles that can separate them from computation-oriented researchers.

In the coming year, several other efforts will be launched, including a journal club focusing on how biology researchers can pitch their ideas for collaborative work with AI-focused scientists; presentations by the labs pursuing Initiative-funded research projects; and AI Dinners for Eight, designed to spur focused conversations and brainstorming on specific questions.

Stepping back to offer a long-term view of an initiative still in its infancy, Ruth Lehmann observes, “Many of science’s biggest advances have come from giving people opportunities to advance their science in ways that cross disciplines. We believe that the Whitehead Innovation Initiative will spur incredible advances.”

Two globally respected executives join Whitehead Institute Board of Directors

The Whitehead Institute Board of Directors has elected two experienced leaders to its ranks: biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry executive Dr. Deborah Dunsire; and Micho Spring, a strategic communications expert who led a major global consulting practice. Both have been elected to six-year terms that began July 1, 2024.

“We are very pleased to have these two accomplished and dynamic individuals join our organization,” says Board Chair Sarah Keohane Williamson. “Deborah and Micho each possesses a long, distinguished record of guiding growing organizations and each brings a depth of knowledge and expertise that will meaningfully enhance Whitehead Institute’s ability to pursue its mission: forging new frontiers in science, uncovering insights today that unlock the potential of tomorrow.”

Deborah Dunsire has, in the four decades since earning a medical degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, built a series of highly successful teams in biotech and pharma companies including Novartis, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology), and Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals — the Copenhagen-based company that has developed and commercialized some of the world's most widely prescribed therapies for brain diseases.

“My passion has been the discovery and development of medicines that transform outcomes for patients,” Dunsire says. “That is why I am excited by this opportunity to contribute to Whitehead Institute’s continuing success in making discoveries that become catalysts for new treatments and, indeed, for whole new ways of understanding human biology and health.”

In the course of her career, Dunsire has led companies in developing therapeutics used in more than 100 countries, addressing neurological conditions, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. In those roles, she guided the launch of 11 blockbuster medicines, while also directing the turnaround of commercial operations, transforming R&D organizations, and shepherding multiple successful mergers and acquisitions. She currently chairs the board of directors of Neurvati Neurosciences, and serves on the boards of McKesson, Ultragenyx, Syros Pharmaceuticals, and Vima Therapeutics. Previously, she was a board member for Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Japan, Allergan, and Alexion.

Outside of her industry work, Dunsire is a longstanding member of the boards of trustees of Northeastern University, the Museum of Science (Boston), and the International Institute of New England.

Micho Spring, now a senior advisor at Weber Shandwick, formerly led its global corporate practice and served as its chief reputation officer. During her 31-year career there, she counseled clients on challenges ranging from CEO succession and cultural transformation to litigation and environmental and social issues.

Before joining Weber, Spring was CEO of Boston Telecommunications Company, chief of staff and deputy mayor under Boston Mayor Kevin H. White, and a member of New York Mayor John Lindsay’s administration. She earned a master of public administration degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, having previously attended Georgetown and Columbia Universities.

Spring’s understanding of the challenges facing complex organizations also draws from her service on the boards of directors of the National Bank Holdings Corporation and the National Association of Corporate Directors New England; as past chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce; and as treasurer of the Massachusetts Conference for Women, which offers education and networking on topics both career and personal development and advancement.

At the same time, Spring says, “I have a strong commitment to improving healthcare quality and public well-being.” Pursuing that commitment, she serves as a member of the corporation of Mass General Brigham, having previously served on the boards of Partners Healthcare and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also founding chair and a director of Friends of Caritas Cubana, a humanitarian and social services agency serving Cuba’s most vulnerable populations.

“Whitehead Institute has a legacy of tremendous impact, both in creating new knowledge and in training some of the world’s most innovative biomedical leaders,” Spring observes. “To me, joining its board offers a unique opportunity to help extend and expand that legacy — and in that way to enable people across the world to have healthier, more fulfilling lives.” 

Robert (Bobby) Satcher, professor of orthopaedic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and former NASA astronaut, joined the board of Whitehead Institute in 2020. He brought to that role deep expertise in clinical care and translational research, wide-ranging experience as an educator, and a passion for helping expand global access to high-quality medical care.

After earning bachelor’s and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MD from the Harvard Medical School Health Sciences and Technology program, Satcher completed fellowships at University of California, Berkeley and University of Florida; he then served on the faculties of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the University’s biomedical engineering department. From 2004 to 2011, he was a NASA Mission Specialist Astronaut; during that time, he participated in an 11-day mission to the International Space Station, served as that crew’s medical doctor, and took two spacewalks.

In this interview, he explains why he chose to engage so deeply with Whitehead Institute and how he hopes to help guide its path forward.

Whitehead Institute: Given the range of biomedical organizations that would welcome you to their boards, why have you decided to devote your time and energy to Whitehead Institute?

Robert Satcher: I was an undergraduate at MIT in the mid-1980s when the Institute was just getting off the ground, and I was able to take courses with some of the Whitehead faculty. Over the years, I’ve paid attention to the research coming out from its labs and have been very impressed by the impact it was having in a variety of biomedical fields. And when the opportunity arose to be engaged directly in advancing its work, there was no question in my mind that I’d do it. It was like the germination of a seed planted 35 years earlier, and it’s been exciting to help guide its growth and future direction.

WI: Was there a specific set of Whitehead Institute’s accomplishments over the years that helped keep it present in your mind?

RS: Certainly the Institute’s work on the human genome was one of those major accomplishments. It’s been fundamental to so many of the pathbreaking discoveries and biomedical applications that have steadily emerged over the past two decades — and that will only increase in number and impact in coming years. Then, as an orthopedic oncologist, I’m very aware of the many game-changing discoveries in cancer biology that continue to come out of Whitehead labs — and of the therapeutic strategies that continue being developed thanks to those discoveries. I also have to admit that, personally, I love having the opportunity to go into Institute labs, talk to the researchers, and learn about how they are able to continuously make spectacular advances. I could go on, because oncology and genomics are just two examples of Whitehead Institute’s huge footprints in biomedical science.

WI: You’ve worn many hats in your career and bring an array of skills and experiences to bear as a board member. Which have you found are especially useful in that role?

RS: I was asked to be a member of the board’s Leadership Advisory Committee. It works with Ruth Lehmann and her administrative team to help set strategic goals, manage difficult issues and challenges, and make critical decisions efficiently and effectively — all while keeping the big picture and long-term vision in mind. So, my experience in universities and academic medical centers has given me lots of knowledge directly relevant to Whitehead’s raison d'être of conducting impactful research and training the next generation of scientific leaders.

But more important, I think, has been my NASA experience. It equipped me with a perspective that is, if not unique, certainly different from that of most clinician-scientists and biomedical educators. People at NASA are used to making difficult decisions in trying circumstances — and in the glare of public attention. They know it’s essential to be decisive and then to do what’s necessary to bring about success. There are very few academic and nonprofit leadership and governance teams — which mostly comprise people who are, appropriately, deliberative in nature — that possess those capacities. So, to the extent that it’s needed and useful, I try to bring my NASA experience to bear in helping identify, rigorously analyze, decisively address big questions and thorny challenges.

However, I must say, I have been very impressed by the Institute’s ability to navigate in choppy waters. The biggest example: responding to the pandemic. I joined the board in mid-2020 and you really learn a lot about an organization — about its culture and resilience, and about its leaders’ capacities — when you see it operating under enormous, unprecedented stress. Those were challenging days, weeks, and months, no doubt about it. But Whitehead came through the pandemic well — in some ways, even stronger than before. And it’s very well-positioned to continue building on its long legacy of discovery and impact.

 

Trainee snapshots

Whitehead Institute’s trainees — its postdoctoral researchers and graduate students — are central to its highly productive and collaborative environment. These emerging scientific leaders are multitalented individuals whose collective backgrounds, interests, and perspectives help fuel the Institute’s vibrant culture. Here are snapshots of five of them; you can also view extended profiles of these individuals by clicking on their names.

The Whitehead Fellows Program: 40 years young and thriving

Since 1984, the Whitehead Fellows Program has given extraordinarily talented recent PhDs and MDs the opportunity to launch their own labs. Fellows receive dedicated lab space; funds for equipment, lab operations, salary, and core staffing; plus access to Whitehead’s shared technical facilities.

“The bar for being selected as a Fellow is high,” explains Program co-director Yukiko Yamashita, who is an Institute Member, professor of biology at MIT, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, and first incumbent of the Susan Lindquist Chair for Women in Science. “Each of these young scientists are highly accomplished scientifically, and demonstrate the ability to independently pursue solutions to major research problems.”

“The Program’s objective is to enable Fellows to create bold, independent research programs and pursue their scientific visions as creatively as they dare,” says Program co-director David Bartel, who is an Institute Member, a professor of biology at MIT, HHMI Investigator, and a former Fellow himself. “In practice, Fellows also bring knowledge and skills that enhance the Institute’s overall capacities.”

The Program was one of the first of its kind, and for 40 years its alumni have continued to be pacesetters: becoming pioneering scientists, lauded teachers, and heads of major academic and commercial research centers. Their ranks include a White House science advisor, a NASA astronaut, a dean of Harvard Medical School, senior executives of major biomedical companies, and six current or former Members of Whitehead Institute. 

Fellows’ research discoveries have had a profound impact on a broad array of crucial topics — from the essential roles RNAs play, to the genetic factors contributing to drug addiction, to harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. And with each passing year, more of the Program alumni’s basic-science discoveries are being translated into strategies for preventing or treating disease.

The Fellows Program was created by Founding Director David Baltimore as one way to continuously refresh the range of expertise, ideas, and perspectives that create Whitehead Institute’s robust culture — and to help fuel a steady flow of research innovation and discovery.

“David Baltimore’s vision for the Whitehead Fellowships blossomed very quickly, and in my opinion, the Program has become one of the Institute’s central pillars,” says Institute Member and Former Director David Page. He is in a perfect position to know: He was the first Whitehead Fellow, arriving at the Institute even before its new building was fully completed. Today, among the many notable experiences Page had as a Fellow, one is indelibly marked in his memory. “Since the Institute’s founding, Members have had a monthly faculty lunch to share updates on our research projects, discuss technical problems we’re wrestling with, and consider opportunities and challenges facing the Institute as a whole. Fellows participate in those conversations, and while I don’t remember exactly what we discussed in my first faculty lunch, I do recall the epiphany I had afterward: ‘These MIT scientists, who were hand-picked to launch this Institute, are talking to me — a guy with three-plus years of lab experience — like I was one of them.’ And that dynamic, of Fellows and Members talking and working together as colleagues, continues to this day.”

Although each of the Program’s alumni have had a unique set of experiences and opportunities, many share a perspective on the most beneficial and most challenging aspects of being a Fellow. “My experience as a Whitehead Fellow was a positive inflection point in my scientific career,” observes Olivia Corradin, who, at the end of her Fellowship in 2021, was named a Whitehead Institute Member and an assistant professor of biology at MIT. “By not restricting me to studying a specific scientific question and by encouraging me to take more intellectual risks, the Program freed me to think in a more interdisciplinary way and to make a major shift in the direction of my research program. And that new direction has proven quite fruitful.”

Sebastian Lourido — a Program alum who became a Whitehead Institute Member in 2016, is an associate professor of biology at MIT, and holds the Institute’s Landon T. Clay Career Development Chair — also cherished the flexibility to adapt his laboratory’s initial focus as his scientific vision evolved. “At the same time,” he says, “the Program demands that a new PhD dive right into the responsibilities of creating and running a lab. It’s a dramatic change in how you relate to the people around you. Suddenly, they are looking to you to set the direction, make the important choices, and solve the problems that arise.”

Lourido believes that the balance of opportunity and challenge reflects a fundamental principle of Whitehead Institute. “The Program is investing in the investigator, not in any individual project,” he observes. “And Whitehead Institute is committed to nurturing young scientists who are passionate about — and effective in — defining and pursuing their visions.”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion at Whitehead Institute

Cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community is fundamental to Whitehead Institute's mission to forge new frontiers in science. We continue to develop and clarify our Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I), which is built on four core commitments. 

• Improving the hiring, retaining and promoting of diverse talent
• Creating and maintaining an inclusive culture that promotes physical and mental well-being and respect for all Whitehead Institute community members 
• Developing partnerships to increase engagement and outreach with local communities to improve accessibility, particularly for individuals from groups underrepresented in biomedical sciences
• Encouraging open dialogue and facilitating learning opportunities to address DE&I topics and making them available to the entire Whitehead Institute community

"It's no coincidence that the Institute remains at the cutting edge of biological science, while prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. These two aims are intimately intertwined," says Dilly Wilson, Whitehead Institute's Director of Human Resources and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer.

This year, DE&I efforts flourished both at the lab bench and on a community-wide level. The DE&I Council, which is composed of faculty, trainees, and staff, continues to promote diversity, equity and inclusion through new initiatives. The Council is currently designing a professional development program for Whitehead Institute technicians applying to graduate school. The Council has also continued to organize the Science for the Non-Scientist Seminar Series: jargon-free talks given by trainees, sharing both their research and passion for science.

Whitehead Institute is also home to nine Inclusion Networks: Accessible Whitehead Alliance, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Black and African Diaspora, DEI Allies, First Generation College Graduates, LGBTQIA+, Parents, Whitehead UNIDOS and Women@WIBR. These groups provide Whitehead Institute trainees and staff an opportunity to foster connections over shared interests and identities. At "An Exploration of Indigenous Cuisine," an event hosted by DEI Allies and Women@WIBR, chef Sherry Pocknett shared her knowledge of Indigenous food, history, and culture. In February, AAPI hosted a Lunar New Year celebration. This spring, members of our community received the chance to learn the basics of salsa, bachata, merengue, and cha-cha at a Whitehead UNIDOS dance party. Roots Alley Collective, upon invitation from the Black and African Diaspora Inclusion Network, performed live music and shared the history and culture of reggae music during a Q&A session. Also, this summer, the Parents Inclusion Network hosted a children's clothing, book, and toy swap. These are just a sampling of the events and activities hosted by Whitehead Institute's Inclusion Networks.

The Inclusion Networks also supported Whitehead Institute's DEI Seminar Series, which hosted speakers from a wide range of disciplines in both the sciences and humanities. The series explores not only exciting ideas in science but also how personal identities and experiences interface with the broader culture and institutions of science.

• Dis/ability Inclusion: Improving Climate and Addressing Access with Dr. Autumn Wilke
• The Intersection of Disability and Poverty with Dr. Esther Kamau 
• Immunology of Long COVID with Dr. Akiko Iwasaki 
• The Field, the Curriculum, the Scientists: Where Do We Get to Exist? with Dr. Alyssa Hillary Zisk
• Mechanosensitive Channels, Sensory Physiology and Neurological Disorders with Dr. Yuh-Nung Jan
• The Multitasking TMEM16 Family with Dr. Lily Jan 
• Understanding the Regulation of Gene Expression by Acetyl-methyllysine through the Cell Cycle with Charlie Brown, PhD candidate

The High School Internship Program, which debuted last year, provides an opportunity for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds to gain hands-on research experience. This year the Hamilos lab and Functional Genomics Platform hosted two interns who completed research projects over the summer.

Discovery Lab @ Whitehead Institute provides another opportunity for high school students to gain exposure to science. Through the program, students from local communities tour our labs and talk to Whitehead Institute researchers about science and career paths. In the inaugural program, Whitehead Fellow Aditya Raguram hosted AP Biology students from the Community Charter School of Cambridge.

As we look to the future, we reaffirm our commitment to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment, one that empowers bold, cutting-edge science.

Learning by engaging

For more than 30 years, Whitehead Institute’s public programs have been helping our broader community learn about cutting-edge biological research. The dual goal: preparing future citizens who are comfortable engaging with science and technology in their lives and workplace; and building the pipeline of future leaders in biomedical research and translation. 

While we participate in community-led events such as the Cambridge Science Festival, our core efforts focus on middle and high school students (and their teachers): We offer hands-on and online programs that develop critical thinking skills and inspire participants to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). 

Those programs continue to grow and evolve. In particular, we have adapted and enhanced individual programs in ways that provide access to STEM knowledge to people — and especially students — who have had little opportunity to engage directly with researchers and experience science firsthand. And we have seen an important result: an increasing proportion of program alumni are considering — or actually pursuing — a STEM major in college.

“Leveraging an expanded network of education partners — and thanks to philanthropic support from Sanofi and from individual donors — we have also been able to increase the overall number of participants in our hands-on science programs,” notes Public Programs Manager Amy Tremblay. “The financial support also enabled us to both reduce the price of our summer programs and give more scholarships.”  

Below are updates on inspiring core programs we offered in 2024, plus links to additional information on each. 

Sharing insights, building connections

Whitehead Institute hosts an array of events designed to spur a flow of information and insight on biomedical research and the translation of scientific discovery into ways of advancing human health. Those events also build connections between the Institute and the communities, organizations, and individuals inspired by the work we do. Below, click through to see a few highlights of this past year’s events, including the Director’s Dialogues series and the Scientific Webinar series:

Today's discoveries, tomorrow's revolutionary treatments

My role at Whitehead Institute enables me to interact directly with our innovative faculty, Fellows and trainees, learning about their work and its potential to change the world of biomedicine. For that reason, when a donor asks why it is important to fund basic science research instead of studies on specific diseases, I’m ready to explain a key fact about how new treatments are developed: It simply won’t happen without the kind of fundamental scientific knowledge our investigators have excelled at uncovering.  

With very few exceptions, novel treatments of specific diseases are possible only because of an important discovery resulting from patient, continuous investigations of basic biology. For more than 40 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have been rewarded by seeing the practical impact of the basic science discoveries they created through diligent and intellectually courageous work.

Simply put, our scientists are creating new knowledge that will ultimately enhance the health and resilience of this and future generations, and their studies on the fundamental mechanisms of life cover a broad array of subjects. Those studies range from unraveling the cellular processes associated with drug addiction to pioneering ways to deliver treatments to the specific cellular compartments that can best employ them to counter disease. And they extend from developing methods to increase food crop seed production to creating gene editing tools that turn off particular disease-causing genes — and thereby stop the disease from developing.

In other words, I tell donors: Whitehead Institute science is changing the world.

And I invite forward-looking philanthropists to join us in pursuing science without limits.

Sharon J. Stanczak

Vice President for External Affairs

In conversation with: Whitehead alumna Nancy Andrews

Nancy Andrews conducted doctoral research in the lab of Whitehead Institute Founding Director David Baltimore, and earned her PhD in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985.

Today, she serves as executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Boston Children’s Hospital and professor in residence of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and is widely respected for her four decades’ work as a physician-scientist, teacher, and academic leader. A former investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, her pioneering research elucidated fundamental aspects of mammalian iron utilization and uncovered the molecular causes of several iron-based diseases. She served as Harvard Medical School’s dean for basic sciences and graduate studies and as director of the Harvard/MIT M.D.-Ph.D. program. And, for 10 years, she was the dean of the school of medicine and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Duke University.

Andrews has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Having previously chaired the boards of directors of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is currently home secretary of the NAS and a member of the MIT Corporation, the Institute’s board of trustees.

She also serves on the boards of directors of Novartis, Charles River Laboratories, and Maze Therapeutics.

Whitehead Institute: What stands out from your experience as a PhD student in the Baltimore lab?

Nancy Andrews: My first interest in the Baltimore lab was immunology, and my initial project was based on an unexpected result from prior work done in the lab. However, several months in, we realized that the result had been incorrect and there was no reason to continue working on it. So, David asked me to build on work he’d started on poliovirus replication. I did, and my research resulted in useful, incremental progress. It did not have a major impact scientifically, but it was valuable for me: I learned how to take advantage of an array of research tools and methods — such as how to purify proteins — preparing me to do more significant work later, as a postdoc, on gene expression in red blood cells. In turn, that led to a focus on iron biology once I’d launched my own lab.

Today, many students feel immense pressure for their doctoral research to produce major findings. But it’s probably more important for them to use their graduate school experience to develop as scientists. Coping with setbacks and mastering both fundamental and emerging methods are essential experiences for young researchers.

WI: Were there other practical lessons you took away from your time in the Baltimore lab?

NA: Many, but one of the most memorable resulted from an experiment that I originally wasn’t going to do. The investigations that became my dissertation grew out of a control experiment that had a very different result than I’d expected, tipping me off that something else was going on. Initially, as a naïve graduate student, I’d thought, "Oh I don’t really need to do that— I already know what it will show." Yet, clearly, I didn’t know, and not doing the control would have been a big mistake.

I’ve told that story to my own graduate students many times, as a concrete piece of advice. But I have also used that lesson to remind myself and colleagues: Take time to make sure that what’s "obvious" is also demonstrably accurate. It’s possible that a single set of information can lead to multiple conclusions, and we don’t want to blind ourselves to those alternatives.

WI: How would you compare your experience as a woman pursuing a career in scientific research in the 1980s and '90s with the experience that young female scientists are having today?

NA: I see the early 1970s as an inflection point where a series of societal events created a surge of opportunities for women as professionals, including in science and medicine. For a while after, there was notable progress, but it decelerated in the 1990s. As I got further into my career and rose up the ranks, I saw that the professional path for women scientists got narrower, that resources were often distributed inequitably between male and female faculty, and that fewer leadership opportunities were made available to women than to men. My experience was strikingly similar to what was described in the 1999 MIT report on women in the School of Science, which was instigated by Nancy Hopkins, Ruth Lehmann, and 14 other courageous women scientists who simply wanted to have the same advantages as their male colleagues.  Recognizing the parallels between the MIT report and my experiences was a landmark event in my career.

In 2007 — more than 30 years after the “women’s liberation movement” — I was appointed dean of Duke’s medical school. I was the first woman to hold that role and the first to lead a top-10 medical school in the United States. That received much more publicity than I would have imagined. Fortunately, things have improved since then.

Yet, while circumstances are better for young female scientists today, inequities remain and the playing field is still not level. As described in the MIT report, relatively smaller inequities that younger women scientists face accumulate, growing as these women move through their careers. And the effects are still insidious, even if they are less pronounced overall.

Expanding the ranks of women in leadership roles will help solve this problem. We’re definitely seeing progress, as evidenced by the appointments of Whitehead Institute Director Ruth Lehmann and MIT president Sally Kornbluth.

But there is still much work to do. This has been and continues to be a very important, personal issue for me. I’ve come to feel that mentoring and sponsoring the leadership of women and people of color is the biggest piece of "unfinished business" in my career.

Challenge, growth, and resilience

Selecting an organization’s leader is one of a board’s most important decisions. We hit a home run in 2019 when, guided by a search committee led by MIT president emerita Susan Hockfield, we selected Ruth Lehmann. We recently affirmed our decision by asking Ruth to serve a second five-year term as director and president, beginning July 2025.

Of course, in 2019, we did not know that when she assumed her role in July 2020, she would have to grapple with the question, "How do you run a pioneering research organization in the midst of a pandemic — simultaneously protecting and maintaining the productivity of a community of scientists who thrive on interaction and collaboration?" But Ruth’s capacity to lead our scientific community through challenging times — while simultaneously guiding it to become stronger, nimbler, and more multifaceted today — is a major reason we are so pleased that she agreed to continue through 2030.

The board is also energized by Ruth’s scientific vision for Whitehead Institute, Renewal and Resilience. That vision reflects a powerful common denominator among our investigator’s diverse research programs: exploring how organisms perform the essential tasks of life, how they renew and replenish cells and tissues and reproduce, and how they respond to stresses such as drought and heat. It is also evidenced in two major scientific programs that have been launched under Ruth’s leadership — the Whitehead Innovation Initiative, which leverages artificial intelligence to drive pioneering investigations, and the Initiative on Biology and Health of Climate Change.

The board is committed to Renewal and Resilience, both as a purposeful scientific vision and as a way of defining its own core objective: ensuring that, for decades to come, Whitehead Institute has the resources and capacities to pursue its mission of forging new frontiers in science, uncovering insights today that unlock the potential of tomorrow.

I encourage you to learn more about the pioneering work being done at Whitehead Institute and about the extraordinary researchers who are pushing past today’s scientific boundaries.

We welcome your engagement in our collective effort to help shape the future of biomedical science.

Sarah Keohane Williamson  
Chair, Board of Directors

The importance of looking beyond the horizon

An interview with Michael and Victoria Chambers

Having long been biomedical industry entrepreneurs and business leaders, Michael and Victoria Chambers are increasingly focused on using philanthropy and community leadership to have meaningful impact. They met at North Dakota State University where Michael earned degrees in chemistry, microbiology, and biotechnology, and Victoria earned degrees in mass communication and political science. In 1998, they and colleagues launched Aldevron, a company that specializes in nucleic acid, protein, and enzyme production and has developed novel quality systems and technologies to accelerate the genetic medicine sector. During the following two-plus decades, Michael served as Aldevron’s CEO and chairman and Victoria served in major roles including marketing director and chief operating officer.

Since the 2021 acquisition of Aldevron by Danaher for $9.6 billion, Michael has provided counsel on opportunities in fields such as automating and miniaturizing biomanufacturing; he leads an investment group seeking to make genomic therapies, AI, and other transformative technologies broadly accessible; and he serves on the boards of Sarepta Therapeutics, Lykan Biosciences, Agathos, and Calviri. Victoria is active in North Dakota’s nonprofit community, serves on the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library board of trustees, and works on education projects such as a new children’s science museum. Together, they are the trustees of the Centurion Foundation, which they founded in 2021.

In 2022, Michael was elected to the Whitehead Institute board of directors, and this past year he and Victoria made a $10 million gift to establish the Whitehead Innovation Initiative. Following is the text of a joint, written interview with them.

Whitehead Institute: Michael, what motivated you to join the Whitehead Institute board?

Michael Chambers: The Whitehead Institute’s impact on advancing basic fundamental research and the entire life-science field is unparalleled, a fact I recognized when I was a student at North Dakota State University. The importance of the Institute’s research is well-known to anyone in molecular biology or related fields. Aldevron works with thousands of researchers from around the world. Many of these scientists have ties to Whitehead. I was honored to be invited to serve on the board and to be part of this remarkable team. 

WI: What kind of satisfaction do you get from engaging with Whitehead researchers?

Michael & Victoria Chambers: The groundbreaking efforts at Whitehead have significantly broadened our grasp of biomedical science, pushing the envelope of what we believe is achievable. What captivates us most is that this zeal for discovery permeates throughout the organization — from the faculty, postdocs, and students down to every individual contributor. There's a shared dedication to innovation that stands out.

Particularly rewarding is Whitehead's commitment to sharing knowledge and training upcoming scientific pioneers. They've fostered an environment that's not only open but thrives on interdisciplinary collaboration. Curiosity is celebrated. Every idea, whether orthodox or outlandish, finds a welcoming space, often leading to unforeseen innovations and authentic scientific advancements. This persistent curiosity, embodying the notion that the quest for knowledge is perpetual, truly defines Whitehead's ethos.

WI: What observations have you made about the way Whitehead’s scientists interact?

Michael & Victoria Chambers: Seeing the dynamic interactions between principal investigators, postdocs, and students has been amazing. There’s this powerful blend of hunger and humility. Everyone, no matter their experience level, is focused on learning and advancing the field. Ego doesn’t seem to have a place here — there’s a genuine sense that all energy is directed toward a shared mission of expanding knowledge. This creates an atmosphere where ideas flow freely, collaboration happens naturally, and people are deeply motivated to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

WI: What role do you feel that basic biological research can play in the overall biomedical enterprise in the decades ahead?

Michael & Victoria Chambers: Fundamental research is central to biomedical progress. We're at a pivotal moment where technology meets biology in an unprecedented way. With computational power, we can now predict how proteins will behave before we even synthesize them. And with big data, we're analyzing everything from single-cell behavior to outcomes from thousands of patient records.

This creates a virtuous cycle where each discovery fuels more discoveries. Basic research doesn't just support this cycle; it drives it. It's where we understand the mechanisms behind life, which is essential for translating these findings into real-world applications. For the future, the role of basic biology can't be overstated. It's about ensuring we're equipped to solve current medical challenges and anticipate and address those on the horizon.

WI: What drove your decision to underwrite creation of an AI-focused Innovation Initiative at Whitehead Institute? 

Michael & Victoria Chambers: We have always believed in the transformative work happening at the Whitehead Institute. By contributing to this AI initiative, we're excited to enhance the Institute’s capabilities. We aim to support its researchers in their pioneering efforts and to facilitate a broader sharing of knowledge and technology, ensuring the entire scientific community can advance with these powerful tools. 

WI: In more general terms, what do you feel are the most significant opportunities for enhancing biological research through AI?

Michael & Victoria Chambers: AI holds the promise to significantly boost biological research through several direct applications —

Data handling and insight generation: AI excels at navigating through large-scale data, spotting trends or discrepancies that might elude human eyes. This capacity is especially beneficial in fields like genomics or proteomics, where data sets are enormous.

Optimizing research strategies: With AI, experimental design can be enhanced by forecasting results based on findings from past experiments, streamlining procedures for maximum effectiveness, or proposing new methods through computational simulations.

Virtual protein structuring: Thanks to initiatives like AlphaFold, AI demonstrates its potential in modeling protein structures, offering groundbreaking insights for drug discovery and exploring protein roles without traditional lab experiments.

Tailoring medical treatments: Through AI, we can now customize medical treatments according to a person's unique genetic makeup, forecasting their reaction to drugs or therapeutic approaches.

Speeding literature synthesis: AI can keep researchers abreast of the latest scientific literature by distilling key points, spotlighting significant advancements, or forecasting future research.

WI: What scientific impact are you hoping the Whitehead Innovation Initiative will have had ten years from now?

Michael & Victoria Chambers: In a decade, we envision the Whitehead Innovation Initiative having led to —

Advanced computational tools: The initiative will have developed tools that make complex data analysis routine, enabling discoveries in areas like cellular processes or disease mechanisms at an unprecedented pace.

Leadership in interdisciplinary collaboration: By fostering a culture where computational scientists and biologists work hand-in-hand, the Initiative will have led to breakthroughs in fields like cancer research, where AI helps in understanding metastasis or resistance mechanisms.

Real-world medical applications: The Initiative's work will have contributed to the development of new diagnostic tools, therapeutic methods, and personalized medicine approaches, directly impacting patient care.

Tool development for unresolved questions: New AI methodologies will have been created or refined to tackle questions that were once out of reach, like predicting the spatial dynamics of cell populations or simulating entire biological systems for drug testing.

Global leadership in Bio-AI: Whitehead will be recognized as a global leader in the integration of AI with biology, influencing how research is conducted not just within its own walls but across the scientific community worldwide.

WI: Any thoughts that we haven’t touched on?

Michael & Victoria Chambers: We would like to highlight the importance of looking beyond the immediate horizon. Science doesn't just move in a straight line; it spirals upward through the collective efforts of many. We hope that Whitehead Institute continues to foster environments where risk is appreciated as much as success, where curiosity leads to discovery, and where the pursuit of knowledge is valued above all else.

Moreover, we want to express our deep appreciation for Whitehead's leadership and community. Your commitment to excellence, to ethical research practices, and to sharing knowledge freely is what drew us to support your endeavors. It's this kind of integrity and vision that will ensure the Institute remains at the forefront of scientific discovery. Keep pushing the boundaries, and thank you for allowing us to be part of this extraordinary journey in advancing human knowledge.