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Updates

Medical Research & Talent|January 17, 2023

Harnessing the Immune System to Fight Cancer

Sometimes research takes scientists to unexpected places, even alpaca farms. Tobiloba Oni is one of two Valhalla Fellows at Whitehead Institute who are researching ways to harness our natural defenses to combat cancer, an approach called immunotherapy.

Medical Research & Talent|December 8, 2022

How AI Found the Words to Kill Cancer Cells

Using new machine learning techniques, researchers at at the Cell Design Institute at UCSF, in collaboration with a team at IBM Research, have developed a virtual molecular library of thousands of “command sentences” for cells, based on combinations of “words” that guided engineered immune cells to seek out and tirelessly kill cancer cells.

Medical Research & Talent|September 16, 2022

International MS Microbiome Study Links Gut Bacteria to MS Susceptibility, Severity and Treatment in Novel Study

A new study published by the International MS Microbiome Study Consortium links gut bacteria to MS susceptibility, severity and treatment.

Medical Research & Talent|September 12, 2022

Biochemist Lindsey Backman Appointed as Valhalla Fellow at Whitehead Institute

Biochemist Lindsey Backman, who studies the structure and function of proteins in microbial organisms, is the newest member of the Whitehead Fellows Program.

Medical Research & Talent|April 6, 2022

UCSF Researcher Earns Scientific Breakthrough Award

This year’s Scientific Breakthrough Award, funded by the American Brain Foundation, has been awarded to Stephen Hauser, MD, for helping to understand the genetic basis, immune processes, and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). The award recognizes the work of an individual or a team whose research has contributed to advances in the care of people living with MS or another neurological disease.

Medical Research & Talent|November 17, 2021

Dr. Tobiloba Oni, Valhalla Fellow at the Whitehead Institute, Shares his Work to Fight Pancreatic Cancer

Dr. Tobiloba Oni has leveraged Valhalla Foundation's support to secure additional funding to fight pancreatic cancer from the Emerald Foundation, the Hirshberg Foundation, Break Through Cancer, and the US Department of Defense.

Medical Research & Talent|October 15, 2021

Clinician-Scientist Kipp Weiskopf Appointed as a Valhalla Fellow at Whitehead Institute

Kipp Weiskopf—who is identifying ways to prompt macrophages to fight cancer—has been named a Valhalla Fellow.

Medical Research & Talent|September 2, 2021

Two Whitehead Fellows Named to MIT and Harvard Faculties

Kristin Knouse joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty as an assistant professor of biology and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer. As a Scott Cook and Signe Ostby Fellow at the Whitehead Institute since 2018, Knouse worked to understand how tissues sense and respond to damage.

Medical Research & Talent|June 15, 2021

What We Learned Doing Fast Grants

The founders of Fast Grants share insights from developing and operating a rapid funding platform for COVID-19 scientific research.

Medical Research & Talent|June 3, 2021

The Disease Detective

Dr. Joe DeRisi, a UCSF Sandler Fellow alumnus, invented a way to find pathogens that scientists didn't even know to look for. Can it help prevent the next pandemic?