Howard Hughes Medical Institute

10/22/2026

HHMI Investigator Harmit Malik and his team thrive on competition — but in their lab at Fred Hutch, it’s the genomes, not the people, that are in conflict. By studying the “evolutionary rules” that guide how viruses and proteins rapidly evolve to keep up with their foes, researchers are uncovering insights that could inform the development of new antivirals. “Not only do these rules help us to look back in evolution and understand how these arms races played out, [they] also let us look forward and come up with new strategies,” Malik says. bit.ly/3U5yQNq

10/21/2026

Calling all rising undergrad juniors & seniors: 9 weeks, mentorship from top scientists, an up-to-$15K stipend to support "the most incredible" summer research experience, & more. Interested in lab research? (No previous experience required.) 🟢REGISTER TODAY🟢 for a live webinar about our Cech Fellows Program, happening Oct. 26 at 4pm ET! Registration: bit.ly/4zKhIM8 | Program webpage: bit.ly/4dRWYJZ

10/15/2026

How do you rebuild your entire body to survive somewhere your ancestors never lived? Land crabs’ ancestors lived entirely in the ocean. Today, some species thrive in full desert conditions, having evolved new diets, new organs, and new ways of surviving without water. Hanna Gray Fellow Victoria Watson-Zink (Harvard University) has spent years studying the genetic toolkit these crabs used to adapt, from the gut bacteria that help them digest plant matter to the genes that protect them from drying out. “Fundamentally, I want to understand what genetic toolkit animals reach for when they’re facing a particular challenge,” she says. “If we understand how — and how often — those adaptations occur, that could help us keep more species alive.” bit.ly/3TYux6g

10/15/2026

A new lab has launched at our Janelia Research Campus! The Lincoln Lab — led by Group Leader Richard Lincoln — combines experimental photochemistry, computational modeling, & physical chemistry to engineer next-generation fluorescence microscopy tools that use fluorescent labels to visualize cellular structures and biological processes. Lincoln’s is part of Tools@HHMI, which is building the foundation for dynamic biological imaging that will power Janelia's next chapter: bit.ly/3Vq0mFI.

📸: A medaka embryo (also known as a Japanese rice fish) labeled with fluorescent dyes. Courtesy Richard Lincoln (JRC) & Matthew Benton.

10/12/2026

Early career faculty in the biological or biomedical sciences? ”Don’t think twice — apply.” Meet Freeman Hrabowski Scholar Claudia Moreno (University of Washington), whose lab studies the mechanisms that govern heart rate adaptability. “It was a beautiful experience to demonstrate to myself that I really had what other people saw in me,” she says about FHS. “It’s a program that recognizes not only scientific excellence, but who you are as a person." Applications open Nov. 3; register now to check your eligibility, preview the application, unlock additional resources, & more: bit.ly/fhs26.

10/12/2026

It took scientists more than 60 years to develop long-lasting, preventive antibody treatments for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). A new tool developed by HHMI Investigator Jesse Bloom & team at Fred Hutch — a deep mutational scanning method that characterizes the effects of thousands of possible virus mutations — was recently used to show that variants of RSV associated with resistance to current RSV prevention tools are rare. “We know these tools work really well in reducing severe RSV infections in babies. We want to ensure that these tools stay effective, and this study is a step toward ensuring our prevention methods keep working,” says Cassandra Simonich, a Bloom Lab member who led the new research: bit.ly/4d8lBlp.

10/11/2026

Every cell has an organelle signature — a “fingerprint” screated from the shape, size, & arrangement of its internal structures. Scientists at our Janelia Research Campus can now read these signatures across thousands of cells, revealing how tissues adapt to diet & disease. bit.ly/4j6DmoH | 📹 Feliciano Lab, JRC

10/08/2026

Every cell in our body (all 37 trillion of them) comes from a single fertilized egg — & now HHMI Investigators Jonathan Weissman (Whitehead Institute) and Jay Shendure (University of Washington) and their teams have figured out how to trace that cellular development. Using new tools they created, the researchers produced maps of the origin and outcome of vast numbers of cells in a developing mouse — information that could help scientists better understand how bodies develop and diseases arise. bit.ly/4dVhnhe

10/07/2026

Proteins are shape shifters, constantly moving between different configurations to carry out essential jobs inside our cells. Now, HHMI Investigator Dorothee Kern and team at Scripps Research have developed a machine learning model to predict these micro-to-millisecond changes, revealing aspects of protein function that could help researchers uncover new connections between protein movement and human health. “Until now, we didn’t have enough data to simulate these movements on a computer,” says Kern. “In this new study, we came up with a really bold idea to get past that.” bit.ly/4d6klPH

10/05/2026

Thrilled to celebrate HHMI Investigator Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University), winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine! Deisseroth's role in developing optogenetics — a technique that uses light to switch individual brain cells on and off — allows scientists to directly test how specific neural circuits contribute to behavior and disease. He shares the prize with Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of University of Würzburg, for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels. Learn more: bit.ly/4huCFVb.

Karl Deisseroth, HHMI Investigator at Stanford, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in developing optogenetics.