Susan Lindquist

Susan Lindquist is a member and former director of the Whitehead Institute (2001-2004), a professor of biology at MIT, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an associate member of the Broad Institute. Her laboratory studies protein folding and has shown that alternative protein conformations can have profound and unexpected effects in fields as wide ranging as human disease, evolution, and biomaterials. Through research on yeast prions, Lindquist and her colleagues have revealed evidence of a mechanism for protein-only inheritance and contributed to a structural understanding of amyloid fiber formation. Her group has also shown, through studies in a variety of model systems, that molecular chaperones can influence the expression and evolution of new traits by guiding the folding of key proteins in signal transduction pathways. Finally, the Lindquist laboratory has developed yeast models of protein folding diseases to gain insights into the basis of neurodegeneration and cancer, and to design therapeutic strategies.

Learn more about research in the Lindquist laboratory here.