Whitney Henry

Whitney S. Henry, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

Dr Henry’s laboratory investigates ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death, to uncover how oxidative stress, metabolism, and immune signaling intersect to shape cell fate decisions. Her research has defined key lipid metabolic and iron homeostatic programs that regulate ferroptosis susceptibility, advancing this rapidly growing field. While her laboratory’s primary research focuses on therapy-resistant cancers, she is also extending these mechanistic frameworks to explore liver disease and endometrial physiology.

Dr Henry earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology, with a minor in Chemistry, from Grambling State University. As a PhD student in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University, she studied PI3K signaling in breast cancer progression under the mentorship of Dr Alex Toker. She completed postdoctoral training with Dr Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute, where she investigated the metabolic vulnerabilities of therapy-resistant breast cancers.

Her contributions to science have been recognized with numerous awards, including the HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar Award, appointment as the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Career Development Professor of Life Sciences, the MIT Stem Cell Initiative Pilot Award, and fellowships from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund and the Emerald Foundation.