Dean's Report 2021: Discovery and Leadership

From uncovering the mechanism cells use to selforganize in early embryonic development, to increasing our understanding of how certain melanoma cells evade targeted therapy, to deciphering how the brain forms longterm memories, Harvard Medical School scientists continue to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

This year, 15 HMS researchers were selected to participate in the Human Cell Atlas, a global effort to map each cell in the human body. Nine faculty were elected members of the National Academy of Medicine, six were elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, three were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and three were elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Two researchers received Gruber prizes for work in neuroscience and genetics, and one received the Canada Gairdner International Award for major advances in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and intestinal disorders.

To further advance fundamental discovery efforts on the Quad, basic life-science departments embarked on a novel faculty search approach—first identifying outstanding candidates across all of the fields represented in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and then working with the candidates to determine appropriate departmental affiliations. In evaluating candidates, the search committee prioritized scientific excellence and achievement along with a demonstrated commitment to the School’s institutional values of diversity and inclusion.

Four candidates accepted offers to join HMS Quad-based departments. The initiative also engendered support from one of our affiliated institutions, Boston Chil-

dren’s Hospital, which made offers to two additional candidates who will have primary academic appointments in the Blavatnik Institute. These new faculty join seven junior faculty who established labs at HMS during the pandemic. All new faculty will benefit from the mentorship of senior faculty and will have the freedom to map their own paths at HMS, taking full advantage of infrastructures designed to nurture their experience and stimulate their science.

HMS is also advancing therapeutics research, accelerating the translation of basic science discoveries toward new medicines, and training the inventors of those future medicines.

In a collaborative research alliance with AbbVie, HMS is working to develop therapies against emergent viral infections, particularly respiratory pathogens such as coronaviruses.

Two programs are developing small-molecule and antibody therapeutics; others are investi­gating immunology and host-pathogen interactions.

The Dean’s Innovation Awards continue to catalyze collaborations in fundamental, curiosity-driven research. Nearly half of all Quad faculty have applied for funding from the Quadrangle Fund for Advancing and Seeding Translational Research, which has awarded nearly $8 million to 44 projects, spawning several new companies, generating 29 patents, and securing more than $63 million in follow-on funding.

Projects range from the design and development of therapeutic strategies to improve tactile abnormalities in autism spectrum disorders, to a new diagnostic to detect SARSCoV-2, to novel biologics for cancer therapies, to new therapies for hereditary blindness.

Meanwhile, the Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards, open to all HMS faculty, is investing $20 million over four years on innovative Quad- and affiliate-based projects, such as an initiative to develop treatments for frontotemporal dementia that would restore normal functioning to defective genes. Nine projects have received $9.3 million to date.

The new Fairbairn Family Lyme Research Initiative is probing numerous aspects of pathogen biology, including the immunology and neuroimmunology of a disease that affects more than 475,000 people in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Comprehensive public education about prevention is part of the program.

The Bertarelli Rare Cancers Fund awarded more than $9 million to nine teams throughout HMS and its affiliates focused on preventing, treating, and curing rare cancers.

Seven HMS Foundry Awards this year, totaling more than $2 million, are supporting improvements to research infrastructure and core facilities and advancing technological innovation on the Quad.

The new Center for Computational Biomedicine is bringing machine learning into labs and creating additional digital spaces for the storage of biomedical data.

HMS is making significant investments in new and renewed infrastructure and optimizing space across the Quad for the creation of new laboratories, technology, and educational facilities.

The School’s information technology systems are enabling our science and empowering our community. In one example, new infrastructure to facilitate an efficient internal awards distribution system processed 275 awards totaling $68 million last year. n

This year, 15 HMS researchers were selected to participate in the Human Cell Atlas, a global effort to map each cell in the human body

MORE RESEARCH NEWS hms.harvard.edu/news/discovery

iscovery and Scholarshi

In a search for climate change solutions, Max Schubert, HMS research fellow in genetics, is studying whether it’s possible to boost the ability of ocean cyanobacteria to cleanse the atmosphere of excess carbon dioxide.

ervice and Leadershi

Clockwise from upper left: First-year DMD student Kaila Daniels at the Class of 2025’s White Coat Ceremony; a masked bicyclist on the HMS Quad; Tony Johnson, associate dean of student social equity and inclusion at the Rhode Island School of Design, sings at the HMS Stand Against Racism rally; Willy Lensch (left), now associate provost for research at Harvard, helps install the “Women Before Me” exhibit while artist and alumna Pamela Chen, HMS clinical fellow in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, looks on.

Our long history of basic science research, and the convening power of Harvard Medical School, continue to provide a vital reservoir of data, information, and talent for the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR).

This collaboration of 17 institutions, including all four Massachusetts-based medical schools, HMS academic teaching hospitals and research institutions, MIT, local biopharma companies, and China’s Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, provided $17.6 million to support 63 research projects and platforms at 38 institutions.

That commitment led to one of the most significant discoveries of the year, a direct correlation between viral load and disease course, and supplied early support for a diagnostic testing platform that now handles approximately 10 percent of all COVID testing nationwide. It also supported rapid pointof-care diagnostics and a central biobank network where investigators can obtain clinical specimens critical to research.

MassCPR members helped create national clinical care guidelines for COVID-19 treatment, played a pivotal role in the development of Johnson & Johnson’s adenovirus-based vaccine, and led a clinical trial that studied the efficacy and safety of Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine.

Members also pioneered an antibody profiling system and identified data-driven prognostic factors to help quickly detect patients at highest risk for becoming severely ill.

MassCPR is now focusing on two additional areas: the impact of long COVID and the growing complexities of viral variants.

Harvard Catalyst created COVID Authors, an open-source, international database of 475,000-plus authors who have published more than 126,000 articles related to coronaviruses. Investigators at HMS-affiliated hospitals requested an unprecedented 900 biostatistics consultations supported by Harvard Catalyst, with approximately 100 focusing on COVID-19 studies.

Through SMART IRB, Harvard Catalyst facilitated the institutional review board (IRB) process for just under 300 COVID-19-related

multisite studies throughout the U.S. since 2020. Its Connector program supported clinical research studies at HMS-affiliated hospitals, including 103 related to COVID-19.

Faculty at affiliate hospitals made major contributions, from studying how long SARSCoV-2 antibodies confer protective immunity, to investigating multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), to establishing the safety and benefits of COVID vaccination during pregnancy and lactation.

The pandemic underscored how social and health care inequities are contributing to the spread and lethality of the virus.

HMS is committed to addressing those broader, systemic health care inequities and to fostering a more representative community at home. To do this, we advanced our Better Together commitment to diversity and inclusion to ensure that every individual at HMS feels empowered to contribute, succeed, and thrive. We are developing people and infrastructure, building community and belonging, addressing culture and communication, and holding ourselves accountable for our progress.

This year, a Program in Medical Education Task Force to Address Racism, made up of 150 faculty, students, and staff, reviewed the MD curriculum, faculty and staff development, admissions processes, assessment practices, and student affairs, with an eye to dismantling structural racism in medicine.

Task force recommendations included instituting anti-racism training, increasing the number of faculty underrepresented in medicine (URiM), and improving the coordination of diversity efforts between HMS and its affiliated hospitals.

This year, nearly a quarter of the entering MD class are from populations underrepresented in medicine, the majority are female, and 20 percent self-identify as LGBTQ. New promotions criteria now take faculty members’ diversity and inclusion efforts into account, and new technology improves our ability to support and monitor faculty searches to help ensure diversity in both the formation of search committees and candidate pools.

The Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, celebrating its 150th anniversary, has integrated prevention, clinical care, and social support systems in its response to the pandemic, especially within hard-hit communities; the Department of Health Care Policy continues to report on the impact of health care disparities on disadvantaged populations.

We renamed a student academic society in honor of William Augustus Hinton, an internationally recognized infectious disease researcher and the first Black full professor at Harvard, and we introduced more inclusive campus artwork. One new installation features portraits of four alumnae who made significant contributions to medicine.

The number of women and URiM individuals increased among faculty chairs both on campus and in our hospitals, and new affinity groups, formed by community members, include the HMS Black Postdoctoral Association and the Black Staff Caucus.

In the wake of the Derek Chauvin trial the community rallied to Stand Against Racism. HMS also joined with King Boston for a memorable Juneteenth celebration and partnered with the Massachusetts Medical Society, the state of Massachusetts, and its three other medical schools to adopt principles that promote a more equitable medical culture in the Commonwealth.

Of course, there is more work to do. For the first time, we launched a PulseWave 2 Survey on Inclusion and Belonging, polling our affiliate faculty and trainees. While many are satisfied with experiences and opportunities at HMS, it is clear we can do more to support URiM and female faculty.

Above all, we remain committed to greater inclusion and advancement for all so that HMS can achieve the excellence to which it aspires, better reflect the populations it serves, and continue to develop leaders who are well prepared to respond vigorously to the health challenges of the 21st century. n