Impact at Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School (HMS) is accelerating the pace of therapeutic discovery and supporting initiatives aimed at solving some of humanity’s most acute biomedical challenges thanks to the landmark $200 million commitment from Len Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The largest commitment in the School’s history, it is propelling HMS's mission to transform health through curiosity-driven research that stimulates the development of new therapies and tools to diagnose and prevent disease.

The Blavatnik Commitment to HMS supports four key areas:

Therapeutics Initiative

The HMS Therapeutics Initiative, which is enhancing the impact of fundamental curiosity-driven research and catalyzing the development of new therapies.

Key Update: The HMS community was thrilled to have Len Blavatnik speak at the HMS Ideation Hub (I-Hub) and Translator Symposium on October 28, 2020.
Two men looking a board of numbers

Fertile intellectual communities that integrate data science and artificial intelligence capabilities and applications. 

Key Update: Robert Gentleman was recently welcomed as founding executive director of the HMS Center for Computational Biomedicine.
 
Collaborative Grants Program

A collaborative grants program that inspires cross-disciplinary research partnerships across the Harvard life sciences ecosystem. 

Key Update: HMS is working to finalize agreements and looks forward to announcing the winners of the Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards.
Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab The Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab at Longwood, which will provide incubator space for early-stage, high-potential biotech startups.

Featured Stewardship Report

Blavatnik Institute at HMS - 2020 Stewardship Report for Blavatnik Family Foundation

Blavatnik Institute HMS Logo

 

Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School

In recognition of this commitment, HMS named the Blavatnik Institute—an umbrella research institute that encompasses the School’s 11 basic and social science departments. Led by HMS Dean George Q. Daley, the Blavatnik Institute is home to world-class faculty working to solve the greatest problems of human health through fundamental and translational biomedical science research.

Blavatnik Institute RSS News Feed:

  • Antibody Evolution

    Jun 25, 2021

    This article is part of Harvard Medical School’s continuing coverage of medicine, biomedical research, medical education, and policy related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the disease COVID-19. When harmful bacteria or viruses enter the body,… Read More

  • Earth’s Other Rainforest

    Apr 14, 2021

    In postdoctoral fellow Max Schubert’s view, solving climate change requires two kinds of people: those who dream big and those who make the dreams happen. Some dreamers—including Schubert’s lab head, George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor… Read More

  • Going to Extremes

    Apr 14, 2021

    Hundreds of thousands of years ago, some small fish happily living in rivers in northeastern Mexico swam or were swept into nearby caves and couldn’t escape. In these dramatically different environments of total darkness and almost no food, the… Read More

  • Some Like It Hot

    Apr 14, 2021

    It’s been a mystery hiding in plain sight. Researchers working with tiny worms called Caenorhabditis elegans—a common lab organism used to study basic principles of biology—know not to raise the temperature above about 80 degrees Fahrenheit… Read More

  • History Lesson

    Apr 14, 2021

    Some 25 to 30 million years ago, the Earth’s temperature fell. Ice caps grew and sea level dropped. Plants and animals died off as their environments rapidly shifted. Some species, however, survived the upheaval. Among them were Antarctic fishes… Read More