Propelling promising research toward therapeutics
Research and Therapeutics
Q-FASTR has engaged nearly half of the faculty in the HMS Blavatnik Institute in thinking about how they can actively translate the fundamental discovery science in their laboratories toward the medical therapies of tomorrow.
David Golan
“The concept for Q-FASTR was to form a committee of experts who would evaluate early-stage research projects, allocate donor funds to those with the greatest commercial potential, and then help expedite their translation into therapeutics,” says Phill Gross, whose generous gift in 2014 established the program. “What has been a big surprise is just how involved the Q-FASTR team has been with each project— the give-and-take with researchers.”
That’s the “secret sauce,” according to program co-chair David Golan, AB ’75, MD, PhD. “The scientific and therapeutic advice and the project management expertise provided to the PIs and their teams by Q-FASTR staff are the chief factors underlying the remarkable impact of this program,” says Golan, dean for research operations and global programs at HMS.
This robust scientific infrastructure has been catalyzed by the philanthropic dollars provided to support the projects financially, and Gross, a member of the HMS Board of Fellows and the HMS Discovery Council, has been instrumental in this area. He says the program’s impact and success—48 projects have been funded with grants totaling $7.8 million, leading to $64 million in follow-on funding—have exceeded his expectations and motivated him, along with his wife, Elizabeth Cochary Gross, PhD, to make a new gift: $10.5 million spread over the next five years. That’s inspiring to Golan, who calls Q-FASTR the “bedrock program” of HMS’s sweeping Therapeutics Initiative.
“Q-FASTR has engaged nearly half of the faculty in the HMS Blavatnik Institute in thinking about how they can actively translate the fundamental discovery science in their laboratories toward the medical therapies of tomorrow, and it has supported those scientists programmatically, scientifically, and financially in pursuit of their translational goals,” Golan says. “In the coming five years, we hope and expect that Q-FASTR will expand this culture of translation to even more laboratories in the Blavatnik Institute.”
Ifat Rubin-Bejerano, PhD, senior director of translational research at HMS, is a key part of the Q-FASTR team responsible for nurturing, shaping, supporting, and advancing ideas for translation of fundamental discoveries. In addition to Springer’s project, she points to several other recent projects that stand out as great examples of what Q-FASTR represents, including:
- A project by David Corey, PhD, the Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science, on a gene therapy approach for hereditary blindness, which received $1 million in follow-on funding from the Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards (BTCA) and is in the process of negotiation with a leader in the field.
- A project by David Ginty, PhD, the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology, on compounds for the treatment of tactile hypersensitivity and anxiety in autism spectrum disorder, which was selected for further research and development at the incubator Lab1636, a collaboration between Harvard’s Office of Technology Development and Deerfield, an investment management firm that works to advance health through investment, information, and philanthropy.
- A project by Peter Park, AB ’94, SM ’94, SM ’00, PhD, a professor of biomedical informatics, on antisense oligonucleotides for neurodegenerative diseases, which also received $1 million in follow-on funding from the BTCA and is close to being licensed to a new company.
- A project by Junying Yuan, PhD ’89, the Elizabeth D. Hay Professor of Cell Biology, on compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Her intellectual property was licensed by a new company, Nido Biosciences.
