Awards & Recognitions: October 2024

Honors received by HMS faculty, postdocs, staff, and students

Awards and Recognitions

3 min read

Gordon Hall

Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate the activities of genes in plants and animals, including humans.

Ruvkun shared the prize with collaborator Victor Ambros of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Read the full story.

Two HMS researchers received the 2024 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI). Named after a pioneer of cancer immunotherapy, the Coley Award recognizes scientists who have made seminal contributions to understanding the immune system’s response to cancer and other diseases.

Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis, both Morton Grove-Rasmussen Professors of Immunohematology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, were honored along with Mark Anderson — director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco, who conducted the award-winning work as a postdoctoral fellow in the Benoist-Mathis Lab at HMS and Joslin Diabetes Center — at the CRI’s 2024 Awards Gala on Oct. 15 in New York City.

Promotion for Harvard Medicine magazine, delivered to your inbox. Subscribe Today

The three awardees were recognized for their foundational contributions to the understanding of immune tolerance mechanisms, self-antigen presentation, and the role of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) protein in preventing autoimmunity. Their work, originally published in Science in 2002, helped form the basis of immunotherapy research for the past two decades.

“Drs. Anderson, Benoist, and Mathis have each contributed fundamental insights into immune tolerance that will have lasting impact on immunotherapy and patient care,” said CRI CEO Alicia Zhou.

Adapted from CRI press materials.

Seven HMS early-career researchers were named 2024 STAT Wunderkinds. The program celebrates the next generation of scientists pursuing innovative research to answer some of the biggest questions in science and medicine.

The Wunderkinds from HMS are:

  • Kwasi Adu-Berchie, HMS scientist at the Wyss Institute, who is working to improve the durability and power of malaria vaccines so that fewer doses are required.
  • James Diao, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, whose research on race in clinical algorithms has already affected millions of patients.
  • Margaux Hujoel, HMS research fellow in medicine at Brigham and Women’s, who is working to more effectively detect large-scale DNA changes that could reveal new risk factors for disease.
  • Wilfredo Matias, HMS research fellow in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, who works with Haitian migrants to the Dominican Republic to understand their health concerns, particularly about HIV.
  • Jorge Diego Martin-Rufino, HMS clinical fellow in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, whose research focuses on the genome in blood stem cells, with the goal of finding ways to engineer safer and more effective cell therapies.
  • Diane Shao, HMS instructor in neurology at Boston Children’s, who is researching the genetic causes of neurodevelopmental disabilities.
  • Darshali Vyas, HMS research fellow in medicine at Mass General, whose research examines how the use of race-based calculators contributes to health disparities.

Adapted from STAT press materials.

Lisa Iezzoni, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the 2024 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The award honors a medical school faculty member who has made major contributions to improving public health and health care.

Iezzoni was recognized for her efforts to address inequities in health care that affect people with disabilities.

Adapted from AAMC press materials.

Nine HMS faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

Election to the NAM recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health and have demonstrated outstanding commitment to service. Membership in the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

The new members were announced during the NAM annual meeting on October 21. Read the full story.

Ryan Flynn, assistant professor of stem cell and regenerative biology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Transformative Research Award.

Part of the NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the Transformative Research Award supports individuals and teams of investigators who propose exceptionally innovative or unconventional research projects that are inherently risky and untested but could create or challenge fundamental paradigms. Read the full story.