Leaping from mathematics to economics to genetics, Eric Lander has devoted his life to intellectual exploration. His path from high school math whiz to founding director of the Broad Institute, including a stint as a Rhodes scholar, has been marked by asking big questions and then blazing trails toward the answers.
His first question at the start of his keynote address at the May 27 HMS–HSDM graduation ceremony was why he was chosen to give the talk in the first place. He is not a physician and never had any interest in going to medical school. But he conceded that everything he does in genomics research is closely related to medicine. (He also happens to be an HMS professor of systems biology and was appointed by President Barack Obama as cochair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.) Lander told the class that since the keynote speaker is chosen by the students, there was no greater honor for him than to give the address.
Lander said that because the day marked the graduates’ entrance into their professional lives, it was fitting to look ahead over the span of a typical career—50 years— and envision what changes might occur. He gave recent examples of momentous social and scientific changes that have happened over the course of a half century. Then he said, “So what is the span of 50 years? It is just enough time to completely change the world.”
“What will be the work of your generation?” he asked. “How will your generation change the face of medicine?”
“I believe that your generation will lead the greatest revolution in medicine, one based on ubiquitous information. Yours will be the first generation to truly assemble the whole picture of medicine.” He predicted that the graduates and their peers would create a comprehensive framework of medicine at both the molecular level and the patient and population level. The new graduates will discover all the ways that a cell can become cancerous, for example. And they will improve medicine as an overall integrated system.
“You will rewrite the textbooks of medicine and the rules for health systems organization,” Lander said.
“If you do this, you will have the potential to be known as the greatest generation in medicine.” He cautioned that two other conditions would have to be met.
“First, you must make all of this information human,” he explained. “You must make it serve the patient, the individual.”
“Second,” Lander said, “you will need to ensure that the fruits of this revolution are distributed equitably, that at every stage, this revolution of science is tied to social justice. If you do this, you will truly be known as the greatest generation in medicine.”
