On May 1, William Chin, MD, will assume the role of HMS executive dean for research, a newly created senior position with overarching responsibility for biomedical research at the School. The move brings him back to HMS, where he earned his MD and served the first 25 years of his career. After leaving HMS, he stayed involved both as president of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association and as a participant in the HMS strategic planning process. He spent the last decade at Eli Lilly and Company, most recently as senior vice president for discovery and clinical research.
Chin agreed to share his early thoughts with Focus as he prepares to lead efforts to implement Dean Jeffrey Flier’s strategic vision of research at HMS, with special emphasis on interdisciplinary investigation that crosses departmental and institutional boundaries.
What intrigues you most about this new position of research dean?
This is an incredibly challenging time for science and medicine. In this period of rapid knowledge growth but constrained resources, we need to learn to foster the best research in order to lead to improved medicines for patients.
I’m particularly excited about understanding how we can help encourage an even more collaborative environment. My premise is that having greater synergies between basic and clinical science will be important for more innovation, more creativity, and then ultimately, downstream, better therapies for patients.
What kinds of relationships will you need to build in order to advance this vision for research?
My hope is that members of the basic science community at Harvard Medical School will find it valuable to spend even more time with their clinical colleagues. How can the efforts of the basic scientists be applied to clinical science in a classic bench-to-bedside translation—and vice versa, how can activities in the clinic potentially inform the kinds of questions we need to answer in the laboratory?
One of the biggest challenges in medicine is discovering and developing better therapies. We might think this is the province of the pharmaceutical industry. But why hasn’t it done the job better? The problem is, it doesn’t fully understand the causes of disease. None of us do. Disease is complex. I believe that it is academic research that will provide deeper insights into mechanisms of disease and a better understanding of individual patient variation.
But both basic and clinical scientists must work together to achieve this goal. I’m a real fan of basic science. It shows us how targets and pathways work in cells and tissues and gives us a deeper appreciation of basic disease mechanisms.
How will you encourage this relationship building?
I plan to spend the first couple of months just meeting everybody and learning about their hopes and dreams, and hearing their ideas. I hope everyone will come to the table to talk about the challenges and opportunities that face us in research.
Will it be important to build relationships between HMS and industry, and if so, what approach will you take to achieve this?
This is a very important area. It has the potential to improve the nature and quality of research that we do at the Medical School.
I believe it will take a community of scientists from the academic, industrial and governmental sectors to utilize fully the individual strengths of our institutions. There are some who would separate the worlds completely to avoid conflicts of interest. I think this would be a mistake. In a way, it’s about benefit–risk. There is always risk in partnerships, but if we lose sight of the possible benefit, then we will have lost something quite important.
As a physician, I am constantly thinking about benefit–risk. Everything we do that has benefit, unfortunately, also has some risk. We just need to be able to balance it all and learn how we can effectively collaborate under the guidance of current and future conflict of interest policies.
Do you have a definition of success for HMS research?
Harvard Medical School is a great institution. Building on the world-class research efforts that we have here at the School, success would be the creation of something even better. I really believe that there is tremendous additional potential at Harvard Medical School, beyond the parts. If we can harness some of the synergies, the results might be astounding.
Success also involves using our diversity to spark creativity and innovation. I believe that the great new ideas may not come from staying within the same field, but having fields come together and intersect. We should provide an environment that catalyzes these “crossovers.”
What lessons did you learn about the HMS community in your early years here that will help you in this new role?
I was at HMS for 25 years. I loved every single minute of it largely because I enjoyed the collegiality and the focus on developing new knowledge. I enjoyed educating students as well as taking care of patients.
Having the opportunity to serve as both a scientist and a physician was terrific, particularly in an environment that allowed interactions with a lot of really great people.
You’ve also spent 11 years in industry. How will that experience be valuable to you in your new role?
I learned that the pharmaceutical industry also focuses on science, clinical investigation and patients. It is engaged in a daunting task, but a critical one—that of making important medicines for future generations. I believe we must enter a new age of sharing information. Industry must find suitable ways to collaborate with academia and governmental agencies to make progress. I have also learned that it’s important to understand where you want to go, to have a plan to get there, and to have focus.
How does it feel to be coming back to HMS?
I’m incredibly excited to be returning to Harvard Medical School. I’m grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to work with Jeff Flier, Lee Nadler and other colleagues, and to work for an institution that I have a great deal of affection for. I’d like to help, if I can, to make Harvard Medical School an even greater place than it is.
