When it comes to preventing future pandemics and outbreaks, no single team, field, or sector can succeed on its own.
That philosophy drove the formation of the Harvard Medical School-led Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, or MassCPR — a collaboration comprising hundreds of scientists, clinicians, and public health professionals from a range of disciplines and institutions — during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is why MassCPR convened a symposium on Nov. 19 to celebrate and spur partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Researchers from HMS and other institutions across the state, scientists from major drug companies, and public health officials converged at the half-day event in Cambridge to discuss the latest efforts at boosting biomedical readiness against current, emerging, and as-yet-unforeseen infectious diseases — before the need arises.
“Innovation Without Borders: Academia and Pharma Driving Preparedness,” hosted by the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard, reflected HMS’ emphasis on improving and saving lives through rapid, coordinated responses to future pandemics as well as engaging with industry to more quickly and successfully transform laboratory discoveries into new methods for preventing and treating disease.
“Academia drives curiosity, discovery, and a deep understanding of mechanisms that underlie disease and immunity. Industry brings the ability to translate that knowledge into vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics,” said Ragon Institute Director Bruce D. Walker, the HMS Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Professor of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Collaboration isn’t just about handing off discoveries,” he added. “It’s about co-creating science.”
Coming soon to a drug pipeline near you?
The event highlighted pathogen research discoveries and pandemic prevention efforts from rising-star trainees who received 2024-2025 MassCPR research awards. They are mentored by MassCPR members, who can guide them in collaborating with industry when the time is right. Two examples of these mentors are:
- Dan Barouch, the HMS William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of immunology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, is collaborating on a clinical trial with Pfizer examining whether abrocitinib, an autoimmune drug aimed at eczema, can be repurposed to address long COVID. Earlier, he helped lay the scientific foundation for and collaborated with Johnson & Johnson on its COVID vaccine, which, because it could be administered in a single shot and did not need refrigeration, was extensively used in developing countries.
- David Walt, the HMS Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering and professor of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, has founded or cofounded seven life-sciences startups, including one used in 90 percent of all genetic analyses performed worldwide.
Presentations included:
AI algorithm for predicting future pandemics
Adam Sychla, HMS research fellow in microbiology in the lab of HMS Assistant Professor of Microbiology Silvi Rouskin and co-mentor of award recipient Grant Yang, discussed an AI algorithm his team created for predicting which picornaviruses could jump from animals to humans. This family of viruses can cause illnesses such as the common cold; polio; hepatitis A; and hand, foot, and mouth disease. Identifying potential crossover viruses that deserve fast attention would create a “watch list” that could inform vaccine development.
Sychla is also developing the algorithm’s capacity to design RNA medicines that would activate only where they’re needed in the body and turn off elsewhere — reducing side effects while ensuring drugs concentrate their firepower on disease targets. Licensing the tool to a commercial partner is a future option, he said.
Predicting disease trajectory
Louise Hansen and Karan Malhotra, postdoctoral research fellows in the Walt Lab, discussed a tool they developed that measures multiple substances within cells concurrently. Using a small biosample and tiny dye-encoded beads, the test registers levels of viral proteins and of immune proteins called cytokines that are released by the body in response to an invading virus. Analyzing these findings would allow physicians to determine which patients need closer monitoring and more intensive care.
The test is compatible with many current medical tools and can be reconfigured for new diseases, they said, opening the door to collaboration with industry partners on a variety of potential interventions.
Decoding disease severity in children
Lillian Juttukonda, assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, discussed her work assessing children’s immune responses to viral infections, including the common cold, RSV, and coronaviruses. By identifying which nasal-passage cells viruses attack and how those cells fight back, she hopes to gain better understanding of why some viruses cause only mild infections while others result in severe illness. This could lead to industry partnerships for new childhood nasal vaccines for respiratory viruses.
Bird flu
Ninaad Lasrado, postdoctoral research fellow in the Barouch Lab, presented a study on bird flu, which is highly lethal in poultry and dairy cattle and a potential pandemic threat for humans. The disease has already caused hundreds of human deaths in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa via animal-to-human transmission.
Lasrado described how he and colleagues developed a two-part vaccine strategy that offered full protection against avian influenza in nonhuman primates. If the treatment proves safe and effective in further studies, including human clinical trials, partnerships with industry could generate new treatments for bird flu and perhaps other respiratory viruses such as influenza, RSV, and coronaviruses.
Lasrado and several other Harvard researchers teamed up with Pfizer on a recent study using a similar approach for enhancing seasonal flu vaccines. Symposium keynote speaker Pirada Suphaphiphat Allen, vice president and head of seasonal vaccines at Pfizer, discussed additional ways the company is applying lessons from the COVID-19 response, including potential benefits of mRNA vaccines, to shorten vaccine design and delivery timelines from months to weeks.
COVID-19
Six years after COVID-19 first appeared, a key question remains: how the virus incorporates its genetic material into new virus particles, a crucial step for the virus to multiply and spread.
Yajuan Wang, HMS research fellow in pediatrics in the lab of Bing Chen, the HMS Rosalind Franklin, PhD Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, studies this puzzle. Wang is developing a high-resolution model to provide missing details of how the coronavirus’s N protein folds the virus’s RNA into a tightly packed ribonucleoprotein complex that enables new virus particles to form. Obtaining a detailed, molecular-level picture could reveal drug targets for preventing the virus from building more particles and spreading.
Collaborating for the best future
High volumes of reliable data — such as diverse genetic sequences and biospecimens, 3D models of viruses, and comprehensive clinical records — are critical for preparing for, preventing, and mitigating outbreaks and for countering misinformation, presenters agreed.
“By accelerating the production and sharing of trustworthy data, as we are doing at MassCPR, we can empower the public with accurate information and ensure that policy decisions are grounded in science and made in the best interest of society,” said moderator Gaurav Gaiha, HMS associate professor of medicine at Mass General.
As a final note, Nadine Fornelos Martins, executive director of research initiatives at MassCPR, reinforced that only by crossing traditional boundaries will clinicians, academic and industry scientists, public health officials, and policymakers safeguard human health in the United States and around the world from pathogens with the potential to cause pandemics.
“When academia and industry join forces, science moves faster. Such efforts can turn groundbreaking ideas into practical advances, helping bring new treatments and technologies to the people who need them most,” she said.
“When those innovations make their way into public health departments,” she continued, “we strengthen our preparedness for emerging threats and ensure that solutions reach and benefit everyone.”
Funding
The symposium was sponsored by Harvard, the Maxwell Finland Fund, and the Warren Alpert Foundation.
