Ó³»­´«Ã½

The immune system's immense variety of cells and tissues all play specific roles in defending us from pathogens, watching for tumors, keeping the system from inadvertently turning against us, and more. Its T cells in particular are famous for their ability to attack tumors, leading to immunotherapies that have revolutionized cancer treatment. But by focusing on T cells, are we missing other opportunities to combat cancer? Immunologist Lloyd Bod will take us on a tour of the immune system, and discuss new insights that may help scientists and doctors leverage its cancer-fighting capabilities more effectively.

Speaker

Lloyd Bod
Associate Member
Ó³»­´«Ã½

Principal investigator
Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research
Massachusetts General Hospital

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

While it's been decades since the last major therapeutic breakthroughs in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric conditions, new hope may be appearing on the horizon. Join scientists from the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ of MIT and Harvard and peers and family members from the community to hear how genetics and biology are shaping an improved understanding of psychiatric conditions, how that might address community concerns, and what it could mean for diagnosis and care now and in the future.

The heart uniquely straddles the world of art and science — a powerful metaphor for love and loss on the one hand, a literal life-sustaining force within each of us and an intense focus of genetic and medical research on the other. Join a Ó³»­´«Ã½ Discovery Series x event addressing the heart, from the point of view of researchers who work on finding cures to heart disease and of writers and artists for whom the heart holds deeper meaning.

Host

President and founder, Catalyst Conversations

Moderator

Tom Ulrich
Associate director for science communications, Ó³»­´«Ã½ of MIT and Harvard

Speakers

Assistant professor of radiology, University of Kentucky; founder, The People's heART

Love Letters columnist and features writer, The Boston Globe

Arts critic, The Boston Globe

Director of preventive cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital; associate member, Ó³»­´«Ã½ of MIT and Harvard

Patients' experiences have long told us that not all type 2 diabetes is the same. Genetics is now starting to help doctors and scientists grasp why that is, and what it might mean for patients. In this Ó³»­´«Ã½ Discovery Series event, physician-geneticist Miriam Udler and computational and cellular biologist Melina Claussnitzer will discuss what genetics is teaching us about the subtypes of type 2 diabetes, and how researchers can use that understanding as a springboard for learning how this disease really works — and what to do about it.  

This lecture is presented in memory of Eliana Hechter and is supported by the Eliana Hechter Memorial Fund.
 

Spurred by the development of CRISPR for genome editing, researchers have for 10 years been working to engineer modular, "programmable" treatments that accurately and consistently strike at the root causes of diseases. In this Ó³»­´«Ã½ Discovery Series event, molecular biologist and CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang will invite past and present members of his lab to reflect on how the genome editing toolkit has expanded over the last decade, discuss other ways of developing programmable medicines, and talk about what gets them most excited about these technologies' potential. 

Early-career scientists often have the most game-changing ideas. Join five emerging scientific visionaries as they talk about their efforts to move the needle on neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases, sudden cardiac death, infectious disease diagnosis and surveillance, and rare genetic disorders.

This Ó³»­´«Ã½ Discovery Series event is being held in collaboration with Ó³»­´«Ã½Ignite, an institute program that partners rising philanthropists with early-career researchers involved in high-risk, potentially high-reward projects.

Biomedical science and data analysis technologies have both experienced revolutions in the 21st century. Join Caroline Uhler to learn how these two fields are coming together — and how today’s biological questions are motivating new developments in machine learning to help find answers.

The next breakthrough in science often comes from looking at a problem from a new angle and with new facts. In the inaugural talk of the Ó³»­´«Ã½ Discovery Series, Paul Blainey and Alex Shalek will share how taking an engineering approach can allow scientists to make new types of biological measurements that help answer important questions about cells and tissues, and can yield new, otherwise unseeable perspectives about how living systems work.