At a glance:
BOSTON [Nov. 8, 2018]--Harvard University announced today that the Blavatnik Family Foundation has pledged $200 million to Harvard Medical School to accelerate the pace of therapeutic discovery and support initiatives aimed at solving some of humanity's most acute biomedical challenges.
The gift, the largest in the School's 236-year history, will help propel Harvard's mission in transforming health through curiosity-driven research that stimulates the development of new therapies and tools to diagnose and prevent disease.
School priorities supported by the gift include deepening fundamental discovery; accelerating the development of new treatments; spurring applications of data science toward the comprehension, diagnosis, treatment and cure of disease; recruiting data scientists, computational biologists, bioengineers and other experts; and catalyzing collaborative discovery across the broader Harvard life sciences ecosystem.
Biomedicine is at a unique inflection point, marked by a dizzying pace of discovery and rapid proliferation of new technologies. The gift will enable Harvard Medical School to harness unprecedented opportunities for discovery and remove barriers that historically have stymied efforts to expedite the translation of basic insights into promising treatments.
"We are deeply grateful to the Blavatnik Family Foundation--and Len Blavatnik in particular--for the resounding vote of confidence in Harvard Medical School," said Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow. "Len is one of this generation's greatest philanthropists. He understands that great strides in human health comprise many steps taken by many people over long periods of time."
"This tremendous act of generosity will speed progress and generate profound and lasting contributions to science and human health," Bacow added. "In each aspect of the gift, one recognizes not only a deep commitment to supporting outstanding research, but also a fundamental understanding of and respect for the nature of the scientific enterprise--and the hope it holds for all of humanity."
Led by business leader and philanthropist Len Blavatnik, who received his MBA in 1989 from Harvard Business School, the Blavatnik Family Foundation is well-known for its generous charitable activities that have advanced life-sciences innovation around the world, most notably the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
"It has long been my goal to support innovative, breakthrough scientific research and to expedite the translation of scientific discovery into treatments and cures," Blavatnik said. "Harvard Medical School, with its unparalleled history of scientific achievement, creativity and science entrepreneurship, is the ideal partner to further this dream. I am confident that the School will make the most of this gift to build on its tradition of scientific greatness in the years ahead."
The overarching goal of the gift is to accelerate the pace of therapeutic discovery by shortening the trajectory between basic discovery and transformation of insights into therapies.
"The work that takes place in the labs and clinics across Harvard Medical School embodies the promise of curiosity-driven fundamental research to solve some of humanity's most confounding and pressing biomedical challenges. In that sense, this is a gift to medicine and, indeed, to patients everwhere," said George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School.
"This transformational gift will bring us closer to solving the most intractable health challenges of our time," Daley added. "We are deeply grateful to the Blavatnik Family Foundation for its support."
The gift will fund:
Specifically, the gift will allow Harvard Medical School to:
Collectively, these and other new and enhanced technology platforms will spark innovation in both fundamental and translational discovery, and bridge bench-to-bedside applications across the Harvard life sciences ecosystem.
In recognition of this gift, HMS will name the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School--an umbrella research institute to encompass the School's 10 academic departments. The institute will recognize the unique identity of the scientific enterprise housed on the HMS Quadrangle, while supporting research infrastructure that will be a magnet for the broader life sciences community, including the 15 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutions, as well as other Harvard schools and peer institutions.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation's history of support at Harvard originated a decade ago with a gift that established the Biomedical Accelerator Fund in 2007, followed by a $50 million gift in 2013 that created the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator at Harvard University and the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School.
Many Harvard Medical School scientists from a range of disciplines--immunology, genetics, neurobiology and stem cell biology, among others--have received support from the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator to advance translational efforts in areas spanning cancer immunology, regenerative medicine, neuroscience, infectious disease and reproductive medicine. One of the early recipients of the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists was Rachel Wilson, the Martin Family Professor of Basic Research in the Field of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.
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