Transcript

Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address

From Harvard Medical School · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 55 min · 6,904 words · 74 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address", an episode of Harvard Medical School published September 22, 2025 (55 min, about 6,904 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including Harvard, Len Blavatnik, K. Lisa Yang, Lee Nadler, Elias Zerhouni.

What this episode is about

The Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address outlines the significant challenges facing the institution, including the abrupt termination of $2 billion in federal grants, which has severely impacted its research capabilities, and highlights the broader societal issues affecting public health, such as skepticism towards healthcare practices and rising costs. The address emphasizes the school's commitment to its mission amid adversity and acknowledges a recent federal court ruling in favor of Harvard, while hinting at ongoing legal and operational challenges.

Key takeaways

  • Harvard's medical research funding plunged $2 billion, proving even elite institutions aren't immune to political turbulence.
  • A federal judge called the grant termination unlawful, reminding us that justice sometimes intervenes in academia's soap opera.
  • While funding woes loom, Harvard pivots—turning adversity into a call for resilience, innovation, and community strength.
  • The era of guaranteed federal support for research is fading; organizations must now evolve or risk stagnation.
  • Amidst funding chaos, Harvard embraces its legacy of breakthroughs, poised to rewrite the script of medical innovation.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Harvard
  2. – 10:00: Harvard, Elias Zerhouni
  3. – 15:00: Harvard, Lee Nadler, Harvard Catalyst, Lindsey Baden
  4. – 20:00: Harvard
  5. – 25:00: Harvard
  6. – 30:00: Harvard, K. Lisa Yang
  7. – 35:00: Harvard, Len Blavatnik, Rick Born, Carlos Ponce
  8. – 40:00: Harvard
  9. – 45:00: Harvard
  10. – 50:00: Harvard
  11. – 54:46: Harvard, David Baltimore

Notable quotes from "Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address"

  • It was former NIH Director Elias Zerhouni once said, disease knows no politics.
    about Elias Zerhouni · at
  • Executive Director of Therapeutics Translation, Mark Namchuk, he has been laying remarkable groundwork-- groundwork to expand our relationships with industry.
    about Mark Namchuk · at
  • Harvard Catalyst has since 2008 been the brainchild of Lee Nadler, who has focused his extraordinary vision on nurturing clinical research and training translational physician scientists.
    about Lee Nadler · at
  • I am thrilled to announce an extremely generous new gift from K. Lisa Yang, who has pledged $30 million to establish the K. Lisa Yang Brain Body Center at Harvard Medical School.
    about K. Lisa Yang · at
  • The University and Harvard Medical School has asked itself time and time again how it can do better, how it can search for truth, Veritas, including the truth about our own shortcomings.
    about Harvard · at
  • Will help invigorate our quest for truth is a $19 million commitment from Len Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, to extend their longstanding support for the Blavatnik therapeutic challenge awards.
    about Len Blavatnik · at
  • Rick is an inspiring scientist and educator who has transformed the teaching of systems neuroscience and quantitative methods to Harvard Medical School and graduate students over many, many years.
    about Rick Born · at
  • Throughout his life, David witnessed so many breakthroughs in biomedicine.
    about David Baltimore · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Len Blavatnik — Person · Referenced philanthropist / donor · 2 mentions · first at
    Credited with a $19M commitment via the Blavatnik Family Foundation to extend therapeutic awards and launch early-career investigator awards at HMS.
  • K. Lisa Yang — Person · Referenced philanthropist / donor · 1 mention · first at
    Announced as a major benefactor pledging $30M to establish a new HMS research center focused on brain–body communication.
  • Lee Nadler — Person · Referenced institutional leader (program founder) · 2 mentions · first at
    Identified as the originator/longtime leader of Harvard Catalyst and is recognized for guiding restructuring and handing leadership to Lindsey Baden.
  • Elias Zerhouni — Person · Referenced expert (former NIH Director) / quoted author · 1 mention · first at
    Cited to frame the apolitical nature of disease and the stakes of federal research funding cuts; his memoir is recommended by the speaker.
  • Lindsey Baden — Person · Referenced incoming program leader · 2 mentions · first at
    Named as the successor who will take over leadership of Harvard Catalyst following restructuring driven by funding constraints.
    To funding cuts that even predated our current predicaments, but is now turning over the reins of leadership to Lindsey Baden, who will bring his formidable talents to Harvard Catalyst.
  • Mark Namchuk — Person · Referenced HMS leader (industry partnerships) · 1 mention · first at
    Presented as the executive leading therapeutics translation efforts and expanding HMS relationships with industry as a strategic response to federal funding loss.
  • Rick Born — Person · Referenced retiring faculty leader / educator · 1 mention · first at
    Recognized for transforming neuroscience and quantitative teaching at HMS and for leading the neuroscience PhD program; linked to mentorship of Carlos Ponce.
  • David Baltimore — Person · Referenced luminary / mentor of speaker (memorial mention) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the speaker’s late mentor whose death prompts reflection on scientific progress and resilience amid funding/political turmoil.
  • Gerhard Wagner — Person · Referenced retiring faculty luminary · 1 mention · first at
    Highlighted as a long-serving HMS faculty member who pioneered multidimensional NMR spectroscopy and recently retired, illustrating institutional legacy and mentorship.
    Gerhard pioneered the field of multidimensional NMR spectroscopy and he retired in July.
  • Carlos Ponce — Person · Referenced early-career faculty (example of mentorship pipeline) · 1 mention · first at
    Presented as an HMS assistant professor and former PhD student of Rick Born; used to illustrate generational continuity and values in scientific mentorship.
    And Carlos has told me that every day he sits in Rick's office, he feels inspired by Rick's legacy.

Companies & orgs

  • Harvard — Company · Parent institution · 39 mentions · first at
    Parent institution of Harvard Medical School, also facing financial challenges.
  • Harvard Catalyst — Company · Research program · 2 mentions · first at
    Program within Harvard Medical School focused on clinical research and training, undergoing restructuring.
    Harvard Catalyst has since 2008 been the brainchild of Lee Nadler, who has focused his extraordinary vision on nurturing clinical research and training translational physician scientists.
  • Roche Genentech Innovation Center — Company · Industry collaborator · 1 mention · first at
    First anchor tenant at the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus, representing industry collaboration.
    Harvard's best minds and talents will co-exist at the ERC alongside colleagues in industry, beginning with its first anchor tenant, the Roche Genentech Innovation Center.
  • Somite AI — Company · Startup · 1 mention · first at
    Startup incubated at Harvard Medical School, recently raised significant funding.
    Has already launched several new external ventures, including Somite AI whose founders, some of whom are in this audience, which recently raised $57 million to revolutionize the production of human cell types.

Places & events

  • Harvard Enterprise Research Campus — Place · Development project · 1 mention · first at
    New campus development aimed at fostering academic and industry collaboration.
    So as one example, a prime example of how we're preparing for a new future is in the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus, the ERC in Allston.
  • Veritas Science Center — Place · Research building · 1 mention · first at
    Renamed research building at Harvard Medical School, symbolizing the pursuit of truth.
    Veritas is Harvard's motto, and Harvard Medical School will never stop seeking the truth.

Full transcript with timestamps

[CROWD CHATTERING] Good morning. Good morning. God, I'm so surprised at all the turnout. It's been such an uneventful year. I just figured there'd be not a lot of interest. Well, it is wonderful to see you all here, and I am really grateful to be able to be together. It has been a tumultuous year. And I want to dive directly into the many challenges that we're facing. 2025 has been, without a doubt. One of the most difficult and unsettling times in higher education here at Harvard, and especially here at Harvard Medical School.

Now, our mission here at HMS is to promote health and well-being for all. But our ability to fulfill that mission or even pursue that mission has in recent times been encumbered by a wide range of societal factors. Growing skepticism of long standing public health practices. And escalating frustration with rising health care costs. And increasingly corporatized health care system. Now, these ingredients and more, they've been simmering for several years, but in the last year. They've boiled over. Indeed, our challenges came to a head this year when the current administration abruptly froze and then terminated roughly $2 billion in promised grants to Harvard.

Now, for Harvard Medical School, this meant the cancelation of 350 federal awards. Now, that's essentially all of our active direct federal research dollars. Now, a federal judge has ruled that this unprecedented action by our government was unlawful. And we're waiting on the next steps in the implementation of the judge's ruling. I am proud-- I am so proud that Harvard has defended its principles and is standing up for what is just and what is in the public interest.

I'll have more to say about that. Now, while the government has signaled its intention to appeal the ruling, and with that, we know that this ruling is not the final word. There is no doubt that the federal judge's decision is a victory. Now however, we are facing other challenges an increased tax on our endowment. Now we use the dollars from our endowment to do important work like supporting student financial aid. At our-- and you've all heard our negotiated indirect cost rate, which actually represents something like 27% of our whole research reimbursement revenue, that is also being threatened.

And will again reduce the volume and the impact of the research and education that Harvard Medical School can provide. Now, on top of these funding cuts, the administration has launched a series of investigations into our admissions processes, our international collaborations, our patents. Our ability to host international students and scholars was originally challenged. It has been restored again by judicial action, it remains intact for now. But the uncertainty and the instability persist. Now I resolve to maintain our right to educate, to train and employ the most talented individuals at Harvard Medical School.

And to sustain our commitment to recruiting and nurturing the remarkable students who come to this community from all parts of the globe to learn and to serve. It pains me-- It pains me to witness the anxiety and frustration that I know so many of you have been enduring. Please believe me when I say I am with you, we are all in this together. And amidst all of the uncertainty, you can be certain of one thing, I and the entire leadership team at Harvard Medical School are focused on advancing our research and securing the resources to support all of you.

Now, yes, the decades long strategic partnership between Harvard Medical School and the federal government to advance discovery and innovation has made so many of our pivotal breakthroughs possible. Federal support of Harvard Medical School has helped us build a storied legacy. Has helped catalyze cancer immunotherapies, drugs for diabetes and obesity, cures for genetic diseases like sickle cell anemia, and fundamental insights into human physiology. Now that legacy sets the stage, but it doesn't foretell how the play will unfold and the next act is ours to write.

We cannot and we will not rest on our laurels. We have so much more to do here and so much more to achieve. And as we contemplate the future of our research enterprise, we must bear in mind that the model of support from the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies is no longer a given. But nor is it the only way that we will be able to succeed in the future. Now, while we navigate this ever shifting landscape, I can promise you this the current crisis will not be our undoing. And through it all, I remain optimistic about our future prospects.

I am confident that we're going to find ways to thrive. And I'm confident because it's all of you who are so remarkably dedicated, resourceful and resilient. I am confident because of all of you. Now, today I want to speak about a number of topics. First, I'll talk about our finances. I'll explain what we're facing, and I'll discuss how we are attempting to respond proactively and thoughtfully. Second, I'm going to share what we're doing to help the most vulnerable. Our early career faculty, our postdocs, our graduate students.

And I'll share some of the tremendous scientific achievements from the past year. Third, I want to also highlight some successes, particularly in fundraising and in coming together as a community for collective introspection. And fourth, I will show how all of these efforts are coming together in an updated strategic plan, which you may have read about already in the September three community email, but I'll revisit it. Now, before we dive in I want to say this, our grant cancelations have definitely left critical basic science research hanging in the balance.

The kind of research that is the antecedent to the transformative therapies that many people today take for granted. This unlawful act by our government affects everyone. It was former NIH Director Elias Zerhouni once said, disease knows no politics. He has written a memoir of the same title that I'm currently reading. I strongly encourage all of you to read it. It speaks to us. Indeed, the cuts to Harvard's research programs erased many of what have been our most dependable avenues for discovery, for developing the insights that lead to tomorrow's cures.

Advances which are deeply relevant to every single one of us. No matter who you are, no matter what your values or your political orientation, we are all at the mercy of our own biology. But when scientists are not respected, when scientific reasoning is not the basis for rendering sound policy on matters of public health, we again collectively become susceptible to the return of diseases which science itself had long eradicated. Disease knows no politics. It's true. We may never know what discoveries won't be made as a result of the setbacks that we've experienced this year.

But we are going to work to sustain and advance the research that is core to our Harvard Medical School mission as best we can. Now for a quick snapshot of our finances. As you'll see in this chart, in FY24, our support and federal dollars totaled more than 230 million that represented 73% of our research funding and almost a third of our operating revenue. Now in FY25, that total increased to 251 million, which rose to 75% of our total sponsored funding. But with the changes from the administration, our federal dollars have essentially dried up.

Now, this has placed greater priority on securing non-federal sources of support. Now, recall I just said that I am optimistic because HMS is composed of incredibly capable and talented individuals. I want to note that as our federal grants have shrunk, we have seen the number of applications to foundation grants more than double from this community. Now, that is a testament to the creativity and the persistence and the resilience of our faculty. Now, secondary of opportunity is enhance collaboration with and support from industry.

Executive Director of Therapeutics Translation, Mark Namchuk, he has been laying remarkable groundwork-- groundwork to expand our relationships with industry. Mark has several extremely promising projects under development, and we look forward to announcing them once the ink is dry. Mark and I are thinking of the current crisis as a moment to initiate a total paradigm shift in how we work with industry. There is no other community like Harvard Medical School that can convene the best minds to solve problems of great consequences.

So let us do that in partnership with our scientific colleagues in industry. In partnership by launching true collaborations where our scientists work alongside industry scientists in our labs and in their labs as well, here in the greater Boston area. There's a reason Boston is called Jean Town. We have everything we need right here to get to work and to solve major biomedical problems. Major problems solved as one dynamic academic biomedical ecosystem. So as one example, a prime example of how we're preparing for a new future is in the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus, the ERC in Allston.

If you haven't driven by it's remarkable. The ERC is a grand experiment, convening faculty and trainees from all of Harvard schools to forge bold new academic enterprises, like the Kempner Institute, for the study of natural and artificial intelligence. Harvard's best minds and talents will co-exist at the ERC alongside colleagues in industry, beginning with its first anchor tenant, the Roche Genentech Innovation Center. Roche has been an excellent collaborator with Harvard in the past, and we believe that track record will enable successful collaborations in the future.

Right on our own quadrangle, our Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab is currently incubating nine companies. Has already launched several new external ventures, including Somite AI whose founders, some of whom are in this audience, which recently raised $57 million to revolutionize the production of human cell types. At the same time, our new financial realities are compelling us to revise current programs to maintain excellence, but within a more limited scope. Harvard Catalyst has since 2008 been the brainchild of Lee Nadler, who has focused his extraordinary vision on nurturing clinical research and training translational physician scientists.

Lee has been guiding a restructuring in response to funding cuts that even predated our current predicaments, but is now turning over the reins of leadership to Lindsey Baden, who will bring his formidable talents to Harvard Catalyst. We all feel deeply indebted to Lee for his many decades of service to the Harvard Medical community, and if Lee is here, I would ask him to stand and be recognized.

Thank you very much. And we look forward to Lindsay's stewardship in the years to come. Now, while we have made great progress over the past few years to bring our expenses in line with our revenues and to balance the unrestricted portion of our budget. I want to acknowledge that we have the responsibility, especially under these new circumstances, to rightsize our research, our education and our administrative enterprise so that our expenses do not continue to outpace our revenues. Now, this is especially important when the distributions-- the future distributions from the endowment, which have allowed us to sustain a large range of services to this community, will start shrinking in FY27.

That's unfortunately, because of the endowment tax. We have to take our current crisis as an opportunity to restructure. Now the looming questions remain, how do we sustain leadership and research and education at Harvard Medical School, despite the dramatically reduced resources? And how can we deploy our dollars more efficiently as we look towards this different future? Now, part of the answer has come in the form of $90 million in research sustainability funding from the University to HMS for FY25 and 26. We have to say we are tremendously grateful here at HMS to President Garber, Provost Manning, the Chief Financial Officer Rita Kalra, and members of the Corporation for extending this generosity to us.

Now the University has asked us to match that 90 million. But at Harvard Medical School, we have not only matched the 90 million, we plan to add an additional 30 million for a total of $120 million coming directly from the medical school to support our community. Now, thanks to this crucial sustainability funding, our graduate students, our MD-PhD students are supported for full tuition and stipend for this year. Our junior faculty will also be financed to 100% of their start up guarantees. And after that, we are giving department chairs autonomy to utilize block grants in accordance with their departmental needs.

Now we project that the research sustainability funds, which are again supplemented by laboratory rainy day funds, department discretionary funds, it's going to enable us to sustain an average of about 74% of our federal sponsored research activity through the next fiscal year. I wish it could be more. I wish it could be more. And it is critical for us to think that the research sustainability funding is a stopgap measure, it's temporary. We cannot, unfortunately, afford to maintain this level of school subsidy. Now accordingly, the University has directed us to reduce our research enterprise by at least 20% by the end of this fiscal year.

And I want to say, and I want to thank our department chairs and all of our faculty and our administrators for earnestly endeavoring to meet this goal. We are on track, indeed, to winnow our overall research enterprise by at least 20%. And given the dark clouds hanging over not only Harvard's federal grant dollars, but all of NIH. Reducing our research spending and focusing on our most critical research is the responsible thing for us and other institutions to do. We do take some comfort that the House and Senate Appropriations committees have restored with bipartisan enthusiasm most of the proposed NIH budget cuts put forward by the administration.

However, the appropriations process must play out. There are still major revisions anticipated in these so-called indirect cost reimbursements. And we could still see executive actions that severely limit research spending. In short, we must plan for a future where federal sponsorship of research will be leaner, and the increase in the endowment tax means less school subsidy available for essential programs like financial aid, discretionary grant funding. As heartrending as this is, we have to adjust. So I just want to call out our Chief Financial Officer, Julie Joncas.

As she mentioned and instructed all of us at an all staff town Hall back in April. The vast majority of our endowment, which we would look to, to support us, is restricted. It's restricted to specific uses. Our endowment definitely will and is buffering our current shortfalls, and we will be able to spend some discretionary dollars prudently. But if we were to extract $250 million a year from the endowment to cover our lost research funds and projected deficits, we would deplete all of our discretionary accounts in just a few years.

Our CFO, Julie Joncas, I have to say, has been doing remarkable work with her team. I want to thank her, I want to applaud her. If Julie is here, I want to have her and her team stand up. I want to thank-- I want to-- I just want to express my thanks for-- for the diligence of that team. Also the expertise of so many of the HMS administrative leadership. We are blessed with an extraordinarily outstanding administrative team. Led by executive Dean for administration Lisa Muto, my Chief of Staff, Jen Ryan. Wow, could not survive without Jen.

Let me just say. Thank you, Jen. But everyone else in my lean office Lauren Hecht, Zoe Spearman, Karen Cowles without my office co-workers, I could not manage this institution. I want to thank them so much.

We have taken aggressive management actions over the past year. And I believe we have been able to continue to advance our priorities while also adapting to the realities of our new financial constraints. These actions, including our pause on hiring, our pause on merit increases, as well as our request for all academic and administrative departments to reduce discretionary spending by 15%, I acknowledge this has not been without pain. But again, I want to thank our department chairs, our department administrators have worked incredibly hard for their careful management, management of the costs and this incredibly tumultuous time.

Now a bright spot. A bright spot has been fundraising under Matt Durno's leadership and in partnership with the faculty, the HMS Alumni Affairs and Development team has closed out fiscal year 2025 $3,939 million over the anticipated budget for current use gifts. Now, we raised $8 million to support MD-PHD students because the federal funding for that program was completely terminated. And in the past year, we've received gifts from approximately 4,000 generous alumni and friends. Seven hundred of those individuals donated to HMS for the first time, and largely in response to Harvard's defense against the federal government's overreach.

I've received some incredible, heartfelt messages at nurse from Mississippi thanking Harvard. A note from a Yale graduate saying he never thought he'd be sending money to Harvard. But that Yale graduate, Class of '58, thanked us for being a defender of truth and a vanguard of freedom. Support comes from all places. [CHUCKLES] Now, people understand that Harvard Medical School is attempting to fulfill a moral imperative. An imperative to alleviate suffering, to exercise compassion to its fullest degree, and to enable health and well-being for all.

The messages and the dollars are much appreciated. Now, good news aside, we're also taking proactive measures to retain our institutional resilience. We're deferring some $50 million of capital projects, plus a chunk of our operating budget for small projects. I have to give tremendous gratitude to our chief campus planning and facilities officer, Steve Maiorisi, and his entire team for their prudent prioritization of our academically oriented projects and essential infrastructure. Some of the infrastructure needs to be rebuilt and that includes the Goldenson facade.

It includes the completion of the West Commons project. We are also grateful to have transformed Gordon Hall into an administrative flex space. And that decision which was made years ago, is saving us $9 million a year. And so we are continually looking for ways to consolidate, to explore efficiencies and to conserve energy across the Longwood campus. Now, another major challenge has been to our educational mission, and this is the threat to deprive Harvard of the right to host international students and trainees.

Again, we have received favorable legal action. And for now, we continue to be a magnet for brilliant scholars from around the world. Many of whom remain in the US and become our intellectual and corporate leaders. I want to thank our office for graduate education under Dean Roz Segal, who's been working tirelessly with the Harvard International Office, to ensure that our graduate programs will remain robust, whether in person or online. She and her team have been assisting the many PhD students affected by the abrupt cancelation of $15 million in direct support to students, in the form of Federal Training grants and fellowships.

These terminations and the marked uncertainty in federal funding of science, are causing tremendous alarm across the entire academic industrial spectrum. And the number of postdoctoral trainees has been dwindling nationwide amidst serious concerns about the academic pipeline. Now despite all these obstacles, there are new opportunities born of visionary benefactors who believe in Harvard Medical School. I am thrilled to announce an extremely generous new gift from K. Lisa Yang, who has pledged $30 million to establish the K. Lisa Yang Brain Body Center at Harvard Medical School.

The sister center to MIT'S Yang Brain Body Center. This new HMS center will bring together experts from diverse disciplines to solve the mysteries of the brain body communication. I am thrilled now that Harvard has two centers within the Yang Tan collective. And with it, even greater opportunity to partner with our colleagues at MIT. The current center. Yes.

We celebrated the center last night, I'm still full from the meal. The center is going to be led by Harvard Medical School's chair of neurobiology, David Ginty, and the former chair, Mike Greenberg. And this is a center that's going to advance cutting edge neuroscience, and it's going to fuel generations of young researchers. I am tremendously grateful to Lisa for her continued investment in science and in future leaders, both here and at so many other worthy institutions. Now, while we continue to invest in our faculty and our trainees, we must also reimagine who we are and how we will continue to fulfill our mission.

To ready ourselves for a very different future we must challenge every assumption we have, including the assumption that we as individuals are powerless. I want to say each of you has a very important role to play and are not powerless. So I've cast a working group of faculty and staff. The Advisory Committee on Research Sustainability, ACRS, with soliciting a wide variety of viewpoints from across our campus. And for brainstorming bold new ideas to keep HMS at the cutting edge of biomedical discovery. Susan Dymecki, the chair of the-- current Vice Chair of Genetics, and David Ginty, as I said, our chair of neurobiology are there leading this work in collaboration with our preclinical chairs.

And the group will assemble input from all parts of the quadrangle to help advise me on how we can deploy our resources most efficiently. Now, the ACRES committee reflects the collaborative approach to shared governance and informed decision making that I seek for addressing the major challenges confronting HMS. I have also endeavored to hear from as many of you as possible. In the last year, we've held seven large group community breakfasts. And that has allowed me to hear from students to listen to staff, postdocs, and faculty as they spoke with candor and vulnerability across personal and political differences.

Similarly, we've established the Harvard Medical School working group on open inquiry, which is chaired by our former Dean Jeff Flier, precisely because we cannot disentangle the processes of learning a discovery from the processes of spirited dialogue and constructive debate. They are one and the same. Now, all of these initiatives share a common thread. They recognize that collective introspection will help us build a better institution. Indeed, committing ourselves to honest self-examination honors our most ingrained institutional values.

The University and Harvard Medical School has asked itself time and time again how it can do better, how it can search for truth, Veritas, including the truth about our own shortcomings. That is what we have always done, and it is what we must continue to do. Now, speaking of Veritas, earlier this month I announced a substantial gift to the school to support our top priorities. Now, in recognition of this gift, the new research building, no longer new, has been renamed the Veritas Science Center. Veritas is Harvard's motto, and Harvard Medical School will never stop seeking the truth.

So when you're walking through the doors of The Veritas Science Center, please be reminded-- be reminded that the work of science is to investigate, reveal, and behold the truth. Another exciting development that will help invigorate our quest for truth is a $19 million commitment from Len Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, to extend their longstanding support for the Blavatnik therapeutic challenge awards. And this is awards that have enabled HMS faculty to usher basic science insights towards translational impact.

We've seen tremendous progress with this program. Of the 20 projects awarded in just the first five years, seven have already achieved a major milestone founding of a new company, the licensing of technology, the initiation of clinical testing. Len Blavatnik generous philanthropy will also launch the new Blavatnik Institute early career investigator awards. And this will distribute some $5 million to quad based junior faculty, giving them the opportunity to grow their programs even as the grants are cut. We've raised another $4.4 million to support postdocs who are the beating heart of so many of our labs.

So altogether, we've raised close to $10 million to support junior faculty and postdocs. The members of our community who are in their most vulnerable and formative years. Indeed, for trainees and junior faculty, the chaos of the past few months has been brutal. Our early career scientists are making pivotal decisions about their lives at this very moment. Choices that will have consequences for scientific careers, scientific progress, patients and their families. And ultimately, I believe, American prosperity. We must do everything to protect the next generation.

The fresh outlook and dynamism of our young scientists keeps Harvard Medical School in a healthy state of evolution. Our young scholars are poised to succeed the great luminaries who came before them. Now, among many others, luminaries like Gerhard Wagner, who serve for more than 30 years in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Gerhard pioneered the field of multidimensional NMR spectroscopy and he retired in July. Now Gerhard's insatiable curiosity, his scientific leadership has earned him an illustrious legacy.

His former trainees are leaders throughout academia and industry. Some of them are actually here overseeing the NMR core at HMS. Which is one of the many cores on our campus that provide us with essential technology, resources, and expertise. Another faculty member who is retiring in just a few weeks and leaving a distinguished legacy as Rick Born. Rick is an inspiring scientist and educator who has transformed the teaching of systems neuroscience and quantitative methods to Harvard Medical School and graduate students over many, many years.

He led our PhD program in neuroscience, the number one neuroscience program in the United States, a program that has graduated exceptional students into the field, including one of Rick's former PhD students, HMS assistant professor of neurobiology Carlos Ponce. Now, the Ponce lab, in fact, now inhabits Rick's old space. And Carlos has told me that every day he sits in Rick's office, he feels inspired by Rick's legacy. And Carlos's words and I quote, "He showed me that a scientist cares not only about his lab, but also about people in general and the good society they can create."

So my sincerest gratitude to Gerhard and Rick for your outstanding service and to the other faculty who have retired recently or have announced their impending retirement this academic year, that includes Martin Dorf, Max Nibert, Arthur Kleinman, Steven Lory. Although these distinguished faculty are retiring from HMS, they are not retiring from being influential. They have paved the way and they are making space for the HMS life cycle to continue and for the next generation to lead science and bolster Harvard Medical School.

I just want to have round of applause for all of these remarkable leaders. So it's our early career scientists who bring so much exceptional talent and resourcefulness to us. And that gives me great hope for our future. Many of our junior folks have already surmounted substantial hurdles to be here today. I'm going to tell a story about Kamila Naxerova, who is currently an HMS assistant professor of genetics. When Kamila was five years old and growing up in Czechoslovakia, her mother took her on a vacation to West Germany, leaving Kamila's father behind.

But it wasn't a real vacation, it was a plan to escape communist rule. You see Kamila's father, Jaroslav, was a radiologist. He was banished from academia for opposing the government. Strict controls on travel for entire families designed to prevent defection meant that Jaroslav had to get creative. I'd love to hear this story, but apparently using a motor from an old car and a hand carved wood propeller. He built his own plane in hopes of crossing the Iron Curtain and reuniting with his family. One broken leg, two years later, [CHUCKLES] Jaroslav landed in West Germany reuniting with Kamila, on a day that she describes as one of the happiest of her life.

Following in her father's footsteps, Kamila became a scientist and she landed at Harvard Medical School for her PhD and postdoctoral studies. Kamila discovered very quickly the freedom, the academic, medical and academic environment in America. Finally, she thought to herself her motivation could be channeled productively. Her ambition had a place. A place that felt like home. And today, Kamila's research on colon cancer is critical. By 2040, early onset colorectal cancer is predicted to be the top cause of cancer related deaths in adults aged 20 to 49.

Kamila couldn't be here today, but let us acknowledge that she so many others, is an immigrant attracted to Harvard Medical School because of the excellence of our community. And unfazed by challenge, undaunted by difference, our students and scholars, born or raised internationally, come here to rigorously evaluate their audacious ideas and earn their place among our faculty. And some like Kamila will become our future superstars.

As for our research, this has been a banner year for HMS science a year that has proven the adage that science is a long march towards discovery. So take the research of Bruce Yankner, who is HMS professor of genetics and neurology. Now 10 years ago, Bruce became curious about lithium. While using it to study a neuroprotective protein, his lab partnered with brain banks across the country to acquire postmortem brain samples, blood samples from thousands of people across a whole range of cognitive states. Now, when the team looked at levels of trace metals, they discovered that lithium occurs normally in the brain, and its deficiency is one of the earliest antecedents of Alzheimer's disease.

Amazingly, then they found in mice that lithium depletion accelerated memory decline and a novel, inexpensive lithium compound restored that function. Now, this journey has been just one part of Bruce's quest to shed light on this devastating disease that is affecting as many as 400 million worldwide. Is Bruce here? Do I see Bruce. Please stand.

Congratulations. Congratulations Bruce. I want you to get back to work and hurry up because I'm going to need you, I'm sure. But think of it so much excellence is found in our laboratories, in our classrooms, in our clinics. In the past year HMS scientists have discovered that a single faulty gene of the BRCA1 can fuel breast cancer. HMS scientists have pinpointed a biological mechanism that explains the link between the gut microbiome and depression. HMS scientists have developed a stem cell therapy for damage to the cornea that was previously thought irreversible.

HMS faculty have won major prizes the Nobel to Gary Ruvkun, the Gardner prize to Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, the Breakthrough Prize to Joel Hübner and Alberto Ascherio. For many of our scientists, for all of us, the past eight months have been an emotional roller coaster. But from that roller coaster, we have an opportunity to build the momentum and courage we need to ascend to even greater heights. It is the exact right time then, for us as a community to regroup and update our Harvard Medical School strategic plan to be more forward thinking and adaptable.

Now this process is required as part of our school's accreditation, and it's being currently led by our institutional planning and effectiveness team, led by Eileen Lewis, and will culminate in an LCME site visit in April 2027. How many of you saw this acronym when I shared it in my recent email to the community, and I will share it again on the screen as a reminder. You will recognize in these six initiatives many of the topics we've discussed today, notably, beacon, begins with a b and ends with n. Because our success at HMS begins with belonging and it ends in newfound resilience.

Now newfound resilience doesn't mean that we've never had it, we've always had it. But we've had to reemphasize it. So think about where we were five years ago. I would argue 2020 was an equally tumultuous year, and we've come a long way. Five years ago, the pandemic revealed the dual emergencies of physician burnout and declining student mental health. Today, we have empowered 80 physician educators at our major affiliated hospitals with dedicated time to give MD students more personalized attention during their clerkships.

We've invested in more flexible promotion tracks. And our student being ambassador program hires students to lead the activities they most want to see, and guide discussions about the issues that most affect them. Five years ago, we could not have imagined that ChatGPT would arrive on the scene and take the world by storm. Today, we have a new PhD track focused on AI in medicine. We have AI models that identify drugs for repurposing and predict how viruses will evolve. And we have a program in medical education that is both rigorous and AI fortified under Bernard Chang's resourceful and sharp deanship.

Five years ago, mass CPR was in full swing, convening hundreds of local scientists, clinicians and public health professionals to study the SARS-CoV-2 virus and combat COVID 19. Today, we have seen great returns in our investments in local coordination. With Governor Maura Healey, recently unveiling a $400 million plan to bolster research and teaching throughout the state's innovation economy. Five years ago, HMS and the world were blessed to have Paul Farmer, still in our midst. Today, our Department of Global Health and Social medicine, under the able leadership of Vikram Patel, is channeling Paul's convictions to equip global partners to help pursue health equity worldwide.

Under the Paul Farmer collaborative, HMS has worked with the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda to establish Africa's first consortium of medical schools. Grounded in African Leadership, the consortium's inaugural summit in March brought together delegates from 115 medical schools across 32 countries to promote the needs of students and faculty across the African continent. Paul would have applauded this effort to ensure that African medical schools and health systems can sustain themselves and truly thrive.

We still miss him. Five years ago, I don't think we could have imagined where we'd be right now. Couldn't have imagined the struggles we've endured, nor the tangible strides we've made. So what about five years from now in 2030? What do we want to see? Who do we want to be? Do we want to be a medical school where no admitted student is compelled to study elsewhere because of financial reasons? We want to be part of a biomedical ecosystem in which doors of opportunity are equally open to all. We want academic freedom.

We want transparent, data driven funding decisions. And we want restored investment in equitable, patient centered research. Now, how do we turn this vision into a reality? It's up to us. No one else is going to do it for us. Yes, there are forces beyond our campus that we cannot control. But we can always rededicate ourselves to the everlasting importance of our mission. We can always find extraordinary people at Harvard Medical School wherever we turn. Our people are our strengths. And we can always take stock in our colleagues resilience.

We can always find hope in their personal transformation and allow it to foster our own. HMS is a place where lives are made and remade. No matter where you come from, no matter your upbringing. Each of you holds resilience within you. Each of you has transformed yourself in some way, big or small, to be sitting in this privileged place today. Just as you have transformed yourselves, just as Harvard Medical School, I hope has transformed you, I am now asking all of you, all of us together, to channel that same focus and energy into helping sustain our great institution.

Now I want to end today with a personal story about resilience and transformation from another member of our community. The place is New York City, the time is September of 2001. A young member of the US Marine Corps Reserve works at the New York Stock Exchange as an assistant trader. When he steps outside one fall morning, he notices burning paper falling from the sky, a cacophony of sirens. He turns and sees the North Tower of the World Trade Center burning. The perfect sunny day turns dark with acrid smoke. The trader is 23-year-old Rob Dickson.

And this experience of being witness to the horrors of 9/11 changes his life. It teaches him how much he desires to be part of service to people, to others. In 2004, he volunteers for deployment with the Marine Corps Civil Affairs Unit is assigned to infantry battalion in Ramadi, Iraq. Where he works with local communities to enhance security and facilitate communications, often speaking with local physicians doing assessments at hospitals and water treatment plants, helping others. Today, as the Harvard Medical School director of Campus services, Rob is revered for his 20 plus years of excellence in service to our campus in physical security, management, campus operations, and more.

Robb still remembers the smell of ground zero smoldering. But even more than that, he remembers the selflessness of the first responders and the compassion people demonstrated toward one another in the aftermath. For Robb and these memories to be part of us at HMS, it's a tremendous gift. He knows what resilience looks like. He knows what solidarity looks like. And he takes tremendous pride in being a part of this community. Which in his words, cares about doing the right thing by others and for humanity. Is Rob here.

Rob, please stand up. Thank you. Rob and so many others of you remind us that we are striving to be better selves. I am hopeful, I'm optimistic about Harvard's future. Because we are a community of strivers and servants, thinkers and doers. All of you will persevere and innovate and succeed because you have always tackled challenges head on and prevailed. I'm optimistic because of Isabella Denali, who was a first Gen college student who participated in project success. A program run by the HMS office for culture and community engagement.

That provides lab experiences and mentors to high schoolers in Boston and Cambridge. Isabella had a clinical observership in vascular surgery at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Last year, she flew to the Dominican Republic to receive the excelling Dominican student abroad award from the country's president. Right here.

I'm optimistic because of Irving Barrera, who left his Mexican hometown at age 16 for an exchange program in the US. And who is now an HMS MD student. He's a volunteer at a homeless shelter. He's a newly minted US citizen.

I'm optimistic because of Jill Jones, a fifth year MD-PhD student who's devoted to the clinical science of pediatric brain tumors. And I'm optimistic because of the Intrepid leaders of our postdoctoral associations who do so much for our community. I believe in all of these people. There are so many more stories. I believe in all of you. Yes, the current crisis is testing us. There's no doubt about it. But we must remain true to our mission of discovery, education mission of service. No matter what happens. We must continue harvesting our successes and investing in more efficient ways to do our work.

As King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." So in moments like this, when we feel like giving up. Let us remember that there are people who have given so much of themselves to the biomedical research enterprise. I want to remember my personal mentor, the late David Baltimore, who passed away earlier this month at age 87. Throughout his life, David witnessed so many breakthroughs in biomedicine. He himself catalyzed a revolution in molecular biology. In grieving the loss of my mentor, I've been thinking a lot about the future.

A lot about the developments that David won't see, the epiphanies he won't experience, the major transformations in care he won't hear about or have the chance to applaud. Because the developments, the epiphanies, the major transformations, they will keep happening. Creativity and resourcefulness will always be an aid to this community. Will always be an aid to the scientific enterprise no matter the chaos. We bring our humanity to our work. And in turn, it becomes bigger than us. Bigger than David, bigger than any of our predecessors, and indeed bigger than any financial or political setback.

So thank you all for being here and being part of our mission, for entrusting me with a responsibility to steward it. I promise I will do everything I can to continue making Harvard Medical School a welcoming place to land. An institution that will never be perfect, but is always striving to do better. And a home where a person can be empowered to change the world. Thank you very much.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address"?

George Q. Daley (Host), Mark Namchuk (Guest), Lee Nadler (Guest), Lindsey Baden (Guest), Julie Joncas (Guest), Rob Dickson (Guest), Elias Zerhouni (Guest), K. Lisa Yang (Guest).

What is "Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address" about?

The Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address outlines the significant challenges facing the institution, including the abrupt termination of $2 billion in federal grants, which has severely impacted its research capabilities, and highlights the broader societal issues affecting public health, such as skepticism towards healthcare practices and rising costs. The address emphasizes…

What is mentioned in this Harvard Medical School episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Harvard, Len Blavatnik, K. Lisa Yang, Lee Nadler, Elias Zerhouni, Harvard Catalyst. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Harvard Medical School 2025 State of the School Address"?

The episode runs 55 min; the transcript is about 6,904 words in 74 timestamped sections.

More from Harvard Medical School

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.