The year 2020 was a challenging one to say the least, but even in the midst of so much turmoil and heartache there were achievements worthy of recognition.
Scientists collaborated like never before to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and moved at unprecedented speed to develop, test and manufacture vaccines.
Healthcare workers made great sacrifices and worked overtime to care for patients in need.
Hospitals adapted to the circumstances to the best of their ability and made room for patients during surges.
Essential workers never stopped working to provide crucial services to the public and help maintain a sense of normalcy.
We are grateful to workers everywhere who worked tirelessly to keep us safe and healthy.
At the Mass General Research Institute, we witnessed a tremendous amount of collaboration and innovation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, from devising new strategies to increase the supply of Personal Protective Equipment, to testing new drugs and treatment strategies—just to name a few. With creativity and flexibility, our researchers were able to continue their crucial research into many other human diseases as well.
Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science Group compiles an annual list of scientists around the globe who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year.
In 2020, we were pleased to announce that 58 Mass General investigators made the list.
Each month we release a Snapshot of Science, a monthly digest of high impact papers in which a Mass General investigator is the first or last author.
In 2020, we highlighted over 330 high impact papers by Mass General researchers in the Snapshot of Science.
Bench Press, the Mass General Research Institute blog, had its most successful year in 2020 by far, with views increasing by 440% primarily due to COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 research stories.
This year, Bench Press received 609,703 views.
The blog also received a platinum award for best COVID-19 communications from the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, as well as a silver award for excellence in writing from the New England Society for Healthcare Communications (NESHCo) for this post on Nutritional Psychiatry.
Our success is a direct reflection of the amazing research that takes place here and the investigators who generously made time to share their work with us. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!
The MGH Research Scholars program was started to provide forward-thinking researchers with the unrestricted funding they need to take their work into new and uncharted territories. As the COVID-19 pandemic so starkly illustrated, new health threats can emerge at any time, and researchers need to quickly pivot to address these challenges. The funding provided by the MGH Research Scholars program helped to make that possible.
In 2020, we named five new scholars, bringing the total number of MGH Research Scholar awards to 65 since the program launched in 2011.
As an academic medical center, a significant portion of research at Mass General is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal institutions.
This year, Mass General researchers wrote and submitted 4,717 grant proposals.
Research at Mass General often leads to new discoveries and inventions that could one day be translated into new treatments for patients.
In the 2020 fiscal year, Mass General researchers filed 1,483 applications for protection of intellectual property and received 484 patents.
Mass General researchers published over 1000 COVID-19-related research papers in academic journals.
Mass General has received 111 funding awards for COVID-19 research, for a total of $64.2M.
Testing booths developed my Mass General researchers improve COVID testing and help conserve PPE
Mass General researchers designed and built phone-booth style personal protective booths for COVID testing, which has reduced the use of PPE for testing across the Mass General Brigham healthcare system by 96%.
Researchers in the Center for Systems Biology conducted an extensive performance comparison of 250+ FDA-approved diagnostic and antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2.
Mass General and Ragon Institute researchers developed and validated an ELISA antibody test for COVID-19, which is now being produced at scale by industry.
ELISA antibody tests allow scientists to detect the presence and quantity of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies
Researchers developed an in-house sterilization process that can decontaminate 10k N95 respirators per day.
Researchers developed a method to repair 50,000 defective N95 masks in collaboration with New Balance.
About the Mass General Research Institute
Massachusetts General Hospital is home to the largest hospital-based research program in the United States. Our researchers work side-by-side with physicians to develop innovative new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease.
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