A virtual celebration was held on Tuesday, Sept. 20th to recognize Gabriela Apiou, PhD, as the inaugural incumbent of the Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair in Translational Sciences—and her unique vision for academia-industry collaboration.
Apiou is director of Strategic Alliances for the Mass General Research Institute, director of the Translational Research Core for the Wellman Center for Photomedicine and an assistant professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.
The Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair in Translational Sciences was established in 2022 through a generous and visionary gift from an anonymous donor to further the hospital’s mission of translating cutting-edge research into improved clinical care for patients.
“Endowed MGH Research Institute Chairs are especially unique, because they are not tied to a single department or a single disease area,” said David F. M. Brown, MD, president of Massachusetts General Hospital. “Instead, these chairs honor scientific excellence that cuts across multiple fields of study and recognize collaboration across all departments and centers here at Mass General.”
The funding that accompanies the endowed chair will assist Apiou in her efforts to foster more productive collaborations among academia and industry across the translational spectrum—from basic discovery science to preclinical studies, clinical research and transfer to market.
The Longfellow Project
These efforts are collectively known as the Longfellow Project, which Apiou launched in 2015 in the Office of the Scientific Director at the Mass General Research Institute.
The Longfellow Project has two major pillars:
● Bridging Academia and Industry – a 15-week educational program teaching faculty the why and how of translating discoveries to patient care through collaborations across academia and industry
● The Challenge-Driven Research Programs – a strategic endeavor aligning investigators from different scientific and medical backgrounds into programmatic teams to identify and design solutions to important health care problems in partnership with industry
Bridging Academia and Industry is taught by more than 50 expert faculty, leaders from academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. It includes a course on the strategies and tactics of translation and a solution-driven project competition.
The program, which will start its fifth session in early 2023, has graduated 77 faculty members over the past four years who span every department and center at the hospital.
The Challenge-Driven Research Programs represent a new model of collaboration that leverages fundamental and translational research, clinical care and access to high-quality patient samples to develop solutions to pressing challenges in areas such as neuroinflammation in neurodegeneration, cardiometabolics, epigenetics, antibiotic resistance, rare diseases and more.
The programs are designed to foster long-term collaborations with industry partners that incorporate multiple investigators with complementary areas of expertise in biology, technology and medicine.
“All in all, over 240 faculty members at Mass General have been brought together under the umbrella of these [challenge-driven programs],” said Harry W. Orf, PhD, senior vice president for research at Mass General. “They were in different buildings, working in different departments. Now, they’ve come together under the umbrella of a theme. They’ve all recognized each other’s work and formed collaborations.”
“These are very, very busy people,” said David Fisher, MD, PhD, Chief of Dermatology at Mass General. “They have their own areas of expertise, and it requires pulling people together, creating a ferment of enthusiasm that will lead people to listen, to give in. It’s not so simple to give in on your idea for the group collective.”
“Not only has Gabriela done this successfully, she has also attracted incredible industry partners who see the value of this,” Fisher added. “She’s done scholarship around this. She’s written papers about it. And the hope is—and we’ve already seen signs of this—that it is spreading to other academic-industry settings around the country and hopefully, around the world.”
Fostering the Next Generation of Translational Researchers
“This chair is special to me because of the vision, the courage and the generosity of the anonymous donors to whom I will be eternally grateful,” Apiou said.
“I’ve worked my entire career to bridge science, engineering and medicine, academia and industry, to bring together people who really believe in the need and power of true collaborations to deliver new cures and alleviate suffering.”
“This chair, I truly believe, will help us create new possibilities and pass on to the next generation of scientists our vision and enthusiasm, the knowledge and tools to reach out to each other and engage in these true collaborative efforts to solve major healthcare challenges.”
About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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