The MGH Research Scholars program at Massachusetts General Hospital was established in 2011 to provide forward-thinking researchers with the unrestricted funding they need to take their work into new and uncharted territories.
This philanthropy-funded program provides our most promising investigators with $500,000 ($100K per year for five years) they can use to pursue promising new areas of research that may be too early or unproven for more traditional funding mechanisms.
History has shown that talented scientists who are given free rein to pursue new frontiers are the ones who often make the greatest advances.
In honor of World Cancer Research Day, we are highlighting four MGH Research Scholars whose research focuses on developing treatments and innovative solutions for patients with cancer.
Genevieve Boland, MD, PhD
Emma and Bill Roberts MGH Research Scholar 2023-2028
Physician Investigator, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital
Director, Melanoma Surgery Program, Mass General Cancer Center
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
The Boland Lab focuses on blood-based techniques for assessing changes in the tumor microenvironment through analysis of circulating exosomes. The lab is working to evaluate the changes in melanoma tumors during treatment with current systemic therapies, such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy.
“The funding from the Emma and Bill Roberts MGH Research Scholar award has allowed me to study a new class of cancer treatment called adoptive T cell therapy, where the patient’s tumors are removed to isolate, grow, and use their own immune cells to create a personalized, living drug.
MGH is one of the first and largest volume centers in the country using this treatment for metastatic melanoma.
Without programs such as the MGH Research Scholar awards, it would not be possible to begin to understand the biology of these new therapies and find ways to improve them to make them successful for more patients.” — Genevieve Boland, MD, PhD
Raul Mostoslavsky, MD, PhD
Kristine and Bob Higgins MGH Research Scholar 2012-2017
Scientific Director, Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Mass General Cancer Center
Laurel Schwartz Professor in Medicine in the Field of Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Research in the Mostoslavsky laboratory focuses on the crosstalk between chromatin dynamics and cellular metabolism. Current projects include the molecular roles of chromatin in DNA repair, identifying chromatin and metabolic drivers of metastatic disease, and the crosstalk between metabolic pathways and chromatin structure.
“MGH and Boston in general provide one of the best places in the world to perform science. The integration of world-class basic science research, top quality clinical care and ready access to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries provide a unique blend that makes our work possible.
I received the MGH Research Scholar award at a critical time in my career, when I was starting to expand my lines of research, and getting unrestricted funds was key to allow these projects to take off.
It was, without a doubt, the perfect catalyst to allow me to apply for federal grants and researching new ways to help patients with metastatic disease.” — Raul Mostoslavsky, MD, PhD
Shawn Demehri, MD, PhD
Bob and Rita Davis Family MGH Research Scholar 2023-2028
Director, High Risk Skin Cancer Clinic, Mass General Cancer Center
Physician Investigator, Cutaneous Biology Research Center and Center for Cancer Immunology,
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School
The Demehri Lab is investigating the role of the immune system in regulating the early stages of cancer development to harness its anti-tumor potential for cancer prevention and treatment. The lab is working to identify immune mechanisms that are sufficient to prevent cancer formation from pre-cancerous lesions. This approach raises a great opportunity to discover novel immune pathways that can be leveraged in cancer prevention and therapy.
“As a general hospital with a strong cancer center, Mass General has provided the ideal environment for our research in the field of cancer prevention. We are fortunate to have access to patients and tissue samples across organ types that are not affected by advanced cancer yet are at risk of disease and can immediately benefit from novel cancer prevention strategies.
The scientific and collaborative environment of the Boston/Cambridge science ecosystem is also unique and outstanding for the cutting-edge research we perform in our laboratory.
I am very grateful to have received the MGH Research Scholar award, which has enabled my laboratory to take on high-risk high-reward projects that can establish the foundation for cancer immunoprevention across epithelial organs.
This generous support enables my team to think more creatively and take on challenges that promise to advance the field at a speed not attainable with more traditional types of research funding.” — Shawn Demehri, MD, PhD
Priscilla Brastianos, MD
Terry and Jean de Gunzburg MGH Research Scholar 2021-2026
Physician Investigator, Mass General Cancer Center
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
The Brastianos lab aims to identify the drivers of recurrent primary and metastatic brain tumors and to accelerate the applications of their findings to the clinical setting. With an international team of collaborators, the lab has created an extensive tissue bank of metastatic brain tumors that can be studied to inform new discoveries.
“I am incredibly grateful for the support from the MGH Research Scholars program. With unrestricted funds provided by the MGH Research Scholar award, our lab was able to focus on areas of research that are traditionally underfunded, including rare brain tumors.
It was with philanthropic funding that we were able to make a discovery in a brain tumor called a papillary craniopharyngioma and showed that 95% of these tumors have clinically actionable alterations in the gene BRAF.
The MGH Research Scholars program provided support for the translation of these findings to the clinic, and last year, we published a practice-changing trial showing that 94% of patients had remarkable responses to targeted therapy with BRAF/MEK inhibition.
These types of responses are unprecedented in brain tumors and will change treatment paradigms for patients.”
— Priscilla Brastianos, MD
About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. The goal of our research is to better understand human health and disease and to identify new strategies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Your support will help us pursue new and unproven areas of research that could lead to the next game-changing breakthroughs.
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