Eliminating Pandemics
Humans coexist peacefully with many viruses, though some of these interactions are catastrophic. How can we be prepared for new encounters with viruses, including those that haven’t been discovered yet?
In partnership with AbbVie Life Sciences, Dr. Silver and her team have invented a high-throughput synthetic cell-based platform that enables rapid, safe screening of known and emerging viruses. The platform identifies shared and divergent pathways to infection, allowing scientists to predict the severity of a pathogen, its mechanism of action, and the most likely drug target. In parallel, Dr. Springer – with support from an HMS Quadrangle Fund for Advancing & Seeding Translational Research (Q-FASTR) grant – pioneered a new method of sample collection for COVID. These insights led to the development of a new company and the establishment of the country’s most comprehensive COVID testing system, the Harvard University Clinical Laboratory. Our dream is to extend these university-based testing and screening systems, allowing institutions of higher learning to catch pandemics before they start.