Speaker Biographies

Matt Boxer
NIH Chemical Genomics Center

My interests lie in the use of novel chemistry to develop biologically active compounds to both interrogate and potentially treat rare and neglected diseases. Recent discoveries in my group at the NIH Chemical Genomics Center are the development of the first activators of the oncogenic M2 isoform of human pyruvate kinase and the synthesis of a novel warhead for caspase inhibition. We have also discovered galactokinase inhibitors in collaboration with Professor Kent Lai at the University of Utah, representing first in class inhibitors of this enzyme with implications for the treatment of Classic Galactosemia.

Stephen Haggarty
Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Stephen Haggarty is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Assistant in Neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital, Center for Human Genetic Research. He is also a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute and a founding member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, where he serves as the director of the Chemical Neurobiology Program. A major focus of Dr. Haggarty’s research program is the identification of small-molecule probes and novel targets for the development of next-generation therapeutics to treat mood and memory disorders. His laboratory has had a long-standing interest in molecular mechanisms of neuroplasticity and has developed innovative methods for the use of mouse neurons and human patient-specific stem cell-derived neurons to investigate neuropsychiatric disease pathogenesis and for novel therapeutic discovery. Dr. Haggarty earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Schreiber in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology.

Ed Holson
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Edward Holson, Ph.D. is the Director of Medicinal Chemistry at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In February 2008, Ed joined the medicinal chemistry group at the Stanley Center to design and implement strategies towards developing novel therapies in CNS related disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar and cognitive functional impairment. These strategies include key collaborations within the academic communities of MIT, Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Barbara Imperiali
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Barbara Imperiali is the Class of 1922 Professor of Biology and Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Imperiali received a B.Sc. in Medicinal Chemistry at University College London. She then proceeded to earn a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry in 1983 at M.I.T. Following this, she carried out postdoctoral studies in Enzymology at Brandeis University. Imperiali is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Chemistry and in 2010 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Susan Lindquist
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and HHMI, Dept. of Biology, MIT

Susan Lindquist is a Member and former Director of the Whitehead Institute, a Professor of Biology at MIT, and an HHMI Investigator. A winner of the National Medal of Science in 2010, Lindquist is a pioneer in the study of protein folding. She received her Ph.D in biology from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Her honors also include the Dickson Prize in Medicine, Genetics Society of America Medal, and, most recently, the Max Delbrück and Mendel Medals.

Kiran Musunuru
Harvard University

Dr. Kiran Musunuru is Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and Associate Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Musunuru received his M.D. degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, his Ph.D. degree from The Rockefeller University, and his M.P.H. degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Cardiovascular Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by postdoctoral work at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Musunuru's research focuses on the genetics of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Stuart H. Orkin, M.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Stuart H. Orkin, M.D., a graduate of MIT and Harvard Medical School, is Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Associated Member of the Broad Institute. Over the past 30 years his laboratory has focused on the molecular biology and genetics of blood and stem cell development, blood disorders, and cancer. He is a member of the NAS, IOM, and AAAS, and honored by the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, the Helmut Horten Foundation Prize, the Dameshek, E. Donnall Thomas, and Mentor Awards of the American Society of Hematology, and the Distinguished Research Award of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Ana Rodriguez
New York University

Ana Rodriguez is an Associate Professor at New York University investigating different aspects of parasite biology. Her research is focused on Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas Disease. For T. cruzi, her laboratory has developed new methods of in vitro and in vivo testing of drugs to be used in development and are currently involved in drug development though different collaborations. She has created a new core of Anti-Infectives at NYU to perform drug testing in five diseases: Malaria, Chagas, HAT, Leishmaniasis and Staphylococcus Aureus infection.

Lee L. Rubin, Ph.D
Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University

Dr. Rubin is currently Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and Director of Translational Medicine at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Much of his effort is devoted to identifying therapeutics for orphan neural disorders such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, using new kinds of stem cell-based screens. His lab also explores different chemical biology approaches for manipulating cell fate. Some of this work has been published recently in Cell, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Chemical Biology and Science.

Stuart Schreiber
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Stuart L. Schreiber, Ph.D. is the Director of Chemical Biology at and a Founding Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is also the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1995). Dr. Schreiber is known for his use of small molecules to explore biology and medicine, and for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. His research has been reported in over 500 publications (H index = 118).

Edward Scolnick, M.D.
The Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Edward Scolnick is Director of the Psychiatric Disease Program and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, and Core Faculty Member at the Broad Institute. He works closely with several principal investigators at the Broad, MGH and MIT towards identifying risk genes for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia; using that information to develop novel therapeutics or diagnostics. Dr. Scolnick is the former President of Merck Research Laboratories, where he worked for over 20 years, holding several Senior positions. Prior to joining Merck, he worked at the National Cancer Institute where he demonstrated the cellular origin of sarcoma virus oncogenes in mammals and defined specific genes that cause human cancer. He also worked at the National Heart Institute where his work defined the stop signals in the genetic code and the biochemical mechanism that produces the stops. Dr. Scolnick holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.D. from Harvard University School of Medicine.

Channing Yu, M.D., Ph.D
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Channing Yu, M.D., Ph.D, is a research fellow in the laboratory of Todd Golub, M.D., in the Cancer Program at the Broad Institute. He is Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Lank Center for Genitourinary Cancers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.