Harvard Medical School Opens $5 Million New Lab

Harvard Medical School opened a $5 million lab in late September that will focus on researching new technologies in drug development. The new space, called the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology (LSP), was funded in part through a $30 million grant awarded to the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science from Governor Patrick’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative.

“This project is a great example of the goals of our capital program, as this innovative new facility will serve as a unique resource that will strengthen Massachusetts’ position as the global leader in life sciences innovation,” said Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the agency charged with implementing the Initiative’s funds, in a statement.

Windham-Bannister says that the mission of the LSP is to be on the cutting edge of drug discovery and development. That goal is possible, she says, with support from Harvard Medical School’s faculty and staff and the state’s life sciences community.

According to a report from Harvard Medical School:

The LSP brings together investigators in mathematical and experimental disciplines from multiple academic institutions (Harvard, MIT, Tufts) and research hospitals (Dana Farber, MGH, BWH) and eventually visiting scientists from the FDA and local drug companies to integrate computational and systems approaches into all phases of drug discovery and development.

“With this new Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School is extremely well positioned to convene key entities, imagine new solutions and marshal the talent and resources necessary to stimulate creation of new and more effective therapeutics, which is one of biomedicine’s greatest challenges,” said Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard, in a statement.