Faculty Profiles

John Akula is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School and at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He worked for 15 years practicing law, much of it as a partner at Goodwin, Procter & Hoar. As a lawyer, he was heavily involved in healthcare issues, especially at the boundary where government policy meets the healthcare industry. Dr. Akula teaches Integrative Stream course The Law and Biomedical Enterprises.

R. Rox Anderson, M.D. Associate Professor of Dermatology in the Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, at Massachusetts General Hospital, researches the use of light as a tool for treating and imaging the skin. His lab is dedicated to the discovery and development of optical treatments and diagnostics related to important problems in dermatology. He co-teaches the HST courses, Biomedical Enterprise Clinical Experience I and II.

Ernst Berndt, Ph.D. has focused much of his recent research on measuring changes over time in the costs of treating episodes of illnesses, taking into account changing medical outcomes. Related research examines the impact of medical interventions on employees' ability to function at work and their workplace productivity. He co-teaches the Integrative Stream course HST.141J Economics of Health Care Industries with Stan N. Finkelstein.

Joseph Bonventre, M.D., Ph.D. co-director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, directs his research towards the understanding of kidney injury and repair. He is interested in understanding the mechanisms by which various enzymes, such as phopholipases, contribute to the injury observed in the kidney and brain in the postischemic state and what factors determine cell recovery. He is also interested in the use of approaches of tissue engineering to facilitate regeneration and create support devices which will carry out some of the functions of the kidney for patients with acute and chronic renal disease.

Richard Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. researches cardiovascular pathophysiology focusing on electrical detection of variations on heart beats predictive of sudden cardiac death. He is currently the Director of the NASA Center for Quantitative Cardiovascular Physiology, Modeling and Data Analysis located at MIT and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology and The Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology. He is the scientific founder of Cambridge Heart Incorporated, a publicly traded company that markets products for non-invasive diagnosis of patients at risk for sudden cardiac death. Visit the Cohen lab.

George Daley, M.D., Ph.D. studies stem cells of the blood in order to define the molecular basis of human leukemia and to gain insights into normal blood development. His research has provided important insights that have led to better treatments for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).He is a Whitehead Fellow and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and works within a Boston venture capital fund. Dr. Daley co-teaches HST.140 Molecular Medicine.

Elazer Edelman. M.D., Ph.D. research areas focus on understanding and treating cardiovascular disease. Tissue-generated cells, for example, deliver growth factors and growth inhibitors for the study and potential treatment of accelerated arterial disease following angioplasty and bypass surgery. Edelman's laboratory holds patents for drug-delivery devices, tissue-engineered implants, and new drug formulations. Dr. Edelman teaches HST.090 Cardiovascular Pathophysiology.

Stan Finkelstein M.D. investigates the effectiveness of medical technology and practice. Currently, he is analyzing pharmaceutical costs and related benefits, and examining how medical treatment affects work performance. Finkelstein also studies how advances in the science and technology of medicine, as well as changes in the delivery of healthcare, are affecting clinical decision making. He co-teaches the Integrative Stream course HST.141J Economics of Health Care Industries with Ernst Berndt.

Howard Golub, M.D., Ph.D. is the current President of Care Stat Incorporated, a clinical trial consulting company. He has an appointment at Boston University School of Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics. He has served as a founder and CEO of several companies devoted to the development of various diagnostic medical devices and tests, specialized computer software and the provision of management services to a fully-integrated physician network. He co-teaches the Integrative Stream course, Clinical Trials for Biomedical Enterprise.

Martha Gray, Ph.D., Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, focuses on the physiology of cartilage and the effects of physical and biological factors on cartilage growth, development, and metabolism. She is developing a non-destructive MRI-based technique to measure cartilage composition and properties. Gray is also developing microfabricated devices for biomedical research. Her research entails work on arthritis, drug delivery, artificial tissue and connective tissue.

Stanley Lapidus, B.S.E.E. is a successful biomedical entrepreneur and founder, chairman, and president of EXACT Sciences, a biotechnology company focusing on a non-invasive genetics-based diagnostic of colon cancer. He previously founded Cytyc Corporation and served as its President was an entrepreneur-in-residence at OneLiberty Ventures. Additionally, he is a Research Assistant Professor in the pathology department of Tufts University Medical School in Boston. Mr. Lapidus holds 20 issued U.S. patents and co-teaches the Integrative Stream course, Critical Reading of Scientific Literature.

Richard Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D. research focuses on immunology and cell signaling. Specifically, his work involves understanding of the mechanisms of acute and chronic rejection in solid-tissue allograft and in understanding skeletal muscle wasting following burn injury. He is the Associate Master of the Health Science and Technology Society at Harvard Medical School and is a clinician in the Department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Mitchell is the course director for HST.030 Human Pathology.

Fiona Murray, Ph.D. studies and teaches entrepreneurship in the life science and healthcare industries. Her research examines how new life science businesses build organizations and strategies that are commercially successful and yet remain at the forefront of science. Her current work aims to understand in what way the US and UK experience in biotechnology differs and what the UK might learn from successful (and failed) US biotechnology firms. Prof. Murray also studies organizational modes for transferring healthcare technologies from medical schools and major medical research-oriented institutions. She is professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management and teaches the Integrative Stream course 15.968 Building a Biomedical Enterprise.

Edward Roberts, Ph.D. focuses on technology strategy and management in both newly emerging and major firms, including technology-based entrepreneurship, venture capital, corporate venturing, and new business development. His Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 1991) won the Association of American Publishers Award for Outstanding Book in Business and Management. He couples his MIT responsibilities with extensive activities as a co-founder, board member, and venture capital investor in high-tech startups. He is the chair of the Entrepreneurship Center at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Robert Rubin, M.D. is a Professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is currently the Director of Center for Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics at MIT. He co-teaches the HST courses, Biomedical Enterprise Clinical Experience I and II.

Frederick Schoen, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, a member of the HST Faculty, and Chief of Cardiac Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. His tissue engineering research focuses on prosthetic heart valves, vascular grafts, and cardiac assist devices.

Brian Seed, Ph.D. has worked on several research topics related to the control of the expansion and contraction of immune cell populations, including those that regulate the development of autoimmunity and autoimmune disease. He is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Molecular Biology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital. His laboratory is currently studying the molecular apparatus that controls T cell recognition of target cells. He has invented or co-invented processes and therapeutic agents presently used to treat diabetes, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis co-teaches the Integrative Stream course, Critical Reading of Scientific Literature.

Anthony Sinskey, Ph.D. is a Professor of Microbiology in the MIT Department of Biology and co-director of the Program on the Pharmaceutical Industry. An authority on biotechnology and business, Dr. Sinskey has been actively involved in the start-up of new companies and in consulting new and established firms. One of his current research interests is on the role of combinatorial chemistry in new drug discovery and metabolic engineering. Dr. Sinskey has published numerous technical reports and papers, holds many research patents, serves on the editorial boards of several renowned journals, and is a member of the board of directors of ten biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies.

James Utterback, Ph.D. looks at the emergence of dominant product designs, studies how to develop products in keeping with a company's overall strategy. He also considers how to move concepts effectively to market. In his book "Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation" (Harvard Business School Press, 1994), he focuses on the creative and destructive effects of technological change on the life of a company. He is the director of the Management of Technology Program and teaches the course 15.353 Research Themes in the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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