Even before it decides who its new leader will be, Harvard forges ahead with a new vision of science.
Corie Lok
In a marked departure from its tradition of decentralized control, Harvard has begun planning for a new department of developmental and regenerative biology, the first department at Harvard that will span the university’s schools and hospitals.
“Instead of being a discipline-based department, it will be more problem focused,” says Steven Hyman, Harvard’s provost. “It’s a big change for us.” It will comprise researchers from different disciplines such as bioengineering, cell biology and clinical research studying stem cells and the biology of tissue growth and repair as well as developing new treatments for disease.
The Harvard Corporation, the university’s governing body, is also providing $50 million for the creation of a new standing committee that will be the primary science planner of the Allston campus and will guide other interdisciplinary science and engineering activities, including the formation of additional university-wide departments. Members of that committee will likely be named by March.
Several new interdisciplinary initiatives, such as one to study the origins of life and another devoted to microbial sciences, have received seed funding from Harvard in the last few years. But the formation of the regenerative biology department, likely to cost tens of millions of dollars, and a permanent science committee are signs of a more concerted effort to expand science and foster more collaborative forms of research at Harvard.
The new department will be housed in the Allston campus’s first new building; construction could begin as early as this summer. The department will have 14 or 15 faculty members initially and will ultimately grow to 20 to 30 people.
In the same building will be the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), which was formed in 2004 to bring together stem cell researchers from across Harvard and its affiliated hospitals. In fact, it was the institute that came up with the idea for the new department as it was looking for a better way to hire and retain researchers.
The two organizations will be closely aligned. Some of the current HSCI-affiliated professors will form the core of the new department’s faculty. They will likely keep their current departmental affiliations and be jointly appointed to the new one. “We don’t want to be seen as poaching the best faculty from other departments,” says David Scadden, HSCI’s co-director.
The HSCI will continue its work on fundraising, public policy and education, and giving out research grants.
HSCI and Harvard leaders are now drawing up plans for the department and anticipate obtaining final approval from the Corporation in April. That’s when they also expect to announce the chair and the first faculty members and to begin hiring.
The creation of the new department was one of the recommendations laid out in a report [PDF] written last year by a panel of Harvard faculty and finalized last month.