Ludwig Harvard's annual retreat
Photos by Unmesh Kher
Ludwig Harvard Co-directors Joan Brugge and George Demetri. “We really have a true partnership, and I think you all recognize that,” Joan noted in her opening remarks.
The Ludwig Center at Harvard held its annual retreat, as usual, on the Monday before (the American) Thanksgiving. Also as usual: it was a giant success. Members of the sprawling community assembled by the Center’s Co-directors Joan Brugge and George Demetri gathered at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center with their typical air of scientific gusto, goodwill and mutual support. A day of biomedical show-and-tell and lively discussion followed. The retreat consisted of four differently themed sessions of speed-talks by PIs and trainees, with a few minutes set aside for questions after each talk. Attendees were also treated to a pair of poster sessions—the last enlivened by snacks and what seemed to be a very happy hour. As co-directors, Joan and George shared a vision to link the talent scattered across Harvard’s research facilities to create a genuinely collaborative cancer research community. The experiment clearly worked: The Center has become something of a canvas for richly textured cancer research, drawing on a wide palette of scientific and clinical expertise. Partnerships forged across Center laboratories, the directors noted, have yielded at least 110 collaborative publications. Many other studies have benefited as much from the insights and engagement of the Center’s formidable brain trust as they have from its funding. Speaking of her fellow director, Joan noted at the start of the retreat: “We really have a true partnership, and I think you all recognize that.” The same thing might be said of the Center as a whole.
More photos from the event are below:
Left: Lahav lab’s David Miller presents his work to Jasbeer Khanduja as lab-mate Roubina Tatavosian looks on. Right: Lahav lab’s Joshua François discusses his research.
Left: Constantine Mitsiades, asking a question. The speed talks elicited lively discussion. Right: Stefan Harry, presenting his work on targeting cancer-driving protein complexes with COUPLrs, molecular glues developed in the Bar-Peled lab.
Peter Sorger with Agudo lab’s Debolina Ganguly, who presented her work on metastasis and anti-tumor immunity.
Left: Ozge Somuncu of the D’Andrea lab talks science with a colleague at the retreat’s closing happy hour. Right: Guerriero Lab’s Gabriella Antonellis presents her work.