Prof. Harvey Lodish

Professor Lodish is a Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is a Professor of Biology and a Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He serves as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and is an Associate (Foreign) Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

As a member of the Board of Trustees of Boston Children’s Hospital, Professor Lodish chairs the Board of Trustees Research Committee. As the Founding Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center from 2008 to 2016, he oversaw the state’s $1 billion investments in the life sciences.
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Starting in 1973, his laboratory concentrated on the biogenesis, structure, and function of several important secreted and plasma membrane glycoproteins. To date, his group has made key discoveries in the fields of red blood cell development and therapeutics, long non-coding RNAs, and adipocyte biology. Most recently, his laboratory developed culture systems for generating mature human red blood cells from hematopoietic stem cells.

He co-founded Rubius Therapeutics, a company that uses gene- and enzyme-modified red blood cells as vehicles for the long- term introduction of many novel therapeutics, immunomodulatory agents, and diagnostic imaging probes into the human body.
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Professor Lodish has extensive experience in the biotechnology industry. He was a founding member (1980) and Principal of the consulting company BIA. He was a founder and scientific advisory board member of Genzyme, Inc. He was also a scientific founder of Arris (now Axys) Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In addition, he was formerly a scientific advisory board member of AstraZeneca, Genset SA, and Dyax Corporation.