harvard phd immunology

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Immunology is an area of study within the Division of Medical Sciences, an administrative unit based at Harvard Medical School that coordinates biomedical PhD activities at the Longwood Medical Area. Students who study immunology receive a PhD in medical sciences. Prospective students apply through the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS). In the online application, select  “Division of Medical Sciences” as your program choice and select "Immunology" in the area of study menu.

Sometimes this knowledge is translated into therapeutic advances. Discoveries about the immune system, many made at Harvard, have led to cures for cancer and therapies that have changed the lives of patients with autoimmune and allergic diseases. Research has also led to vaccines against newer pathogens, including the virus that causes COVID-19.

The Harvard immunology community is tightly knit and interactive. Our faculty are located at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard teaching hospitals, and affiliated institutes such as the Broad Institute, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Ragon Institute. Our students and faculty participate in the program’s weekly seminar series that brings together a diverse group of faculty, students, postdocs, and alumni who listen to cutting-edge science and congregate afterward for wine, cheese, and stimulating informal discussions on immunology.

Our students are involved in exciting research that spans basic immunology, vaccine research, cancer immunology, mucosal immunity, neuroimmunology, and so much more. The research executed by our students over many decades helped shape modern immunology and led to successful new therapies.

Our graduates have consistently gone on to become leaders in academia and industry. Many are faculty members at Harvard University; Yale University; Stanford University; University of Pennsylvania; Emory University; University of California, San Francisco; and elsewhere—while others have embarked on successful careers in pharma, biotech, and investing at many organizations including Pfizer, Janssen, Genentech, and Flagship Pioneering.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Optional GRE Subject: Optional iBT TOEFL minimum score: 100 IELTS minimum score: 7

See list of Immunology faculty

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Questions about the program.

The mission of the Master of Medical Sciences in Immunology is to provide a solid, instructional and research-based foundation in both Basic and Clinical Immunology. This program serves the needs both of students with a strong undergraduate biology background with an interest in medicine or fundamental research and seeking deeper knowledge of immunology, as well as of academic physicians from a range of specialties who seek an in-depth knowledge of immunology in order to further their professional goals and research expertise.

The Ph.D. Program in Immunology educates scientists in investigative and academic medicine, preparing them to contribute to immunological research with a full awareness of the potential impact of immunology. The program combines an education in basic biology, a sophisticated training in immunology, and exposure to the immunological and non-immunological problems of disease. It has become the model of an integrated educational program in a growing discipline that now spans several of the classical fields of medical biology (microbiology, genetics, pathology, clinical medicine, and biochemistry, for example).

Focusing on the biological, immunological, epidemiological, and ecological aspects of viral, bacterial, and protozoan diseases, primarily in developing countries.

The Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases (IID) focuses on the biological, immunological, epidemiological, and ecological aspects of viral, bacterial, and protozoan diseases of animals and humans, including the vectors that transmit infectious agents. Click here to learn more about the IID Department

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Gasdermin E dictates inflammatory responses by controlling the mode of neutrophil death

Affiliations.

• 1 State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, National Clinical Research Center for Blood Diseases, Haihe Laboratory of Cell Ecosystem, CAMS Key Laboratory for Prevention and Control of Hematological Disease Treatment Related Infection, Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China. [email protected].
• 2 Tianjin Institutes of Health Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Tianjin, China. [email protected].
• 3 Department of Pathology, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, PhD Program in Immunology, Harvard Medical School; Department of Laboratory Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Enders Research Building, Room 811, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
• 4 State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, National Clinical Research Center for Blood Diseases, Haihe Laboratory of Cell Ecosystem, CAMS Key Laboratory for Prevention and Control of Hematological Disease Treatment Related Infection, Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China.
• 5 Tianjin Institutes of Health Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Tianjin, China.
• 6 VA Boston Healthcare System, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, 1400 VFW Parkway, West Roxbury, MA, 02132, USA.
• 7 Department of Pathology, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, PhD Program in Immunology, Harvard Medical School; Department of Laboratory Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Enders Research Building, Room 811, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. [email protected].
• PMID: 38195694
• PMCID: PMC10776763
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44669-y

Both lytic and apoptotic cell death remove senescent and damaged cells in living organisms. However, they elicit contrasting pro- and anti-inflammatory responses, respectively. The precise cellular mechanism that governs the choice between these two modes of death remains incompletely understood. Here we identify Gasdermin E (GSDME) as a master switch for neutrophil lytic pyroptotic death. The tightly regulated GSDME cleavage and activation in aging neutrophils are mediated by proteinase-3 and caspase-3, leading to pyroptosis. GSDME deficiency does not alter neutrophil overall survival rate; instead, it specifically precludes pyroptosis and skews neutrophil death towards apoptosis, thereby attenuating inflammatory responses due to augmented efferocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils by macrophages. In a clinically relevant acid-aspiration-induced lung injury model, neutrophil-specific deletion of GSDME reduces pulmonary inflammation, facilitates inflammation resolution, and alleviates lung injury. Thus, by controlling the mode of neutrophil death, GSDME dictates host inflammatory outcomes, providing a potential therapeutic target for infectious and inflammatory diseases.

© 2024. The Author(s).

• Gasdermins*
• Lung Injury*
• Neutrophils

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• Interviews and Visits

PhD Harvard Immunology or Virology 2021 admission

By RickDalton February 19, 2021 in Interviews and Visits

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Has anyone received any news about interview or admission for PhD at harvard for immunology or virology program?

If I haven't received any rejection yet, does it mean that I still have any chances?

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I received an interview for the PhD program in Virology and looking from the results page, it seems that interviews already went out for the Immunology program as well. I can't say for sure if you still have a chance but I know Harvard usually respond quite late about rejections. This is my second time applying for the Virology program and last year I got rejected (without interviews) in March. 

2 minutes ago, Langerhans said: Hi, I received an interview for the PhD program in Virology and looking from the results page, it seems that interviews already went out for the Immunology program as well. I can't say for sure if you still have a chance but I know Harvard usually respond quite late about rejections. This is my second time applying for the Virology program and last year I got rejected (without interviews) in March. 

Super congrats!! ?

Hope you'll get it!

Thank you so much!

I hope to receive some news soon!

Are you international student?

Unfortunately, it takes a while to hear back from a lot of graduate schools. Nope, not an international student.

1 minute ago, Langerhans said: Unfortunately, it takes a while to hear back from a lot of graduate schools. Nope, not an international student.

May I ask you How does your application was different from one year to another?

To understand in case where I have to ameliorate.

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The Impact of Climate Change on Asthma and Allergies: From Real Time problems to Real Time Solutions

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Harold Menkes Memorial Lecture— The Impact of Climate Change on Asthma and Allergies: From Real Time problems to Real Time solutions

Speaker: Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD Chair, Department of Environmental Health Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She practices Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in children and adults. She has published over 400+ papers, many in the field of climate change and health, and allergies and asthma. Dr. Nadeau is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. EPA Children's Health Protection Committee. For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and epigenetic factors affect the risk of developing immune dysfunction. Her laboratory has been studying exposomics and solutions-facing research with policy oriented outcomes to track climate change mitigation and adaptation as these solutions pertain to quantifying health outcomes.  She started 4 biotech companies, works in climate and health inequity, co started a sustainability seed grant program, and works with the WHO and UN on several projects in global health. She works with the Salata Institute at Harvard and oversees the Harvard Center for Climate Health and the Global Environment. Dr. Nadeau was appointed as a member of the U.S. Federal Wildfire Commission in 2022. Dr. Nadeau earned her MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School in 1995, completing her doctoral work in biochemistry and immunology, followed by a pediatric residency, and fellowship in Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Program, joined the Stanford faculty where she was the Naddisy Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics until 2022, and then joined Harvard where is now the John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies.

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Weight loss caused by common diabetes drug tied to “anti-hunger” molecule in study

A Stanford Medicine study found that metformin, a commonly prescribed diabetes drug associated with moderate weight loss, stimulates production of lac-phe, a molecule abundant after exercise.

March 18, 2024 - By Krista Conger

Jonathan Long co-discovered lac-phe, known as the "anti-hunger" molecule. Courtesy Jonathan Long

An “anti-hunger” molecule produced after vigorous exercise is responsible for the moderate weight loss caused by the diabetes medication metformin, according to a new study in mice and humans. The molecule, lac-phe, was discovered by Stanford Medicine researchers in 2022.

The finding, made jointly by researchers at Stanford Medicine and at Harvard Medical School, further cements the critical role the molecule, called lac-phe, plays in metabolism, exercise and appetite. It may pave the way to a new class of weight loss drugs.

“Until now, the way metformin, which is prescribed to control blood sugar levels, also brings about weight loss has been unclear,” said Jonathan Long , PhD, an assistant professor of pathology. “Now we know that it is acting through the same pathway as vigorous exercise to reduce hunger. Understanding how these pathways are controlled may lead to viable strategies to lower body mass and improve health in millions of people.”

Long, who is supported by the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, and Mark Benson, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, are co-senior authors of the study , which was published on March 18 in Nature Metabolism . Postdoctoral scholar Shuke Xiao , PhD, is the lead author of the study.

Many people with diabetes who are prescribed metformin lose around 2% to 3% of their body weight within the first year of starting the drug. Although this amount of weight loss is modest when compared with the 15% or more often seen by people taking semaglutide drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, the discoveries that led to those drugs also grew from observations of relatively minor, but reproducible, weight loss in people taking first-generation versions of the medications.

Post-workout appetite loss

When Long and colleagues at Baylor University discovered lac-phe in 2022, they were on the hunt for small molecules responsible for curtailing hunger after vigorous exercise. What they found was a Frankenbaby of lactate — a byproduct of muscle fatigue — and an amino acid called phenylalanine. They dubbed the hybrid molecule lac-phe and went on to show that it’s not only more abundant after exercise but it also causes people (as well as mice and even racehorses) to feel less hungry immediately after a hard workout.

“There is an intimate connection between lac-phe production and lactate generation,” Long said. “Once we understood this relationship, we started to think about other aspects of lactate metabolism.”

Metformin was an obvious candidate because as it stimulates the breakdown of glucose (thus reducing blood sugar levels) it can trigger the generation of lactate.

The researchers found that obese laboratory mice given metformin had increased levels of lac-phe in their blood. They ate less than their peers and lost about 2 grams of body weight during the nine-day experiment.

The fact that metformin and sprint exercise affect your body weight through the same pathway is both weird and interesting.

Long and his colleagues also analyzed stored blood plasma samples from people with Type 2 diabetes before and 12 weeks after they had begun taking metformin to control their blood sugar. They saw significant increases in the levels of lac-phe in people after metformin compared with their levels before treatment. Finally, 79 participants in a large, multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis who were also taking metformin had significantly higher levels of lac-phe circulating in their blood than those who were not taking the drug.

“It was nice to confirm our hunch experimentally,” Long said. “The magnitude of effect of metformin on lac-phe production in mice was as great as or greater than what we previously observed with exercise. If you give a mouse metformin at levels comparable to what we prescribe for humans, their lac-phe levels go through the roof and stay high for many hours.”

Further research revealed that lac-phe is made by intestinal epithelial cells in the animals; blocking the ability of mice to make lac-phe erased the appetite suppression and weight loss previously observed.

Finally, a statistical analysis of the people in the atherosclerosis study who lost weight during the several-year study and follow-up period found a meaningful association between metformin use, lac-phe production and weight loss.

“The fact that metformin and sprint exercise affect your body weight through the same pathway is both weird and interesting,” Long said. “And the involvement of the intestinal epithelial cells suggests a layer of gut-to-brain communication that deserves further exploration. Are there other signals involved?”

Long noted that, while semaglutide drugs are injected into the bloodstream, metformin is an oral drug that is already prescribed to millions of people. “These findings suggest there may be a way to optimize oral medications to affect these hunger and energy balance pathways to control body weight, cholesterol and blood pressure. I think what we’re seeing now is just the beginning of new types of weight loss drugs.”

Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Colorado, the University of Virginia and the Broad Institute contributed to the work.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants GM113854, K08HL145095, DK124265, DK136526, HHSN2682015000031, HSN26800004, UM1DK078616 and 1R01HL151855), a Stanford School of Medicine’s Dean’s Fellowship, the American Heart Association, Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience and Stanford Diabetes Research Center. 

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu .

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