The Power of Academic Multi-Institutional Collaborations in Research

1.25.2011 PRESENTER: Joseph Martin, MD, PhD Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology and Former Dean, Harvard Faculty of Medicine, 1997 to 2007 MODERATOR: Steven Schachter, MD Chief Academic Officer and Program Leader of NeuroTechnology, CIMIT; Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Forum Summary

The worldwide burden of mental health disorders in staggering.  In the United States alone, the annual economic burden is over $1 trillion, and as the population ages, neurodegenerative diseases will become more common.  Despite the magnitude this problem, funding for research on some of these disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, is declining even as government costs due to neurodegenerative diseases are increasing.  Finding new therapies for these diseases will most likely require a collaborative effort.

The story of Huntington’s disease illustrates the power of collaboration.  Progress in finding the gene responsible for the disease was made possible when a geneticist from MIT worked with neuopathologists from Massachusetts General Hospital and patients from Boston University, along with brain samples from McLean Hospital.  The project was supported by the federal government and by private foundations. 

The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center (HNDC) is an organization that promotes similar collaborations.  It was founded by an anonymous donor and currently has over 700 members.  It has distributed $80 million and has produced over 150 publications.  It supports research related to drug discovery, biomarkers, and genetics, and it conducts training and educational programs.  Fundraising is a challenge because the center has no grateful patients or alumni and because academic research is structured to reward individuals, not groups.  Nevertheless, the organization is optimistic about the future because its collaborative projects promise to reduce a large burden of disease.           

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