Alexis Jolly, VIC summer student, presents innovative technology at the international SPIE Photonics West Conference following summer at VIC, Wellman Centre, and MGH

I recently returned from the international SPIE Photonics West Conference in San Francisco, having had two papers accepted for presentation and manuscripts published. It was an incredible opportunity for me that was a direct result from my summer at the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC), Harvard Medical School, and the Wellman Centre for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

I was fortunate to have been chosen for the 12-week internship at VIC, Harvard Medical School as the 2024 recipient of the Medical Student Research Training Award by Professor Mark Poznansky and the team of Senior Scientists at VIC. Invited to join Dr Jeffrey Gelfand’s Lab, I had the opportunity to work with and learn from innovative academics across medicine, engineering, physics, and chemistry.

My research investigated antimicrobial Blue Light as an adjuvant therapy for infections, augmenting treatment efficacy and potentially mitigating resistance development. This work has potential for profound impacts on post- and intra-operative infection control, as well as wider impacts in healthcare. I presented my work to the leading researchers and academic community of VIC, Wellman, and the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology (HST) Institute, at MGH, and Harvard Medical School. I also submitted abstracts of the research and was invited to present at the prestigious International SPIE Photonics West Conference for Photonic Diagnosis, Monitoring, Prevention, and Treatment of Infections and Inflammatory Diseases 2025, in January in San Francisco. The Conference was an opportunity to both reconnect with Harvard colleagues and to meet, connect with new researchers and scientists from across the world, and exchange ideas.

During my time in Boston, I had the privilege to participate in remarkable learning opportunities including weekly presentations from leading immunologists and cancer researchers from around the world at VIC with Professor Poznansky, medical innovation and technology presentations at Wellman with Dr Rox Anderson, and the biweekly Wellman Biomedical Optics and Photonics Institute with Dr Seok-Hyun Andy Yun composed of lectures by leading researchers from Harvard-MIT HST. This 40-hour course is a series of lectures spanning study and innovation of biomedical optics for improving human health and advancing biological sciences, including fluorescence imaging, light-tissue interaction, photochemistry, and applications of light in medicine in the Harvard-MIT HST program. Being able to get involved, ask questions, visit labs, and learn from the various researchers as well as the connections and friendships I developed over the summer have been remarkable.

Additionally, I had the opportunity to participate in the Harvard-MIT HST Healthcare Hackathon hosted by the Wellman Centre for Photomedicine for academics from across the world with multidisciplinary backgrounds, where we competed in teams to design, present, and defend innovative engineering solutions to challenges in healthcare, guided by researchers from Wellman – doctors, engineers, chemists, and physicists. In the context of the Hackathon supported by WARE (Wellman Anti-Racism Effort), our proposition targeted accessibility to healthcare for disadvantaged populations where appointments and hospital visits may be challenging.

In November 2024, I led a team in developing and delivering two full-day symposia on Photomedicine with particular focus on light for surgical innovation in treatment and rapid diagnostics to my medical peers, engineering, and physics students with a passion to learn about the new innovations and intersections between physics, medicine, and engineering.

These experiences, which began at VIC, and their many opportunities have been life-changing and career-shaping and I am forever grateful for the opportunities provided by Professor Poznansky, Dr Anderson, Dr Gelfand, the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Edinburgh for making this experience possible. The past summer has been immensely influential for me, and where I am as a result would not have been possible without the support and guidance of these leaders in medicine and healthcare.

Saumya Maheshwari and James Aspden of the Sîrbulescu lab share the 2024 Arthur Fonville Award for their research in stroke!

This Fall, Saumya Maheshwari and James Aspden jointly won the prestigious Arthur Fonville Award, presented yearly for a stroke research dissertation by a medical student in Edinburgh or Amsterdam.

The two scientists received this distinction for research conducted at VIC, in the laboratory of Dr. Ruxandra Sîrbulescu, focusing on the use of B cells as an immunomodulatory therapy for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). They attended the award ceremony, and presented their work in a brief joint lecture to the foundation.

The award was established in memory of Arthur Fonville, a medical student from the University of Amsterdam, who worked with the Research to Understand Stroke due to Haemorrhage (RUSH) team in Edinburgh between 2011-2013, and passed away on September 21, 2014 from the consequences of heatstroke after a 10 mile run in Amsterdam.

The award also carries financial support towards dissemination of the research at a conference, in a journal, or in further work in the two years after the award.

Keywords: Arthur Fonville Award, Stroke Research, B cell therapy, Immunomodulatory therapy

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Dr. Mark Poznansky speaks on B cell therapy in the context of regenerative medicine at the 2024 First Look at the World Medical Innovation Forum.

Dr. Poznansky discusses research at VIC investigating B cells as a potential cell therapy for treating neural injury. Research in the VIC lab demonstrates B cells to be both neuroprotective and neuroregenerative in the context of intracranial hemorrhage in a murine mouse model.

Allogeneic B cell immunomodulatory therapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

In new research published in The FASEB Journal, Dr. Sîrbulescu’s lab demonstrated the remarkable protective effect of B cells in the context of ALS in a murine model and observed decreased inflammation in a patient with the disease.

Previous work by the group showed that the direct application of purified B cells, which are immune cells known to produce antibodies, can reduce inflammation and promote recovery in mice with skin or brain injuries. In the latest research publication, the team assessed the effects of B cell infusions in mice prone to ALS and in a person living with the disease. In the murine model, repeated intravenous treatment of B cells significantly delayed ALS disease onset and extended survival with reduced cell death. In the human patient, repeated infusions of donor B cells were safe and led to decreased levels of multiple inflammatory markers.

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Immune Dysregulation and Vaccine Response in Rare Blood Cancers: Insights from a Pilot Study

The Reeves lab recently published a study in eJHaem exploring the immune system in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a type of rare blood cancer. These patients are particularly vulnerable to infections and often require immunosuppressive drugs, highlighting the importance of effective vaccination. Our study found that MPN patients exhibit significant changes in immune cells, including decreased effector and memory T cells and reduced maturation marker expression on B cells. These changes imply that specific cells do not effectively travel to the lymph nodes for maturation, potentially leading to a compromised immune response and lower levels of protective antibodies after influenza vaccination. Our findings emphasize the need for further research into the immune dysregulation in MPNs and its impact on vaccine efficacy, aiming to improve vaccination strategies for this at-risk population.
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Immunomodulatory drugs: a promising clinical ally for cancer immunotherapy

Our team at VIC recently published a review article in the Trends in Molecular Medicine Journal, under the guidance of Dr. Gemechu. Clinical trial data increasingly show that targeted immunotherapies such as antibodies, T-cells and vaccines improve outcomes when delivered in combination with the immunomodulatory drug (IMiD) derivatives lenalidomide or pomalidomide. We review these clinical data to highlight the relevance of IMiDs in combinatorial immunotherapy for both haematological and solid tumours. Further research into the molecular mechanisms of IMiDs and an increased understanding of their immunomodulatory effects may refine the specific applications of IMiDs and improve the design of future clinical trials, moving IMiDs to the forefront of combinatorial cancer immunotherapy. With these areas of focus, over the next decade, we expect IMiDs to become core components of the cancer immunotherapy armamentarium not only for MM but for a range of other tumour types as well.
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Targeting metabolic pathways to counter cancer immunotherapy resistance: Trends in Immunology

Our team at VIC recently published an opinion article published in Trends in Immunology Journal under the guidance of Dr. Gemechu. Immunotherapies have revolutionized treatment outcomes for cancer, but many cancers are resistant to such therapies. Cancers have an altered environment compared to healthy tissue, and part of this is due to changes in the metabolism of cancer cells. Recent research has centered on modifying such metabolic pathways combined with cancer immunotherapies. In this opinion piece, we explored the potential pitfalls of current preclinical research and how these can be addressed to accelerate the development of such drugs. We also analyzed the results of published clinical trials and suggested improvements for the methodology of preclinical studies. We hope that in the future, researchers can consider these ideas in their preclinical research, resulting in successful outcomes in clinical trials.
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Dr. Yohannes Gemechu Hailu, Postdoctoral Fellow at VIC, awarded the ECOR – FMD Award for 2024

Dr. Yohannes Gemechu Hailu, postdoctoral fellow at the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, MGH and Harvard Medical School, was recently awarded the Fund for Medical Discovery (FMD) Fundamental Research Fellowship Award for 2024 from the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR). Dr. Gemechu is developing therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines for infectious disease and infectious pathogen induced cancers, particularly of interest is the development of a self-assembling vaccine and lenalidomide combinatorial treatment for Human papillomavirus induced cancers.

The FMD Fundamental Research Fellowship Awards are for MD and PhD Research Fellows and Clinical Research Fellows who are in the training phase of their research at MGH.

Recent Literature Review from the Sîrbulescu Team: Intruders or protectors – the multifaceted role of B cells in CNS disorders

Under the guidance of Dr. Sîrbulescu, our team at VIC wrote an extensive literature review to integrate the expanding field of B cells and their immunological roles within the Central Nervous System (CNS). Throughout this process, we evaluated recent advancements in B cell-mediated immune interactions through the lens of chronic CNS diseases and acute CNS injury. From the early understanding of B cell infiltration and regulation to its role in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and now the advancing work of traumatic brain injury and stroke, we have found that B cells are involved in many aspects of CNS immunology and function. We hope that by consolidating the literature into a unified picture, researchers can identify relationships and patterns that could lead to more knowledge in the field. Ultimately, we believe that B cells are a key component of discovering cell-based therapeutics and treatments to tackle CNS-related conditions.
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