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7 Boston-area leaders in life sciences named to STAT’s 2024 STATUS List
The third annual list from the publication highlights 50 people influencing the future of health and life sciences.
STAT on Tuesday released its third annual STATUS List, which highlights the leaders shaping the future of health and life sciences in 2024.
Among the 50 people highlighted on the list across the six industries (academia, business, government, medicine, nonprofit, and philanthropy) are seven Boston-area leaders. According to STAT, individuals who were selected for the list went through a months-long nomination and judging process by editors and reporters at the publication.
“We hope the list will spark fresh conversations about the changemakers who are driving headlines in health and medicine,” staff wrote.
(STAT and Boston.com are owned by the same parent company, Boston Globe Media.)
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Below, check out the Massachusetts leaders who were recognized by STAT. View the complete list here.
Cynthia Fisher, founder and chairman, PatientRightsAdvocate.org
Selecting her for the list’s nonprofit category, STAT singled out Fisher’s work as an advocate who has pressed for greater price transparency from hospitals.
“Though some hospitals are still failing to comply with transparency rules, Fisher is determined to keep pushing — and she’s confident it will pay off, not just for patients but also for employers, in the long run,” the publication wrote.
Laurie Glimcher, president and CEO, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Glimcher, who is also the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, “isn’t afraid to shake things up,” STAT noted in its write-up of the CEO under the medicine category, referencing the move last year by Dana-Farber to end its decades-long partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital to build a cancer hospital with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. But Glimcher’s path faces potential obstacles on the horizon, the publication noted.
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“In the year ahead, Dana-Farber and Glimcher will also be navigating scrutiny over allegations of data manipulation in dozens of the institute’s research papers, including ones co-authored by Glimcher,” STAT wrote.
Alex Keuroghlian, director, The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center
Under the medicine category, STAT highlighted Keuroghlian’s work as a queer health researcher, leading educational efforts for gender-affirming care for doctors across the country. Keuroghlian is also the Michele and Howard J Kessler chair and director for public and community psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
“As more states consider legislation restricting trans health care access for minors and even adults, Keuroghlian — who also teaches medical students at Harvard about gender-affirming care and taking care of LGBTQ+ patients more broadly — will become an even more high-profile expert on related issues,” STAT wrote.
Reshma Kewalramani, CEO and president, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Selected for her work in the business sector, it is the second year in a row that Kewalramani has been named to the STATUS list, “a testament to just how much impact the Vertex CEO continues to make in drug development,” the publication wrote. STAT pointed in particular to a CRISPR-based medicine, Casgevy, from Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics that could potentially cure sickle cell disease as well as another potentially game-changing painkiller.
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“Vertex is also making progress on VX-548, a non-addictive painkiller that it hopes will be a safe and effective alternative to opioids,” STAT wrote. “It announced in January that VX-548 had succeeded in late-stage trials — a potential game-changer in a country where more than 75% of overdose deaths involved opioids.”
Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University
Mozaffarian, who was appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition in 2023, was named to the list by STAT under the academia category for his influence as an advocate and expert on the relationship between food and health.
“The ‘food is medicine’ movement is gaining traction — and so is the work of cardiologist and nutrition professor Dariush Mozaffarian, who’s closely identified with the push to use healthy food as a health intervention,” STAT wrote.
Stuart Orkin, David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor at Harvard Medical School
Orkin, who is also an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was named to the STATUS List medicine category for his work and research on sickle cell disease (his research was used to develop the Vertex sickle cell gene therapy Casgevy).
“Now Orkin has turned his attention to researching alternative treatments for sickle cell, such as a pill or infusion, that would be less costly and time-consuming for patients,” STAT wrote.
Feng Zhang, core member of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
STAT named Zhang, who is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, to the list for his work in academia, but also called out his research and entrepreneurship.
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“Among the companies he’s co-founded is Editas Medicine, which as of late 2023 was now the official holder of patent rights to the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool used in the sickle cell therapy Casgevy, and Aera Therapeutics, which in February 2023 raised $193 million in venture funding to develop protein nanoparticles as a way of delivering gene editing,” STAT wrote.
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