The annual fall retreat, organized by the program students and staff, is the most important collegial activity of the academic year. First held in 1983, this retreat takes place at a local New England conference center. HMS sponsors the retreat, with financial assistance from industry donors. Faculty members active on program committees are also invited. The retreat is highly interactive. The program varies from year to year, but usually includes oral presentations and posters by students about their thesis research, and discussions about postgraduate training and career choices. In addition, a prominent physician-scientist is invited to give a keynote lecture, named for Eva Neer, M.D., a strong faculty supporter of the program who died of breast cancer in 2000.
The 44th Annual MD-PhD Retreat will be held on October 16-18, 2026
The Eva Neer Memorial Lecture will be delivered by
Gregory L. Verdine, Ph.D.
Erving Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University
"The Radicalization of Drug Discovery"
Gregory Verdine is a pioneering scientist, educator, investor, and entrepreneur widely regarded as a founder of the field of chemical biology and one of the world’s leading innovators in new drug discovery. He is Founder, President, and CEO of LifeMine Therapeutics, Executive Chairman of VidaVinci, Erving Professor of Chemistry and Harvard College Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, Managing General Partner of LoLa Capital, Executive Chairman of DoveTree Medicines, and a Venture Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Over a distinguished career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Verdine has conducted seminal work on the mechanisms of enzymatic DNA methylation and repair, and has invented multiple new drug modalities, including stapled peptides, stereodefined oligonucleotides, and rationally designed molecular glues. He has co-founded founded more than a dozen biotechnology companies—including Parabalis Medicines (formerly FogPharma), WaVe Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio (Now Revolution Medicines), and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Celgene) which collectively have brought multiple FDA-approved medicines to patients and advanced numerous new drug modalities into clinical development. He is credited with coining the phrase “drugging the undruggable” to describe his life’s mission: transforming previously intractable disease targets into treatable ones through bold scientific innovation.
Dr. Verdine earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, his B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University, and trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at MIT and Harvard Medical School. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has received numerous awards and honorary degrees recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to science and medicine.
The 43rd Annual MD-PhD Retreat Was held on
September 26-28, 2025
The Eva Neer Memorial Lecture was delivered by
Wendy K. Chung, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital
Mary Ellen Avery Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
"From A Single Patient to Population Health"
My journey as a physician scientist began by studying phenylketonuria just before the human genome project began. Inspired by vision that we would have the ability to use have the human genome in hand within 20 years, I began my quest to identify the genetic basis for human disease and consider the infrastructure that would be necessary to translation genomic information into health. That journey has had led me to consider many different contexts for the use of genetic information including cancer, birth defects, intellectual disabilities, rare diseases including those that masquerade as common diseases. By understanding the genetic basis for these conditions, we are now able to provide more precise therapy and predict and prevent disease. We are also entering an era of genetic medicine using new tools to manipulate gene expression, add genes, and edit genes. As the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped, our ability to apply these methods is expanding to population health. As we build the computational methods, electronic health record, and systems to support genomic medicine at scale, we must be intentional in providing care equitably to all.
The 42nd Retreat was held on
September 27-29, 2024
The Eva Neer Memorial Lecture was delivered by
Kerry Ressler, M.D., Ph.D.
"Translating the Neuroscience of Fear and PTSD: From Cells to Communities"
2024's lecture was delivered by Dr. Kerry Ressler, Chief Scientific Officer and James and Patricia Poitras Chair in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital and Professor at Harvard Medical School. A 1997 graduate of our program, he is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, former HHMI Investigator, and a national leader in academic Psychiatry. His work focuses on translating neuroscience and genetics underlying fear and threat towards novel approaches to treatment and prevention of PTSD and other stress disorders.
