Internships for HMS graduate students provide real-world experience in drug discovery and development

Internships for HMS graduate students provide real-world experience in drug discovery and development

David Remillard, a PhD candidate in Harvard’s chemical biology program, was studying a family of proteins that contain gene-regulating regions known as bromodomains (BRDs). Some, if blocked with drugs, appear to turn off otherwise difficult-to-target genes, such as those driving cancer.

Remillard’s efforts to design BRD inhibitors led him to the lab of Nathanael Gray, the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in the Field of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Gray’s work focuses on developing small molecules for important biological targets.

“My area of focus has been pioneered in equal parts by academia and industry,” Remillard said. “I wanted the chance to see what life and science are like and how people operate in industry. That, for me, was the selling point for the HMS Therapeutics Graduate Program.”

This HMS certificate program offers full-time internships that provide students with real-world experience in drug discovery and development, reflecting the School’s leadership role in modernizing PhD training in the biosciences.

Scientists at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) were interested in a protein closely related to the one Remillard was studying. During his NIBR internship, Remillard worked to develop small molecules that specifically inhibit that protein.

“It was a short project, but it ended up being very actionable,” he said. “I was able to take my ideas to different teams and draw on areas of expertise that are far from my own.”

Collaborating with NIBR scientists, Remillard used basic biology and structural modeling insights to create and test candidate compounds, ultimately succeeding in his goal.

“It’s kind of like building a key that fits only this one lock,” Remillard said. “With a small-molecule inhibitor, we can now ask fundamental questions about the activity of this protein, and maybe develop something that could one day be a drug.”

His internship over, Remillard returned to Gray’s lab to complete research and write his dissertation. He has accepted a postdoctoral position at the Scripps Research Institute. His time at NIBR gave him an invaluable perspective.

“In academia there are conceptions about industry, but one of my most exciting takeaways was seeing the breadth of basic science that was going on,” he said.

“It’s often discussed that not a lot people can get academic professorships after their PhDs,” Remillard said. “But there are incredible opportunities to do basic science at the highest levels in industry as well as academia.”