Harvard Medical School developmental biologist Olivier Pourquié is no stranger to scientific honors. He has received research prizes in four different countries and been elected to prestigious groups such as the U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine and the Academia Europaea. But the notice that arrived in February was unusual.
- By STEPHANIE DUTCHEN
Pourquié, professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and the Frank Burr Mallory Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, learned he was being elected to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. This assemblage of 80 scientists and mathematicians from dozens of countries, including many Nobel laureates, champions scientific progress and ensures the greatest number of people benefit from such advances worldwide.
Established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI, the academy traces its history to a 1603 effort touted as the world's first exclusively scientific academy that counted Galileo Galilei among its members.
Today it focuses on fostering international and interdisciplinary discussion; promoting public understanding of science; harnessing scientific knowledge in the service of justice, ethics, sustainable development, and peace; advising the pope on scientific and technological matters; and studying related epistemological problems, which deal with the nature and limits of human knowledge.
Members - called academicians - are appointed for life for outstanding contributions in their fields, regardless of specialty, ethnicity, or faith. They attend study groups and meetings and publish proceedings and research findings.
Pourquié represents the third Harvard faculty member currently in the academy, joining Francis Delmonico, HMS professor of surgery, part-time, at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Eric Lander, HMS professor of systems biology at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. (Past members include HMS surgeon Joseph E. Murray, who received a Nobel Prize for pioneering organ transplantation.)
Harvard Medicine News spoke with Pourquié and Delmonico about what it means to participate in the academy at this moment in time and how it resonates with their work to advance research, bioethics, and human health.
Harvard Medicine News: Why is having a group like this important? What feels special about this particular moment?
Olivier Pourquié: At its inception, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, or PAS, was regarded as a symbol of the Vatican's resistance to totalitarian regimes. Indeed, it provided a refuge for certain Jewish scholars who were barred from publishing their work in Italy under laws enacted by Mussolini's regime in 1938.
It is reassuring to see that an institution like the Catholic Church places so much weight on the importance of science in informing societal decisions. This message seems to be a bit lost in some countries these days. It is also encouraging that the PAS is concerned with the ethical and environmental responsibility of the scientific community.
Francis Delmonico: The PAS offers a unique and stimulating platform for multiple disciplines to interact and improve scientific investigation for the benefit of mankind. Why is that important now? Well, look around. We are in a challenging time. The validity of science must be sustained amidst a political crisis for science.
HMNews: How does it feel to be elected?
Pourquié: Many PAS academicians are recipients of the Nobel Prize or Fields Medal, and the opportunity to interact with such an outstanding group of scientists covering all disciplines is both humbling and extremely appealing. This represents a tremendous recognition for the work of my laboratory.
I feel extremely honored to share in representing the HMS community in this very prestigious forum. The expertise of Harvard scientists spans all domains of science at the highest level, and the University is a beacon for the scientific world. Having the University represented in an organization that helps shape the policies of the Catholic Church seems particularly appropriate.
HMNews: How does being part of this group align with your goals as a scientist and a citizen of the world?
Pourquié: It gives me a broader opportunity to convey how science can work for the benefit of humanity. I look forward to joining colleagues in the PAS to discuss the best ways to apply stem cell research toward developing new treatments that improve or save lives.
Delmonico: My career goal in organ transplantation is to provide an ethical construct that serves all of humanity. I have encountered in my time unethical practices in the world. For example, in one country the need for organs became a rationale to execute prisoners, while globally, destitute people were selling their own organs out of financial desperation. I convened at the academy, at Pope Francis' direction and with co-sponsorship from the World Health Organization, a summit on organ transplantation, which included representatives from the countries where these practices were occurring. We issued a statement of ethics saying that such practices are not acceptable. Use of organs from the executed then stopped.
HMNews: There's a long-standing belief among some people that science and faith are oppositional forces or at least are focused on very different things. How do you think about this?
Pourquié: I believe that science and faith address fundamentally different questions and need not be in conflict. In fact, I know several world-class scientists whose rigorous pursuit of knowledge happily coexists with their deep religious convictions.
Delmonico: They are different in some very important aspects in the substance of their attention. In science, truth is revealed through data and reality. Religion is not a matter of known fact; it's what is considered without proof. But they're not inherently oppositional forces. On the contrary, they can be mutually enhancing.
HMNews: What scientific and technological subjects have been of recent interest to the PAS, and what may lie on the horizon?
Pourquié: Recent interests have been at the interface between science and society with topics such as climate change, AI, neurotechnology, and stem cells.
Delmonico: Xenotransplantation - the transplanting of animal organs into humans - presents ethical questions as well as opportunities to benefit human health worldwide. How should researchers approach the cryopreservation of pig organs? When xenotransplantation is established as safe and effective, what resources will make it financially accessible to everyday people? These are things the PAS can and should facilitate, and I am working to arrange a symposium.
