# News: Speeding discoveries from lab to patients October 15, 2025 - [ News ](/news-categories/news) The next time you pick up a prescription drug, consider this: Its development likely was rooted in academic research. University labs play a vital role in advancing drug discovery and pharmaceutical innovation. Although these discoveries provide new solutions to medical challenges, improve patient outcomes, and promote economic growth, advancing them from the lab into clinical practice remains a major challenge. This highlights the need for sustained funding and support to deliver new therapies to patients. Helping to address this challenge, the [**Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator**](https://otd.harvard.edu/accelerators/blavatnik-biomedical-accelerator/) (BBA) at Harvard supports the progression of translational biomedical research toward commercial and clinical applications. Established through a gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation in 2013, the BBA has announced its latest cohort of awardees for 2025, supporting 10 biomedical technologies focused on tackling urgent medical challenges, including food allergies, genetic disorders, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, and cancer. **Correcting messenger RNAs to treat genetic disorders:** [**Matthew Shair**](https://sites.harvard.edu/shair-lab/)’s lab in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences is developing a new class of therapeutics that can enter cells and find the exact site in RNA that needs editing, thereby directly addressing the root cause of certain disorders. **A better way of attaching drugs to antibodies:** [**Richard Liu**](https://www.liu-group.org/richard)’s lab in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is developing a new chemical method to improve how drugs can be attached to antibodies, creating “antibody-drug conjugates,” a cutting-edge class of targeted cancer therapies. via [Harvard Gazette](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/09/speeding-discoveries-from-lab-to-patients/) See also:- [ Richard Liu ](/news-and-events-faculty/richard-liu) - [ Shair ](/news-and-events-faculty/shair) - [ Faculty ](/news-event-type/faculty) - [ Prizes & Awards ](/news-type/prizes-awards) - [ Research ](/news-event-type/research) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)