Michael Springer Wins Ledlie Prize

3 min read

Michael Springer, professor of systems biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, has been awarded the George Ledlie Prize by Harvard University. The honor is bestowed no more frequently than every two years to a member of the Harvard community who has made a significant contribution to science.

Get more HMS news here.

Springer was recognized for developing a streamlined coronavirus testing system used by Harvard and MIT and for establishing and operating the Harvard University Clinical Laboratory (HUCL), which managed testing and samples.

“Mike’s research and innovation has had a profound impact on the way the University, and society at large, have responded to and managed the COVID-19 pandemic,” said University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alan Garber.

Springer said he was working on developing an at-home influenza test when the pandemic hit. After that it was all hands on deck for his team, with the group sometimes eating all three meals together on a given day.

“We were in the lab 80 to 100 hours a week. It was both exciting and tense,” he said.

The team initially focused on modifying their at-home flu test to detect COVID-19.

The researchers then turned their attention to high-throughput processes that would be suitable for testing tens of thousands of samples per day.

To do this, the team worked with Richard Novak, then at the Wyss Institute, to co-create a swab that allowed for collection of samples that could be semi-automatically processed. The swab did not require liquid transport media, which simplified logistics.

In its first year of operation, the lab ran over 2.2 million COVID-19 tests at a greatly reduced cost per test.

“There were a lot of little things that we needed to innovate on and connect together to make the HUCL lab work,” Springer said. “There wasn’t any one thing, but it was kind of like 10 things that all together really made this something different than what had been done before.”

Springer said he was surprised by the award, but also grateful.

“It’s an incredible honor to have your own community where you work basically saying you really did something that was important for our community and beyond and it really had a big impact and to be acknowledged for that,” Springer said. “Especially when I was not doing anything to get acknowledged. It was kind of head down, let’s solve this problem.”

As COVID testing needs have declined, Springer has branched out to work on expanding at-home collection-based tests for other diseases.

“I think that there’s a lot of potential in that space,” Springer said. “I’m working with people in the industry and thinking in general about how we can make testing more accessible, better, and cheaper.”

With Pamela Silver, the Elliott T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, Springer recently co-founded the Synthetic Biology HIVE at HMS. The HIVE focuses on addressing urgent practical questions in areas such as sustainability and pandemic preparedness.

Springer shared this year’s Ledlie Prize with Raj Chetty, the William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics at Harvard University. Chetty was recognized for developing the Opportunity Atlas, an interactive tool that maps out economic outcomes for children across the U.S. to highlight which neighborhoods seem to offer the best chance to rise from poverty.

The Ledlie Prize was last awarded in 2021 to Dan Barouch, the HMS William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, for his work developing a vaccine for COVID-19.

Adapted from an article in the Harvard Gazette.