History

The Broad Institute evolved from a decade of successful research collaborations among young scientists in the MIT and Harvard communities.

In 1990, the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research (WICGR) was founded, and it soon became an international leader in the field of genomics and a flagship of the Human Genome Project. As early as 1995, WICGR scientists recognized the need to bring the power of genomics to the understanding of human disease. It launched pilot projects in genomic medicine, forming an unofficial collaborative network among young scientists who pioneered new approaches to cancer and human genetics.

In parallel, Harvard Medical School-based scientists established the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology (ICCB) in 1998, to facilitate the pursuit of chemical genetics as an academic discipline. The ICCB screening facility was one of the first high-throughput resources opened in an academic setting. In 2002, the ICCB was awarded an Initiative for Chemical Genetics (ICG) grant from the National Cancer Institute, and its successful Investigator-Initiated Screening Program facilitated small molecule screening projects for more than 80 research groups worldwide.

The results of these projects demonstrated the power of enabling scientists to collaborate to tackle major challenges in genomic medicine. It was clear that a new type of organization was required — open, collaborative, cross-disciplinary and able to organize projects at any scale.

Discussions in 2002-2003 among Eli and Edythe Broad, MIT, Harvard, the Harvard hospitals and the Whitehead Institute shaped the vision for this new institute. The extraordinary generosity of Eli and Edythe Broad, through their founding gift of $100 million, later doubled to $200 million, made it possible to formally announce the new institute in June 2003 and to launch it in May 2004.

The Broad Institute includes within it the former WICGR and ICCB, as well as many new people, projects and activities.