The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond.
While attending medical school, Emilia Javorsky realized how infrequently research actually becomes new, effective therapies for patients. So, she decided to pursue translational research as a physician-scientist, working across disciplines to develop innovations that make it out of the lab. In 2021, she joined the Wyss’ Mentor Hive to help technology development teams advance towards their commercialization goals. Since then, she’s contributed to several projects, most significantly to one using Lung Chips to model radiation-induced lung injury and eventually find treatments for the condition. Learn more about Emilia in this month’s Humans of the Wyss.
What is your role at the Wyss Institute?
I am part of the Mentor Hive program at the Wyss. This program was formed to offer researchers access to mentors at every stage of their work. As a Mentor, I work closely with teams towards their technology translation goals.
What projects are you contributing to and how are you contributing?
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to several projects across the Wyss. I have worked most closely with the project leveraging lung Organ Chips to recapitulate radiation-induced lung injury (RILI), which is the part of acute radiation syndrome that affects the lungs. The work aims to use the Lung Chip platform for the discovery and screening of potential novel medical countermeasures for RILI. I was able to leverage my background leading translational research programs in both academic and industry settings to help advance the team’s research. This project’s focus on enhancing national preparedness also enabled me to leverage my training in medicine, public health, and previous non-governmental organization work on mitigating large-scale risks, such as nuclear and biosecurity threats.
What real-world problem does this solve?
This project aims to develop novel, potentially lifesaving medical countermeasures (MCMs) for acute radiation syndrome. At present there is no FDA-approved MCM for RILI. The Organ Chip platform is a vital tool for studying and developing MCMs, because it is not ethical to expose people to radiation to test candidate treatments. Robust preclinical models that can accurately mimic human organs are invaluable in helping to screen new tools to keep us safe.
Furthermore, the insights from this research also extend beyond acute, high dose radiation exposure scenarios. Developing Organ Chip platforms to study the tissue-specific effects of ionizing radiation and discover drugs capable of protecting against or mitigating the effects of radiation may have implications for a variety of areas, such as decreasing the toxicity of radiation therapy or aerospace applications.
What inspired you to get into this field?
I was inspired to pursue translational research after seeing first-hand during medical school how little research actually turns into new, effective therapies for patients. I also gravitate to multidisciplinary work, as I enjoy the process of translating knowledge and methods between different disciplines, which is key to successfully transform new scientific knowledge into real-world products.
I have been particularly drawn to understanding how different categories of stress, such as radiation, thermal, osmotic, and mechanical forces affect tissue, how they can be used as therapies, and how we can also increase resilience to such stress. The Wyss has been a leader in this area, so I am really fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to the community.
What continues to motivate you?
I find this area really motivating. We know in Nature there are organisms that can tolerate all kinds of extreme environments, so I’ve always wondered, what’s stopping humans from being able to do the same?
I believe that engineering resilience to such external stressors is not just interesting science, but that it can have a range of applications for human health and longevity. For example, there are many similarities between the biology of radiation damage and the biology of aging. Even more long term, when digging into this area, I learned that concerns about radiation exposure limit our potential for space travel beyond the shield of Earth’s magnetosphere. Hence, from an aspirational perspective, developing solutions to decrease the health effects of radiation exposure is key to unlocking a new space age.
What excites you most about your work? What are some of the challenges that you face?
I am really passionate about the potential of science to not only solve clinical problems and improve human health, but to help take humanity forward to a brighter, more equitable, and sustainable future. My optimism about the potential of biology is both what excites me, but also what challenges me. The landscape is so broad – there are so many unmet needs, such as diseases lacking treatments, unsolved problems to enable sustainable development, safeguarding our society against threats like pandemics, and the list goes on. Figuring out where to focus, and where your skills can have the greatest impact, can be really daunting.
I am really passionate about the potential of science to not only solve clinical problems and improve human health, but to help take humanity forward to a brighter, more equitable, and sustainable future.
What is unique about the Wyss?
The Wyss is unique in so many ways, but I think the Community Values of impact and collaboration, especially across multidisciplinary teams, are really special. Science is so often conducted in silos, and focused more on papers than the people that could benefit from the work.
The world’s pressing problems that need solving are front and center at the Wyss, and the process of translating solutions into the real world doesn’t stop at the lab bench.
The world’s pressing problems that need solving are front and center at the Wyss, and the process of translating solutions into the real world doesn’t stop at the lab bench. I’ve been so impressed by how integral the enabling elements of real-world impact, like IP protection, a viable path to scaling, and a robust business model are, even at the early stages of the science. The Wyss also takes a global focus to delivering impact – including looking at the world’s most vulnerable. It’s reinforced for me how “science for impact” is an entirely different approach than what is traditionally taught in academic environments.
How have your previous work and personal experiences shaped your approach to your work today?
I think working on research in academia and industry, as well as having some policy exposure, helped to mature my view on what impactful science looks like. It’s been a series of phases.
I started with the naive view that if promising science did not become a new therapy, it meant the science must not work. I then came to appreciate the maze of incentives, requirements, manufacturing challenges, and even serendipity that is needed to surmount the challenges of making it out of the lab and into the clinic. Next, I went through a bit of a jaded period when I thought these challenges were why incremental science is so strongly preferred by industry, taking an “easier” path through the maze that has already been charted and can improve your chance of success. Now, I am in a phase of more mature optimism. I have seen examples of how breakthrough science can successfully navigate the maze, but that it requires understanding and anticipating as many of the constraints as you can predict from the early days of the science.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I enjoy spending time with family and close friends, traveling, and resetting in nature.
What’s something fun about you that someone wouldn’t know from your resume?
I enjoy making art, specifically mixed media collages. I am not an artist. Both of my parents were artists – I did not get the gene, but I really enjoy the creative process and making things.
If you had to choose an entirely different career path, what would it be?
A screenwriter and director. I am a total film geek and find storytelling to be just such a powerful vehicle to influence society. Even in science, so much of our reality was inspired by science fiction.
What does it feel like to be working on cutting-edge technology that has the potential to have a real and significant impact on people’s lives and society?
It is a tremendous privilege to have a seat in hopefully helping, in some small way, to develop and steer transformative technology towards positive impact for all people on this planet. I believe all who are in some way architects or influencers of technology development have a moral responsibility to make sure the work has positive benefit on the world.