Laurie Hollis Glimcher (born 1951) is an American physician-scientist and the Richard and Susan Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The former president and CEO of Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, she was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.
Education Glimcher graduated from the Winsor School, an all-girls private school in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1968. In 1972, she graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, and then graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1976.
Work She joined the board of directors of Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1997 and retired from the board in 2017. Her research laboratory received funding from Merck & Co for a project focused on developing new therapies for the treatment of osteoporosis in 2008. From 1991 to 2012, Glimcher was the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Clinically, she is a specialist in osteoporosis. From 2012 to 2016, Glimcher served as the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College and the Cornell University Provost for Medical Affairs. In February 2016, Laurie Glimcher was named the president and CEO of Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Glimcher was considered for the position for the Dean of Harvard Medical School but turned the position down in order to become the president of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. At Dana-Farber, Glimcher collaborated on research to find methods of combatting cancer from within the human immune system. The Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is an institution that is affiliated with Harvard, as it currently is one of its teaching hospitals. Glimcher, who was the first female dean of any medical school in New York state, became the first female to lead the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. In 2017, she joined the board of GlaxoSmithKline. In 2020, she joined the board of Analog Devices. In October 2024, Glimcher stepped down as president and CEO of Dana-Farber after eight years as president and CEO, citing her age (73) and the fact that she had successfully steered the Dana-Farber through the COVID crisis and obtained governmental approval of the building of a new, 300-bed, dedicated cancer hospital in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.Under Glimcher’s leadership, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s regional locations grew from four to seven, and there was a 51% growth in patient volume and a 62% increase in grant and industry-funded research support, totaling $450 million in FY23. She also led The Dana-Farber Campaign, the most ambitious fundraising effort in the history of the Institute which will close at the end of September exceeding its original goal and providing critical funds in support of groundbreaking science, innovative new therapies, and institutional initiatives. In 2025, the Dana-Farber established the Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, Chair, an endowed position honoring her as the Institute’s seventh president and CEO. This endowment "celebrates Glimcher’s significant contributions to cancer science and medicine and ensures the pursuit of innovative and groundbreaking advancements in cancer research. A generous group of Trustees, colleagues, friends, and supporters contributed over $3 million to establish the chair and commemorate Glimcher’s legacy."
Research Glimcher's research has focused on the immune system; she is known for early work with T cell differentiation, her discovery that Schnurri-3 regulates osteoblasts which led to a collaboration with Merck & Co., and her discovery of the role played by XBP-1 in lipogenesis and the unfolded protein response. Glimcher's role helped discover Schnurri-3 (Shn3 for short) is a large zinc finger protein distantly related to Drosophila. Shn is a potent and essential regulator of adult bone formation. Her research has had implications for understanding asthma, HIV, inflammatory bowel disease, and osteoporosis, and around 2016, on cancer immunotherapy. Glimcher became interested in immunology during her first year of medical school at Harvard. There she took interest dysregulation in autoimmune diseases and, in her fourth year at Harvard, discovered the protein known as Nk1.1 (see natural killer T cell), which soon became widely recognized across the field of immunology. For this discovery, Glimcher became the first woman to receive the Soma Weiss Award, an honor her father had received 26 years earlier. During this time, Glimcher worked with mentor Bill Paul, who strongly encouraged her to continue her research independently after completing medical school. Glimcher currently heads her own lab for research in immunology. She has been interested in studying the ties between ER stress system in neurons and immune function and neuro-degeneration. Her past work has involved regulation of immune function and has shifted towards osteobiology with a focus on the bone disease osteoporosis. Her Harvard lab had a three-year contract with Merck for the drug Fosamax, a treatment for osteoporosis. Glimcher's more current research looks to answer the question, “How does the immune system and the ER stress system impact cancer development and progression?”
Awards and memberships Glimcher received the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2014 for her work in the field of immunology and her research regarding the control of immune responses. In 2014, she received the Margaret Kripke Legend Award. She received the Steven C. Beering Award in 2015. In 2018, she received the American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. She is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association of Immunologists, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Association of Physicians, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was the president of the American Association of Immunologists from 2003 to 2004. In 2020 she was named the newest member of the Stand Up to Cancer Scientific Advisory Committee.
Controversy
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