Mission

The mission of the Center for Systems Biology (CSB) is to analyze how biological molecules, proteins and cells interact in human patients.

Research Overview

Through a multidisciplinary approach that combines clinical insight with powerful analytical technologies, CSB faculty pursue systems-level research that is both fundamental to our understanding of biology as well as directly applicable to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. While our approaches are generalizable to a variety of diseases, the CSB has strengths in complex human conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, renal disease and reproductive biology.

The CSB is a major node within the Harvard-wide Systems Biology Program, and our faculty maintain joint appointments or affiliations with the Harvard Medical School Department of Systems Biology, the Broad Institute, various clinical departments at Mass General, as well as with the other Mass General Thematic Centers.

The CSB is structured into 13 principal investigator run laboratories (Bernstein, Brown, Breton, Higgins, Lee, C. Lin, H. Lin, Miller, Nahrendorf, Naxerova, Pittet, Swirski and Weissleder), core platforms (bioimaging, chemical biology, biocomputing) and several thematic research programs.

The CSB is located within the Simches and CNY Research buildings at Mass General. There are currently 185 full time employees, including 41 faculty.


Faculty Laboratories

Weissleder Lab
Bernstein Lab
Brown Lab
Breton Lab
Higgins Lab
Lee Lab 
Charles Lin Lab
Herbert Lin Lab
Miller Lab
Nahrendorf Lab
Naxerova Lab
Pittet Lab
Swirski Lab


CSB Focus Areas

  • Systems immunology: Pittet, Swirski
  • Systems/omic imaging: Brown, Breton, C. Lin, Nahrendorf, Naxerova, Vinegoni, Weissleder
  • Systems pharmacology: Weissleder, Miller
  • Single cell analyses: Bernstein, Lee, Pittet, Weissleder
  • Cardiovascular biology: Nahrendorf, Aguirre, Swirski
  • Epigenetics, genomics: Bernstein, Naxerova
  • Functional cell biology: Brown, Breton, H. Lin
  • Chemistry, chemical biology: Mazitschek, McCarthy, Weissleder

  • Bioengineering, physics: Lee, Im, Vinegoni
  • Computation, math, bioinformatics, AI: Higgins, Naxerova, Miller, Im, Pivovarov, Lee

Center for Systems Biology

The goal of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Systems Biology is to analyze, at a systems level, how biological molecules, proteins and cells interact in both healthy and diseased states.