The enduring flame: our legacy of resilience, a time of unprecedented potential, and igniting the future of discovery

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick

A SCI presidential address by Anna Greka (Harvard Medical School/Mass General Brigham and the Broad Institute) reflects on the American Society for Clinical Investigation’s 117-year history of resilience and discovery. The speech frames a continuous “enduring flame” linking past, present, and future: enduring upheavals, embracing founding values, and highlighting today’s biomedical revolution driven by genomics, imaging, spatial technologies, CRISPR, and machine learning. It emphasizes responsibility to advance rigorous physician-scientist study for patients.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

The past: a legacy forged in resilience

The founding in 1908 and historical trials

Greek heritage and philosophies of inquiry

The present: a time of unprecedented potential and profound responsibility

Biology at scale and new tools

The Journal of Clinical Investigation A SCI PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS The enduring flame: our legacy of resilience, a time of unprecedented potential, and igniting the future of discovery Anna Greka Harvard Medical School, Mass General Brigham, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Esteemed colleagues, honored guests, and fellow members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, it is a privilege to stand before you today, having had the honor of serving this Society for the past 6 years as Councilor and now as President. As we gather today, I find myself reflecting on our Society’s rich 117-year history, looking to gain insights into how we can confront the unique challengesand opportunities of our present moment, and chart a course for the future. My talk is therefore organized in 3 chapters, representing the past, present, and future of our organization. The essence of my message today centers on the enduring flame of discovery, founded on a legacy of resilience and innovation, that continues to ignite our present and light a path to our future. I. The past: a legacy forged in resilience The ASCI was founded in 1908 on the principles of scientific rigor, collaboration, anda relentless pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of patients, who are the ultimate stakeholders for everything we do as physician-scientists. Over these last 117 years, the organization has been tested time and again. We have navigated periods of profound upheaval—world wars that reshaped the global landscape, economic depressions that threatened the very foundations of our society, and numerous crises that demanded our immediate and unwavering response. As the first ASCI president of Greek heritage, I am particularly mindful of this legacy of resilience. My own ancestors carried the flame of hellenic thought and inquiry through centuries of challenge, including the age of Alexander the Great. Alexander is especially significant to me because I was born in Thessaloniki, a city he named in honor of his sister. Speaking of Alexander, he was in fact a student of another “Great,” the philosopher and scholar Aristotle the Great, who lived and worked just a few miles from where I was born. In my mind, it is Aristotle’s works that best exemplify the hellenic spirit of scientific inquiry, of discovery, and the concept of philosophia, the love of knowledge. While we are on the topic of Greek words, there is another principle that I believe is equally important to the love of knowledge for a physician-scientist: philotimia, or love of honor. I would like to think that love of knowledge and love of honor are deeply woven into my own identity and my commitment to my career as a physician-scientist—and of course, these values are also woven into my commitment to this organization. As I stand here today with profound gratitude, I am cognizant that my presence is in itself a testament to the fact that the pursuit of knowledge in our honorable profession knows no borders and unites us all. As a student of the ASCI’s history, I recently learned of the challenges faced by our predecessors. In the shadow of the First World War, which the United States formally entered in 1917, the number of students enrolled in US medical schools drastically declined. George Blumer of Yale University devoted his 1918 ASCI presidential address to sharing his profound concern over threats to the “very existence of the [medical] schools,” as he put it, and the risk that the war would diminish their newly found “investigative spirit”(1) . Decades later, in 1952, in his presidential address, Barry Wood Jr. of Washing- Copyright: © 2026, Greka et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reference information: J Clin Invest. 2026;136(1):e199593 . [https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI199593](https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI199593) . to

FAQs

What is the central theme of the address?

The address centers on the “enduring flame of discovery,” linking a legacy of resilience and innovation to the path forward for the Society’s future of research.

How does the speaker describe the Society’s past challenges?

The speaker recounts that over 117 years the organization faced major upheavals, including world wars, economic depressions, and crises, while reaffirming core values and responding with unwavering commitment.

What does the speaker identify as the drivers of the present biomedical revolution?

The speaker highlights convergence of genomics, advanced imaging and spatial technologies, CRISPR and gene editing, and the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence, which enables “biology at scale.”

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick