Author: Willy Lensch

M. William “Willy” Lensch, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Harvard University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB) and Faculty Director of Education at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). At HSCRB, he oversees the administrative activities of Harvard’s first cross-school department, bridging the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in Cambridge to the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard teaching hospitals in Boston. Lensch’s research used human pluripotent stem cells to study blood development and disease. He is the co-author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles, reviews/book chapters, and policy recommendations, and has participated in more than 200 invited lectures, medical grand rounds, interviews, or panel discussions. He served as gubernatorial appointee to the Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee to Establish a Public Umbilical Cord Blood Bank (State of Connecticut), as a founding member of the Interstate Alliance for Stem Cell Research (IASCR), and the Public Education Committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).