The Protein Foundation, founded by E. J. Cohn, PhD in 1953, is the original forerunner of PCMM.

Edwin Joseph Cohn, Professor of Physical Chemistry at Harvard Medical School, was a protein scientist whose method for fractionating blood into its constituent parts provided critical new therapies for military medicine. In 1940, he was commissioned by the US Military to develop a stable albumin solution to treat blood/plasma loss from battlefield injury. Cohn’s fractionation methods saved the lives of thousands of soldiers during World War II, and spawned a postwar industry in plasma for civilian use. His research contributed to the expansion of the field of hematology after the war.

Much celebrated in the media (Life Magazine, McCall’s, Collier’s, The Atlantic), Cohn was listed among ‘The 100 Most Important People in the World Today’ in 1952.

He was Chair of the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard from 1936-1949, and was the first Harvard Professor from the natural sciences named University Professor. In 1949, Cohn established the independent Blood Characterization and Preservation Laboratory in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He founded the Protein Foundation in 1953, the final year of his life. There, his work was carried forward by the investigators he had mentored.

At about the time that EJ Cohen was working on blood fractionation at Harvard Medical School, a pediatrician just down the block was breaking ground in the field of hematology.

In 1942, Louis K. Diamond, MD established the Blood Grouping Laboratory (BGL) at Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the world’s first pediatric hematology research laboratories. It was the first facility to routinely type the blood of pregnant women, to detect potential problems in their newborns related to blood-type incompatibility.

His many accomplishments include the creation of a revolutionary treatment for Rh disease in newborns and, together with Sydney Farber, MD, successfully applying one of the first chemotherapies in 1948 – to treat childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia. Other contributions include the discoveries of Diamond-Blackfan Anemia, Gardner-Diamond Syndrome, and Schwachman-Diamond Syndrome. He also directed the American Red Cross’s National Blood Program from 1948 to 1950 and helped establish more than 35 regional blood banks. Dr. Diamond received several awards during his lifetime, including the Mead Johnson Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1946 and the Theodore Roosevelt Medal for Distinguished Public Service in Science in 1964.

In 1972 Diamond’s BGL group merged with the Protein Foundation’s Blood Research Institute to become the Center for Blood Research (CBR). Diamond served at CBR as Vice President.

The Center for Blood Research (CBR) (renamed the Immune Disease Institute in 2007,  reflecting the broader scope of the science at the time) operated as an independent nonprofit focused on molecular medical research for some 60 years until 2012, when it merged into Boston Children’s Hospital.

Douglas Surgenor, PhD was CBR’s President from 1972 to 1987. His ties to the field went back to his collaboration with EJ Cohn and the ground-breaking studies of blood chemistry and fractionation in the 1940s.

Chester Alper, MD served as CBR’s Medical Director from 1972 to 1993. Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School since 1975, Alper pioneered in the study of the human complement system, and the human genetics associated with immune response and autoimmune diseases. He led Harvard’s Blood Grouping Laboratory as Scientific Director beginning in 1971 and continued in that role through the merger with the Center For Blood Research, until 1994. Later, as Senior Investigator at the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, he focused his research on the genetics of Type 1 diabetes and the genomics of the human major histocompatibility complex.

Fred Saul Rosen, MD was a world leader in pediatric immunology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. He headed the Division of Immunology at BCH from 1968 to 1985. Rosen was respected globally for his scientific accomplishments and revered as a dedicated physician and mentor to hundreds. Among his achievements, Rosen is responsible for the development of bone marrow transplantation, as well as the use of intravenous gamma globulin therapy to treat primary immunodeficiencies in children.

In 1987, Rosen, became the president of CBR. Under his leadership, the spotlight of inquiry at the Center turned fully to highlight immunology and the Center became a world-class laboratory.

Geneticist and cancer biologist, Fred Alt, PhD, joined the Center for Blood Research as Scientific Director in 2005 and became its President in 2010 and led it through two decades of expansion and development.

In 2007, CBR took the name Immune Disease Institute (IDI) as a reflection of the field’s broadened scope. In 2012, Alt led the merger of IDI with Boston Children’s Hospital where it was named the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine (PCMM). Alt served as Director of PCMM until January of 2025 and continues as Director Emeritus and Associate Director.

Dr. Alt has made major discoveries on recombination in the immune system, the mechanisms of blood cancer development, and antibody-based vaccine development.

In 2025, biophysicist Taekjip Ha, PhD took the helm at PCMM as its Director and Senior Investigator. Dr. Ha studies the biophysics of genomic caretakers at a single-molecule resolution, offering insight into crucial biological processes at play in normal and pathological conditions, like cancer. His lab also develops new techniques to visualize biological processes.

Dr. Ha’s research reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of modern biomedical science, integrating biophysics, genomics, and technology development.