“For many of the most challenging diseases, medical therapy has been limited to relieving symptoms because disease-modifying or curative treatments seemed impossible,” says Jeffrey Leiden, MD, PhD, executive chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. “Today, we have arrived at an inflection point where we can use novel genetic and cell-based therapies to cure or alter the course of serious diseases. We are literally rewriting the future of medical therapy.”

Dr. Leiden has deep ties to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he trained in medicine, served as a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board and is an ardent philanthropic supporter and champion for gene and cell therapies. Seeing the opportunity for the institution to emerge as a leader in this competitive field, he and his wife, Lisa, committed $4 million to establish the Jeffrey and Lisa Leiden Clinical Trials Center, which the Brigham celebrated at a dedication event in June 2025. In Dr. Leiden’s honor, the Vertex Foundation also extended a $5 million gift to the center, which is focused on accelerating gene and cell therapies for patients with serious diseases.

“We are thrilled to see the Leiden Clinical Trials Center come to fruition,” says Amit K. Sachdev, chair of the Vertex Foundation’s board of directors. “The Vertex Foundation’s support, along with the Leiden family’s giving, is about moving translational medicine forward. We’re proud of all Dr. Leiden has done and continues to do for patients and Boston’s scientific community. The hopes of patients and families around the world depend on our collective success.”

Leading the Leiden Clinical Trials Center is Lindsey R. Baden, MD, an internationally renowned clinical researcher and vice president of clinical research at  Mass General Brigham. Dr. Baden notes that the Leidens’ philanthropy has allowed the center to expand its team of gene and cell therapy experts and initiate multiple clinical studies for cancer and rheumatologic, dermatologic and cardiovascular illnesses.

“We are moving rapidly to understand the potential benefits of these emerging technologies across so many different diseases, as the promise of this work has great potential to alleviate the suffering of our most severely ill patients,” Dr. Baden says. “The Leidens’ commitment to accelerating our gene and cell therapy research is bringing us closer to groundbreaking treatments. We are forever grateful to them.”