Head of School Mark Silver has been known to say to parents, “We’re preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist.” Bennett Shaw (Hillbrook Class of 2011) has one of those jobs, working with cutting-edge genomic methods like CRISPR and next-generation sequencing to detect, diagnose, track and study infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Of course, no one could have imagined the current worldwide pandemic when Shaw was at Hillbrook, but teachers knew that this outstanding student, terrific athlete, and all-around nice guy would go on to do great things. In his early 20’s, Bennett is just getting started (in fact, he’s in the midst of applying to medical school), but his work with the Division of Infectious Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Sabeti lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is already making headlines for its breakthroughs with COVID-19.
After graduating from Emory University (where he also ran cross country and track) in 2019 with degrees in biology and Spanish, Bennett went to work at Massachusetts General Hospital developing a way to use PCR (molecular photocopying) and CRISPR-based tests to detect tick-borne pathogens. “In early February, when COVID-19 arrived in Boston,” says Bennett, “I designed one of the first PCR-based tests for COVID-19 to be approved for use in a United States hospital laboratory. Since then, I have worked to continue to develop and implement new tests to diagnose patients with COVID-19.” As part of his work with the Broad Institute, Bennett has helped develop several tests that use CRISPR to detect SARS-CoV-2. Bennett says his next big project is to work on emergency FDA approval for one of these tests in hopes that Mass General will be the first hospital in the United States to diagnose patients with COVID-19 using CRISPR.
Through his research efforts, Bennett is also looking at viral sequencing to answer questions about the spread of COVID-19, such as ‘Is the virus mutating? Did it come from bats? What makes a superspreader event?’ Bennett says his team takes nasal swabs and, using sophisticated laboratory techniques and computational analysis, turns it into actionable information. Says Bennett, “We have worked with various hospitals, companies, universities, and state and federal public health authorities (including a few email chains with Dr. Fauci), to use viral sequencing data to investigate clusters of transmission and guide decision-making.”
In addition, Bennett is investigating severe COVID-19 cases and continuing his work using sequencing to tick-borne pathogens. And, as if that weren’t enough, Bennett’s side project is working as an interpreter to help infectious disease physicians at Massachusetts General conduct follow-up visits with Spanish-speaking patients in COVID-related clinical trials. “Using the Spanish-speaking skills that I started learning way back in 2nd grade at Hillbrook,” explains Bennett, “I have talked to some of the first patients in the country to be treated with remdesivir and other therapies. There is nothing like talking to a patient whose life was saved by an experimental drug as they thank you profusely in their native language.”
Hillbrook: How did you end up one year out of college working on the world’s most pressing health issue?
Bennett Shaw: I graduated from Emory with degrees in biology and Spanish and an interest in pursuing a career in medicine and clinical research, I wanted to take a year or two to get some experience in the field. I accepted a job at Massachusetts General Hospital, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, but I was excited and curious to see how it all worked. One thing led to another, and I soon joined the Sabeti Lab at the Broad Institute alongside my job in the hospital. The more I experienced, the more curious and eager I became to contribute. Incidentally, around that time, COVID-19 started to spread around the world, and the hospital and my research lab needed someone in my exact position with my exact skills. Through a combination of curiosity, an eagerness to learn, and sheer luck I get to do what I love every day: use science and medicine to impact people’s lives.
Hillbrook: How does this job fit with your career goals and personal dreams?
Bennett Shaw: In a lot of ways, I am already living my dream of using science and medicine to make the world a happier and healthier place. My aim is to be a physician scientist in the field of infectious disease. I am in the process of applying to medical schools in pursuit of that goal.
Bennett: As someone who currently spends almost every waking minute thinking about and studying this, it’s actually challenging for me to answer this question. I just don’t know where to start and I want to share it all! Instead of answering this, I asked my family what they have learned from me that they wish others knew.
- Testing is great, but it doesn’t prevent you from contracting COVID-19. I think most people fundamentally misunderstand what information a COVID-19 test gives you and how to use that information. When you get a COVID-19 test on say, a Tuesday afternoon, you can find out, with pretty good confidence, if you were actively shedding virus during the few seconds you stuck a swab in your nose on that Tuesday afternoon. Testing helps us catch an outbreak as early as possible after it has already begun and respond rapidly to avoid a much larger outbreak. A negative test does not prevent you from getting the virus nor does it prevent you from potentially spreading it a day later. Most importantly, testing is not a substitute for mask-wearing, social distancing, or generally doing your best to avoid unnecessary contact with other humans.
- There is significant variation in incubation period and infectivity period between people. As humans, we gravitate towards strict rules that we can rely on, but biology is oftentimes predictably inexact and is governed by random chance more than we appreciate. Some people may test positive two days after exposure, others might take up to 14 days. Some people might only be infectious for a short period of time, others may not. Because there is really no way to reliably predict these things, our precautionary guidelines are built so that we minimize risk as much as possible. They are not arbitrary guesses.
Hillbrook: As a frontline worker, do you feel in any way threatened by exposure in your work?
Bennett Shaw: The short answer is that I feel very safe at work. I think there are a couple of reasons why this is, and I want to share them as advice for people who feel threatened by this virus. First off, my work is done in a laboratory that is specially designed to handle dangerous pathogens, and SARS-CoV-2 is not even close to the most dangerous thing we work with. For me, holding this virus in my hand is not threatening, because I know that this virus is really only transmitted as a respiratory disease from human to human. I trust that the people I interact with at work care about keeping us all safe, and I trust that they know how to do that. It is human nature to fear the unknown and be distrustful of other humans. When your health and safety depends on human behavior, it can easily feel outside of your control. If there is any advice here, it is that we know that this virus is transmitted in very specific ways and there are tools available to all of us to combat transmission. There is no magic or mystery involved. Properly wearing a well-fitting mask and reducing your frequency, duration, and intensity of contact with other people will keep you safe. That is a known fact.
Hillbrook: When do you think we will be able to put Covid 19 behind us?
Bennett Shaw: While I have confidence that we will be able to return to something that resembles a new normal relatively soon, I can say with much more confidence that we will probably never fully get rid of COVID-19. However, if all goes well and a vaccine is available in the beginning of next year, it will take a monumental national effort to coordinate the production, logistics, and messaging that will be necessary to do this right. I would remind people not to expect that things will return to normal the day a vaccine is approved. It will take many more months as we build population-level immunity, but we will get there.
While those are my scientific thoughts, I think we face a much larger challenge with COVID-19 that can’t be solved with a vaccine. That challenge is American individualism. Defeating this virus will require a paradigm shift in how we understand what is happening. If we continue to think that defeating this virus means ensuring that we keep ourselves safe, we are doomed to fail. COVID-19 has revealed how we take for granted that each and every one of us is a part of a deeply interconnected and complex society. Early on in the pandemic, our team sequenced viruses from a large international academic conference which became a superspreading event. A few weeks later we worked with the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program to sequence viruses from an outbreak in the largest homeless shelter in Boston. Despite the lack of a direct connection, the strain of virus that arrived in Boston as part of this conference ended up spreading like wildfire in a homeless shelter just days later. This is what we are missing. We need to support and listen to the science that reveals what is really happening, and we need to shift the focus away from protecting ourselves as individuals. We will be able to get this virus under control and combat any fatigue we may feel about wearing a mask or staying home when we begin to understand that we are a part of this system. Every small sacrifice we make saves lives.
Hillbrook: It’s been almost ten years since you graduated from Hillbrook. What sticks with you from your years at Hillbrook?
Bennett Shaw: I truly believe that Hillbrook is a special place not because of what you learn as a young child, but how you learn it. Hillbrook students don’t just learn, they learn how to learn. We are taught how to follow our passions with curiosity. We are taught that learning requires taking risks, and that while you might fail along the way, you have to keep trying. Most importantly, we are taught that both what we do and how we do it matters. What I hope Hillbrook students and their families understand is that a Hillbrook education is an immense privilege. Hillbrook students not only graduate with all of the tools necessary to do amazing things, they do so knowing that they have the power to make the world a better place. Who could have guessed that learning Spanish in second grade would lead to me becoming fluent enough to be a medical interpreter? I certainly had no idea that having a blast while dissecting a shark in 6th grade would lead to the opportunity to be on the front lines of the scientific response to a pandemic pathogen. That is the value of a Hillbrook education. To Hillbrook students, follow your dreams and never stop learning with curiosity. As you go on to transform the world for the better, dream big, but don’t forget your why. To Hillbrook parents, support your child in their journey to becoming whoever they want to be. When they grow up and do incredible things in this world, they will thank you for believing in their vision.
The world is taking notice of the work Bennett has been doing with Mass General and the Broad Institute. The labs, research teams, and their findings have been featured in several prominent media reports and scientific journals including:
- Nature
- The Washington Post
- The New York Times
- The Boston Globe
- And a soon-to-be-published paper, Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in the Boston area highlights the role of recurrent importation and superspreading events
Bennett’s team also built an interactive map, tree, and narrative (according to Bennett, “this one is really cool if you want to visualize the movement of the virus and follow along in the mind of the scientist as they interpret the data”): Click here to view it.