Trailer
Assistive Technologies

From Controversy to Cure

Runtime
55mins
Directed by
Joe McMaster
Featuring
the Biotech pioneers
Body

Through our Virtual Screening Room, you can rent films curated by the Coolidge team, while helping to support the Coolidge during this unprecedented time.

From Controversy to Cure is a documentary film chronicling the biotech boom in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Get the inside story behind the contentious debate about genetic engineering that erupted in the city of Cambridge in the summer of 1976, pitting scientist against scientist and citizen against citizen. And discover how the unlikely mix of science and engineering, politics, the space race, and urban renewal transformed Kendall Square into one of the world’s most extraordinary innovation clusters—a community now on the front lines of the battle against Covid-19.

Watch Now

Screening for free!

Director Joe McMaster and scientists from the film joined us for this special virtual Science on Screen® Q&A about the film on Tuesday, August 25. The scientists featured included: David Baltimore (Founding Director, Whitehead Institute for Biological Research, Former MIT Professor of Biology), Harvey Lodish (Founding Member, Whitehead Institute for Biological Research, MIT Professor of Biology, Co-Founder of Genzyme), Nancy Hopkins (MIT Professor of Biology, Emerita), Phillip Sharp, MIT Institute Professor, Nobel Laureate, Cofounder of Biogen), and Sangeeta Bhatia (MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science).

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