Update on my role with Count Me In

I'm writing to share an update regarding my role with Count Me In. When I came to the Broad 7.5 years ago, I was singular in purpose. Build and launch a new platform for generating and sharing data from metastatic breast cancer patients, but build it in a way that could also be pointed toward other cancers, including my exceedingly rare understudied cancer, angiosarcoma. In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined that I’d still be alive to see this work through and to expand this vision to include all patients ever diagnosed with any cancer. But we made it, we have built and deployed a platform that  has led to the largest prospective cohort of metastatic breast and prostate cancer patients and have generated and shared data that led to practice changing discoveries in my ultra rare cancer serving as a foundation for what can happen when you build infrastructure in lock-step with the communities they are meant to serve.


To say I’m proud of this work, and the team that has made it possible would be the understatement of a lifetime. In fact, it’s not really pride when your work and your mortality are inextricably intertwined. I don’t know that there is a word to describe this place that exists on a continuum where mortal fear and intellectual curiosity are stretched to the extremes, but that’s where I’ve lived, 24/7 since I was granted the opportunity to build Count Me In with Nikhil Wagle and the Broad leadership in 2015.


This work has led to some of the relationships that I value most and that go well beyond anything one would expect out of any professional endeavor. To my fellow patients and advocates. Thank you for seeing me, for trusting me. I have come to know and love thousands of people slammed by a cancer diagnosis, children and adults, who either died from the disease or watched helplessly as their loved ones slipped away through their tightly grasped fingers. My sense of urgency from personal experiences with cancer was reinforced at every turn as a result of these relationships that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Every milestone has and will forever be bittersweet as a result of all that we’ve collectively lost and I will always feel compelled to move more quickly and hopefully inspire others to give everything they have toward the expansive goal of easing suffering from disease.


To my team, I am incredibly grateful to each of you for joining Count Me In, for building it with me, for pouring your hearts and your minds into the daily work, for being so clear in your mission to help others, for your patience teaching each of us at every level of the organization. From responses to patient emails, to the attention to detail while processing data, each of you shines so brightly and it’s been an honor to have walked with you for the better part of a decade. Part of my decision to explore another opportunity is because I trust you all implicitly. You are each superb as individuals, but as a team, you come together with an indescribable synergy that is palpably felt by everyone who has the opportunity to work with you.


To the Broad leadership, thank you for creating the best place to do science in the world and for removing barriers for each of us to create big and audacious initiatives. None of the work that we have done would have been possible anywhere else. There are people living longer, better lives today because of your stalwart support for our initiative, which is just one of countless transformative programs you have enabled.

To my professional network, I will be pursing another opportunity that I’ll post about in the near future, but I will also be staying on with Count Me In as a strategic advisor, focusing primarily on rare cancers. If you would like to connect to learn more about our rare cancer strategy, please let me know.