Tufts Names New Vice Provost for Research

Caroline Genco, the Arthur E. Spiller Professor and chair of the Department of Immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine, will be the new vice provost for research at Tufts University, starting October 1.

Genco will take over the role from Simin Meydani, who has held the post since 2016 and led the creation of Tufts’ first university-wide strategic plan specifically geared toward research.

At Tufts School of Medicine, Genco’s research has focused on bacterial infectious diseases and their impact on the immune system. Her work spans basic to translational science and global health. Her lab, which she will continue to lead, focuses on understanding host responses leading to acute and chronic inflammation in humans.

Prior to joining Tufts in 2015, Genco was a professor in the departments of medicine and microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine, where she was research director of the Section on Infectious Diseases. She was also an affiliate faculty member in the Biomedical Engineering Department at BU’s School of Engineering.

Collaboration has been a cornerstone of Genco’s research philosophy, and she has fostered relationships among scientists in the fields of immunology, infectious diseases, epidemiology, biomedical engineering, and public health. In her four years as chair of immunology, she encouraged work between her department and investigators throughout Tufts and Tufts Medical Center, helping grow the department’s funding from $2 million to $8.7 million.

Genco recently spoke with Tufts Now about her experience as a bridge builder and her plans for supporting researchers across all of Tufts’ campuses.

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