The youngster had recently lost his father to cancer. Jett Crowdis heard him out.

A confrontation with grief during summer camp redirected Jett Crowdis toward a career in medicine.

While attending Harvard as an undergraduate, Crowdis — soon to graduate from Harvard Medical School this spring — worked as a counselor at a camp designed for children whose parents have cancer. It was there that he encountered a 9-year-old boy whose father had passed away from pancreatic cancer a mere few weeks prior.

“It was a heartbreaking opportunity to support someone enduring such a difficult time in their life,” Crowdis recounted. “In subsequent years, I had the chance to discuss his journey, and he began to share more about it.”

Prior to this experience, Crowdis was aware of his interest in science, yet uncertain about how to pursue it as a career. His time at Camp Kesem, managed by a national organization with branches at various colleges, humanized the medical challenges he understood to exist.

“What I enjoy most about research is being able to pose questions that no one else has considered, utilizing data that hasn’t been examined.”

“That was the initial occasion where I got to accompany someone through a profoundly challenging phase of their life and simply listen to their experiences,” Crowdis shared. “That resonated with me deeply. I recognized that I wished to incorporate that aspect into my future career, which I believe naturally led me to medicine, aligning it with my scientific interests.”

“What I enjoy most about research is being able to pose questions that no one else has considered, utilizing data that hasn’t been examined.”

Growing up in Florida, Crowdis entered Harvard College aiming to study molecular biology, but during his sophomore summer, he gained experience in the lab of Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology Joan Brugge, who encouraged him to learn programming to better assess his research findings. Crowdis dedicated one summer to self-teaching the Python programming language and began enrolling in computational biology classes that fall.

“I absolutely loved it,” Crowdis admitted.

After graduating from the College in 2019, Crowdis made a late decision to apply to medical school. He spent two gap years working in the lab of Associate Professor of Medicine Eliezer Van Allen, also a Camp Kesem alumnus. Van Allen’s lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute aims to leverage computational biology to analyze genomic data from cancer patients, investigate the molecular origins of cancer, examine resistance to cancer treatments, and utilize genomics to inform clinical decision-making.

Crowdis utilized his programming expertise to advance projects within the Van Allen lab, analyzing data from a genomic study on prostate cancer. He served as the lead author for a Cell Genomics paper that demonstrated the advantages of a comprehensive experimental framework engaging study participants as partners who willingly share biological samples, clinical insights, and narratives of their cancer journeys. The research illustrated that the model, known as the Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project, has the potential to dismantle barriers to treatment and care.

“What I enjoy most about research is being able to pose questions that no one else has considered, utilizing data that hasn’t been examined,” Crowdis noted. “That’s fundamentally what I cherish about research—the journey of exploration.”

Upon entering HMS in the fall of 2021, Crowdis maintained communication with Van Allen, continuing his involvement in various projects. When he expressed a desire to delve into immunology, Van Allen connected him with Arlene Sharpe, Harvard’s Kolokotrones University Professor. In the Sharpe lab, Crowdis explored how a method termed checkpoint blockade, which employs the immune system to combat cancer, can fail, resulting in potentially harmful adverse effects.

“He’s very reflective, deeply involved and engaged, and he possesses critical thinking skills,” Van Allen observed. “That’s a remarkably rare combination. He genuinely aspires to be as analytical and perceptive as possible.”

Despite accumulating substantial research experience, Crowdis is still determining the extent to which research will factor into his career. He was matched with Yale New Haven Hospital and will transition there post-Commencement to commence a residency in internal medicine. This move will also afford him the opportunity to reunite with his wife, Sruthi Muluk, a Harvard College classmate currently in an obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of Connecticut.

“Internal medicine is captivating,” Crowdis remarked, “and it allows for the valuable time to sit and interact with patients, similar to the way I cherished the experience at Kesem.”