Regan Bergmark, HMS clinical fellow in otolaryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, was among six individuals selected to participate in the 2017-2018 Visiting Scholars Program of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Research and Education Foundation.
Bergmark was named the Gliklich Healthcare Innovation Scholar for her project Standardized Health Outcomes Measures: Utilization by Specialty.
This one-year, part-time program facilitates scholarly projects relevant to physician certification that support early career physicians and scientists in their pursuit of improving patient care and furthering medical education. It also exposes the scholars to the fields of professional assessment and education, health and public policy, and quality improvement (QI), as well as provides leadership development.
Four Harvard Medical School scientists have been named to the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare list. This year’s list features 600 individuals in 20 different industries.
Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg, both in the Harvard-MIT MD-PhD Program, were named to the list for pioneering two advances for CRISPR—a new enzyme for editing genes and a new technique for editing the chemical messenger, RNA.
Oren Miron, research associate in biomedical informatics at HMS, was named to the list for his work in using an auditory test, which is already used to screen for hearing problems in infants, to recognize autism at birth.
Douglas B. Jacobs, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was named to the list for shining a light on insurance practices that dissuade patients from getting care. Some insurers placed all treatments for certain conditions in the highest cost tier. The Department of Health and Human Services labeled this discrimination.
Four Harvard Medical School scientists were among 396 individuals to be elected 2017 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in recognition of their work to advance science or its applications.
Alan Garber, Harvard University provost and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at HMS, was elected for his distinguished contributions to the field of medical decision-making and advancing our understanding of methods for improving health care delivery and financing.
David Hooper, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was elected for elucidating mechanisms and epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, with a major focus on the molecular determinants of quinolone action and resistance.
Pier Paolo Pandolfi, the HMS George C. Reisman Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was elected for seminal contributions to the elucidation of the molecular genetics and biology of human cancer, which also led to the cure of Acute Promyelocityc Leukemia (APL).
Bernardo Sabatini, the Alice and Rodman W. Moorhead III Professor of neurobiology at HMS, was elected for his contributions to elucidating mechanisms of synapse formation, function, and regulation, and their link to modulation of brain circuitry in development, behavior and disease.
Laura Mauri, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the Joseph A. Vita Award from the American Heart Association on Nov. 12 at the association’s 2017 Scientific Sessions. This award is presented annually to an investigator whose research has had major impact in the field of cardiovascular biology or cardiovascular health.
Mauri was recognized for her leadership of transformative clinical investigations identifying and clarifying optimal treatment methodologies for a variety of cardiovascular disorders.
Studies led by Mauri include a large trial clarifying risk versus benefit of continued blood-clot prevention therapy in patients with coronary artery disease and stents. The trial showed marked reductions in heart attacks with treatment beyond one year. Mauri's research group also has developed decision tools to individualize treatment choices by identifying patients most likely to derive desired benefits without increased bleeding risk.
Charles Nelson III, HMS professor of pediatrics and HMS professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital, was one of nine scientists honored by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation with 2017 Outstanding Achievement Prizes for work in schizophrenia, mood disorders, child and adolescent psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience on Oct. 27.
Delving into a long-standing interest on how early experience impacts early brain and behavior development, Nelson's research centers on a variety of problems in developmental cognitive neuroscience, including the development of social perception; developmental trajectories to
autism; and the effects of early adversity on brain and behavioral development. Most recently, Nelson looked at how individual differences in processing facial emotion in infancy are associated with later psychopathology.
Nelson is also director of developmental medicine in the Division of Developmental Medicine and the Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatric Developmental Medicine Research at Boston Children’s; professor in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education
Martin Pollak, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess, received the Homer W. Smith Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions which fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, broadly defined, but not limited to, the pathobiology, cellular and molecular mechanisms, and genetic influences on the functions and diseases of the kidney. He received the award at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology held Oct. 31–Nov. 5.
Pollak, who is also chief of the Division of Nephrology at Beth Israel Deaconess, was recognized for his contributions to the field of nephrology using the tools of human genetics to study rare syndromes that illuminate renal health and diseases as well as common genetic drivers of disease risk, especially kidney health disparities in minority populations. His current research is focused on identifying and understanding genes involved in the development of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), in addition to studying the extracellular calcium receptor.
Elazer Edelman, HMS professor of medicine and senior attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was presented with the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Career Achievement Award on Oct. 30 during the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.
Edelman and his students have been credited as some of the key contributors and pioneers of the coronary stent. His research examining the cellular and molecular mechanisms that produce atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease critically advanced the development and optimization of the first bare-metal stents and subsequent iterations, including drug-eluting stents. His most recent publications have focused on how tissue engineered cells might be used for the local delivery of growth factors and growth inhibitors in the study of the vascular homeostasis and repair, cancer invasiveness and metastases and the homology between endothelial paracrine and angiocrine regulation in cancer and vascular diseases.
Edelman’s research integrates multiple disciplines including polymer based controlled and modulated drug delivery, growth factor biology and biochemistry, tissue engineering, biomaterials-tissue interactions and the vascular response to injury. Edelman is also the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT, a core member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and director of the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center.
David W. Bates, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the 2017 John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award, which is presented annually to a leader in health care informatics.
On Oct. 30, Bates was presented with the award and formally inducted into the John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society. He delivered a lecture titled "The Use of Big Data to Improve Care." In the lecture, Bates defined big data and discussed an array of approaches for harnessing data, both in the near future and over the longer term, to enhance the value of health care and achieve the triple aim, as delineated in the Affordable Care Act, by improving the patient experience, ameliorating population health and reducing per capita costs.
Bates is chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women's Hospital; medical director of clinical and quality analysis at Partners HealthCare System an professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Fatima Lunze, HMS instructor in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, has been named with her husband, Karsten Lunze, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, to receive the Victor Sidel and Barry Levy Award for Peace from the American Public Health Association, which is awarded to an APHA member who has made outstanding contributions to preventing war and promoting international peace.
The Lunzes are receiving the award for their work in serving victims of war and terrorism, specifically for their work benefiting survivors of war and terror in the Russian North Caucasus over the past decade or so.
Molly Schumer, research fellow in genetics at HMS, was one of five recipients of the L'Oréal USA 2017 For Women in Science Fellowship, which recognizes and supports female scientists at a critical stage in their careers with $60,000 grants to advance their postdoctoral research.
Schumer’s research focuses on investigating how evolutionary forces shape our genes. Specifically, she is working to understand why a trait that can cause melanoma has persisted in swordtail fish for over a million years. Through this research, Schumer hopes to identify signals that may ultimately help us learn the genetic and evolutionary causes of diseases.
Hajirah Saeed, HMS instructor in ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and Miguel González, HMS research fellow at Mass. Eye and Ear, are co-winners of the 2017 Claes Dohlman Fellowship Award.
This award recognizes outstanding fellows and junior faculty members who are training in the area of cornea, refractive surgery and external diseases. They will receive their awards on November 11 during the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting.
Saeed is a full-time member of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service at Mass. Eye and Ear, who specializes in ocular surface disease and refractive surgery, with specialized expertise in burns, keratoprosthesis, ocular surface tumors, and pediatric cornea. As the inaugural Gliklich Innovation Scholar at Mass. Eye and Ear, she is developing a Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) registry and bio-repository in order to investigate the immunopathogenesis and genetics of the disease. SJS/TEN is a rare, immune-mediated mucocutaneous disease with the potential for severe ocular complications including corneal blindness. She aims to identify genetic risk factors for developing this fatal and blinding disease and identify biomarkers to help detect early disease.
González is a research fellow who works with Claes H. Dohlman, MD, PhD, as part of the keratoprosthesis group at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear and Mass. Eye and Ear. As a clinician-scientist, his research focuses on developing new materials and new designs for the Boston Keratoprosthesis that could improve its biocompatibility and biointegration into corneal tissue. He evaluates its complications and develops new therapeutic and bioengineered approaches to improve the clinical results of this device.
Paul Farmer, the Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, has won the 2017 MacLean Center Prize in Clinical Medical Ethics. Farmer will receive a $50,000 award and deliver a lecture about bioethics and the 2013-2106 Ebola outbreak in West Africa during the 29th annual Dorothy J. MacLean Fellows Conference on Clinical Medical Ethics on Nov. 10.
Farmer, who co-founded Partners In Health, is a medical anthropologist, researcher, global health advocate and educator. He was selected by the MacLean Center for his decades-long efforts to bring health care to some of the world’s poorest people. Farmer is also the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Frederick Jakobiec, the HMS Henry Willard Williams Professor of Ophthalmology, Emeritus, and Professor of Pathology, Emeritus, at Massachusetts Eye and Ear has received the Merrill Reeh Pathology Award from the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) for his winning paper entitled "Pigmentation of the Lacrimal Sac Epithelium."
This award is given to an individual who has written the most important eye pathology paper on the subject of oculoplastics during the preceding academic year, as judged by the ASOPRS membership.
Jakobiec is currently Director of the Cogan Eye Pathology Laboratory at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. He is the former Chief and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Mass. Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School.
Two Harvard Medical School professors have been recognized by the American Neurological Association (ANA) for their outstanding work in academic neurology.
Reisa Sperling, HMS professor of neurology and director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was awarded the Raymond R. Adams Lectureship.
Sperling was recognized for her research focusing on the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Her recent work involves the use of functional MRI and PET amyloid imaging to study alterations in brain function in aging and early Alzheimer's disease.
Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne, HMS assistant professor of neurology and assistant in neuroscience at Mass General Hospital was awarded the Grass Foundation-ANA Award in Neuroscience.
The Grass Foundation-ANA Award in Neuroscience established in 2007, honors outstanding young investigators conducting research in basic or clinical neuroscience. Lagier-Tourenna conducts patient-oriented research to understand the molecular mechanisms driving neurodegeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia.
