In an official resolution, the Boston City Council recognized Daniel Palazuelos, director of community-centered medical education at HMS, for his “outstanding commitment to advancing community health through education, collaboration, and advocacy.”
“As a community health implementer and educator, you have worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between health care providers and the communities they serve, ensuing that health care systems better understand the real needs and lived experiences of residents facing difficult circumstances,” the citation read. “Your dedication to promoting equitable, compassionate, and community-centered care has strengthened partnerships, improved access to resources, and helped create a more responsive health care system. We proudly recognize and thank you for your unwavering service, your leadership, and meaningful impact you continue to make in improving the health and well-being of our community.”
Additionally, Palazuelos, who is also HMS assistant professor of medicine, part-time, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received an appreciation award from the Mission Main Tenant Task Force, a community-based organization that assists residents of a public housing community, for support that has benefited Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood. The task force is one of many local organizations with which Palazuelos has built consistent relationships, providing opportunities for HMS students and local residents to strengthen community health.
Shingo Kajimura, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was awarded the Montrone-Seigel Prize in Biomedical Sciences from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). Kajimura and his team discovered a critical biological pathway that allows the body to maintain metabolic health, which could lead to new ways to prevent or treat obesity, diabetes, and cardiometabolic disorders.
“Dr. Kajimura is exactly the kind of exceptional scientist this prize was created to recognize and support,” said Fred Seigel, a member of the FNIH board of directors. “His research has overturned long-held assumptions about metabolic regulation and reflects the bold thinking that drives real breakthroughs in human health.”
As part of their research in bioenergetics — how the body makes, uses, and balances energy — Kajimura and his team made an unexpected discovery about brown fat, long thought to simply generate heat by burning calories. They found that it plays an important role in metabolic health, including blood sugar regulation, fat metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and protection against metabolic disease. His work revealed previously unrecognized molecular pathways that control these processes.
Kajimura and his colleagues are working to identify and potentially correct molecular defects responsible for impaired energy metabolism. Their research has broad implications for metabolic disorders, certain cancers, and aging and could lead to new approaches to prevent and treat disease.
The Montrone-Seigel Prize includes a $100,000 honorarium and recognizes outstanding scientists whose basic, clinical, or translational research programs promise to achieve breakthroughs that advance human health and well-being.
Kajimura will be presented with the Montrone-Seigel Prize during the FNIH Celebration of Science: 14th Annual Awards Ceremony on October 28, in Washington, D.C.
Adapted from FNIH press materials.
Three HMS early-career investigators are among 13 recipients of the 2026 Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience. Supported by the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund, the fellowship awards promote high-risk, and potentially high-reward, projects that may lead to a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
The new Klingenstein Fellows from HMS are:
- Corey Allard, assistant professor of cell biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, for research into the neural control of foreign organelles
- Jonathan Green, HMS assistant professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, for investigation of an error-signaling cell type that can illuminate how we learn from our mistakes
- Rachel Wolfson, assistant professor of cell biology at HMS, for work mapping peripheral and central cardiac pain circuits
Adapted from Klingenstein Philanthropies press materials.
Novalia Pishesha, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, was one of nine recipients of the 2026 Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future Impact Prize.
The prize supports women scientists and engineers from emerging and developing economies to pursue advanced STEM research and develop their leadership by recognizing proven initiatives and accelerating their next stage of development through funding, visibility, and connection to the wider fellowship and scientific and business communities.
Pishesha was recognized for leading the Future Southeast Asian Scientist initiative, which prepares early-career scientists to become biotechnology entrepreneurs. Recognizing that scientific talent often lacks access to entrepreneurial training and investment networks, she has developed a program that combines cutting-edge science, venture-building skills, and innovation leadership. Inspired by successful models from leading international biotechnology ecosystems, the initiative is helping transform researchers into founders capable of driving scientific innovation and economic growth across Southeast Asia.
“The Schlumberger Foundation took a chance on me, a young woman from East Java with no obvious path to an academic career and biotech entrepreneurship. That investment changed the trajectory of my life,” said Pishesha. “Through the Future Southeast Asian Scientist initiative, I want to make that same chance available to hundreds of scientists across the region and to show them that the journey from bench to company, and from a small town to a global stage, is possible.”
Adapted from Schlumberger Foundation press materials.
Anne Thorndike, HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the 2026 Mid-Career Research Mentorship Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine in recognition of mentoring activities as a general internal medicine investigator. The award was bestowed at the organization’s annual meeting in May.
Adapted from Society of General Internal Medicine press materials.
Three HMS faculty members received 2026 awards from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
- Regan Marsh, HMS associate professor of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the Marcus L. Martin Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion Award. Her research focuses on advancing equity in emergency care through the design and evaluation of emergency department-based interventions that address structural barriers and improve care transitions.
- Scott Weiner, HMS associate professor of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s, received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award. He is a health services researcher whose work focuses on improving care for patients with substance use disorders in acute care settings, particularly in emergency departments. His research examines implementation of evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder, including emergency department-initiated buprenorphine, naloxone distribution strategies, and systems-level approaches to reducing overdose mortality.
- Onyinyechi Eke, HMS assistant professor of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was one of four educators to receive the Early Educator Award. Her work focuses on ultrasound and global health. Her current research centers on tele-ultrasound implementation in resource-limited emergency departments and includes leadership in education, faculty development, and global emergency care.
Adapted from Society of Academic Emergency Medicine press materials.
HMS researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have been selected to receive up to $25.8 million in federal funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under its THRIVE program. The award, in the form of a contract to Mass General, will provide up to five years of support for the researchers to lead the “Vascular mEdicineS using Scalable Editing pLatform” (VESSEL) program — a multi-institutional effort to develop precision gene-editing therapies to treat rare genetic vascular diseases.
The VESSEL team aims to address a central and long-standing challenge in medicine: how to deliver durable, effective therapies to the vasculature. They will focus specifically on rare genetic vasculopathies — serious and underserved conditions that cause strokes, aneurysms, and heart attacks in children — for which no FDA-approved disease-modifying therapies currently exist to address the underlying genetic causes.
“We have the privilege to bring together academic and industry experts to develop the technology and breakthroughs needed to revolutionize vascular medicines and, most importantly, improve the lives of all our patients, one patient at a time,” said lead principal investigator Patricia Musolino, HMS associate professor of neurology at Mass General.
