Natasha S. Hochberg, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Medicine
Biography
Natasha Hochberg, MD, MPH is Volunteer Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (Section of Infectious Diseases) at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She sees travelers and patients with tropical diseases in the Center for a infectious Diseases, with a particular focus on Chagas disease and other parasitic infections. Dr. Hochberg previously worked full-time at BU/BMC, but now her primary position is Director, Global Health Translational Medicine at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.
Prior to her arrival at Boston University, Dr. Hochberg was an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer at the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) in the Division of Parasitic Diseases and worked internationally on projects related to malaria, visceral leishmaniasis, guinea worm disease, and lymphatic filariasis.
Dr. Hochberg’s research focuses on tropical diseases. Particularly, she has studied the impact of malnutrition and parasitic disease on tuberculosis (TB), tropical diseases in immigrant populations, and preventing diseases in international travelers. She was the principal investigator of the TB LION study (Learning the Impact Of Nutrition) in Pondicherry India. This study of household contacts of TB cases evaluates the impact of malnutrition and parasite infections on the immune response to TB and how this changes after providing a high-protein food package, multivitamin, and deworming. She was also site principal investigator of the the US-Indo RePORT study in Pondicherry, India, a cohort of 1100 TB patients and 1500 of their household contacts. The study aimed to identify biomarkers that predict TB treatment failure and risk of developing TB (among exposed persons) and to identify how comorbidities (e.g., diabetes, helminth infections) modulate these profiles and risks. She was co-investigator of an R01 studying TB in pregnancy in IndiA and the recipient of a K-12 BIRCWH award to study the effect of aging on the immune response to latent TB infection in Boston-area nursing home residents.
Previously, she was the co-director of the travel clinic at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Dire tor of Tropical Medicine. She served as the co-site director for GeoSentinel, an international surveillance system of diseases in travelers and migrants, and participated in studies related to tropical medicine and travelers health. At a national level, she is part of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene where she serves as President for the Clinical Group, and previously served as a member of the Scientific Program Committee, a clinical group councilor, and as the Chair for the Subcommittee on Pneumonia, Respiratory Infections and TB.
Dr. Hochberg taught courses at BU School of Public Health on Infectious Disease Epidemiology (EP755) and Outbreak Investigations (EP800).
Other Positions
- Director, Global Health, Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
Education
- Case School of Medicine, MD
- Emory University, MPH
- Harvard University, BA
Publications
- Published on 10/15/2024
Prakash Babu S, Ezhumalai K, Raghupathy K, Karoly M, Chinnakali P, Gupte N, Paradkar M, Devarajan A, Dhanasekaran M, Thiruvengadam K, Dauphinais MR, Gupte AN, Shivakumar SB, Thangakunam B, Christopher DJ, Viswanathan V, Mave V, Gaikwad S, Kinikar A, Kornfeld H, Horsburgh CR, Chandrasekaran P, Hochberg NS, Salgame P, Gupta A, Roy G, Ellner J, Sinha P, Sarkar S. Factors Associated With Unfavorable Treatment Outcomes Among Persons With Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Multicentric Prospective Cohort Study From India. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Oct 15; 79(4):1034-1038. PMID: 38991034.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/20/2024
Wang X, VanValkenberg A, Odom AR, Ellner JJ, Hochberg NS, Salgame P, Patil P, Johnson WE. Comparison of gene set scoring methods for reproducible evaluation of tuberculosis gene signatures. BMC Infect Dis. 2024 Jun 20; 24(1):610. PMID: 38902649.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/18/2024
Wheelock A, Sandhu S, Reifler K, Carrion M, Bourque DL, Hamer DH, Hochberg NS. Improving Clinician Awareness of and Screening for Chagas Disease with an Educational Intervention. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2024 Aug 07; 111(2):380-386. PMID: 38889732.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/19/2024
Reifler KA, Wheelock A, Hall SM, Salazar A, Hassan S, Bostrom JA, Barnett ED, Carrion M, Hochberg NS, Hamer DH, Gopal DM, Bourque D. Chagas cardiomyopathy in Boston, Massachusetts: Identifying disease and improving management after community and hospital-based screening. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2024 Jan; 18(1):e0011913. PMID: 38241361.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/9/2023
Hochberg NS, Rao SPS, Angyalosi G, Zhao X, Carballo L, Demacq C, Braud-Perez S, Wieser D, Casas JP, Millholland J, Ngo D. An end is in sight: a perspective on PCR as an endpoint for Chagas disease treatment trials. Front Parasitol. 2023; 2:1272386. PMID: 39816827.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/28/2023
Kalva J, Babu SP, Narasimhan PB, Raghupathy K, Ezhumalai K, Knudsen S, Horsburgh CR, Hochberg N, Salgame P, Roy G, Ellner J, Sarkar S. Predictors of weight loss during the intensive phase of tuberculosis treatment in patients with drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis in South India. J Public Health (Oxf). 2023 Aug 28; 45(3):545-552. PMID: 36451280.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/21/2023
Buonomo G, Acuña-Villaorduna C, Poongothai V, Dharmalingam M, Cintron C, Dauphinais M, Babu SP, Locks LM, Sarkar S, Salgame P, Hochberg NS, Lakshminaryanan S, Narasimhan PB, Sinha P. A micro-costing analysis of nutritional support for persons with TB and their families in India. Public Health Action. 2023 Jun 21; 13(2):34-36. PMID: 37359061.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/14/2023
Barathi A, Krishnamoorthy Y, Sinha P, Horsburgh C, Hochberg N, Johnson E, Salgame P, Govindarajan S, Senbagavalli PB, Lakshinarayanan S, Roy G, Ellner J, Sarkar S. Effect of treatment adherence on the association between sex and unfavourable treatment outcomes among tuberculosis patients in Puducherry, India: a mediation analysis. J Public Health (Oxf). 2023 Jun 14; 45(2):304-311. PMID: 35692180.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/14/2023
Krishnamoorthy Y, Ezhumalai K, Murali S, Rajaa S, Majella MG, Sarkar S, Lakshminarayanan S, Joseph NM, Soundappan G, Prakash Babu S, Horsburgh C, Hochberg N, Johnson WE, Knudsen S, Pentakota SR, Salgame P, Roy G, Ellner J. Development of prognostic scoring system for predicting 1-year mortality among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in South India. J Public Health (Oxf). 2023 Jun 14; 45(2):e184-e195. PMID: 36038507.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/8/2023
Hochberg NS, Dinculescu VV, Nutman TB. Case 17-2023: A 58-Year-Old Woman with Fatigue, Abdominal Bloating, and Eosinophilia. N Engl J Med. 2023 Jun 08; 388(23):2180-2189. PMID: 37285529.
Read at: PubMed
View 90 more publications: View full profile at BUMC