BU-CHART Mentors

Program Directors

 

Benjamin P. Linas, MD, MPH

Director of HIV Epidemiology and Outcomes Research Unit
Associate Professor of Medicine
(617) 414-5238
Benjamin.Linas@bmc.org 

Research Interests: HIV and HCV Comparative- and Cost-Effectiveness

C. Robert Horsburgh, Jr., MD, MUS

Professor of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Medicine, Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston University School of Public Health
(617) 638-7775
rhorsbu@bu.edu 

    Research Interests: The Effects of HIV Disease on the Course of Hepatitis C Infection and on the Risk for and Course of Tuberculosis; Epidemiological Studies of HIV, TB, and Other Opportunistic Infections; HIV and TB Vaccine Trials; and Drug Trials for the Treatment and Prevention of TB.

    Senior Faculty Mentors

    Deborah J. Anderson, PhD

    Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Microbiology
    617-414-8482
    Deborah.Anderson@bmc.org

    Research Interests: Mucosal immunology, Innate immunity, HIV-1 transmission

    Abigail (Abby) Batchelder, PhD, MPH

    Associate Professor, Psychiatry, General Internal Medicine and one on the Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health,  Director of the Behavioral Health Equity Program and Associate Vice Chair,  Psychology, Psychiatry

    Abigail.Batchelder@bmc.org

    Research Aims: Collaboratively identify, adapt, and implement evidence-based interventions with and for underserved people with unmet psycho-behavioral health needs, including people with and vulnerable to HIV, people who use drugs, and sexual and gender minority people with a goal of increasing behavioral health equity.

    Howard J. Cabral, PhD, MPH

    Professor of Biostatistics 
    (617) 638-5024
    hjcab@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Analysis of correlated and longitudinal data, the effects of missing data on parameter estimation, and statistical computing.

    David M. Center, MD

    Associate Provost for Translational Research Professor, Medicine Chief, Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine
    (617) 638-4860
    dcenter@bu.edu

    *Advisory Panel Member

    Research Interests: Lymphocyte Migration, Mechanisms of Inflammation, Interleukin 16, Asthma pathophysiology, and Translational Research

    Deborah J. Cotton, MD, MPH

    Professor of Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology
    (617) 632-7250
    cottond@bu.edu

    *Advisory Panel Member

    Research Interests: Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Immunology of Infectious Diseases, HIV, Clinical Trials, Health Policy, Hepatitis Viruses, Opportunistic Infections, Varicella Zoster Virus

    Mari-Lynn Drainoni, PhD

    Professor Associate Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management 
    (617) 358-2992
    drainoni@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Implementation science, program evaluation, HIV/AIDS in vulnerable populations, addictions, hepatitis C, access to care, organization and development of innovative models of care, qualitative research methods.

    David T. Felson, MD, MPH

    Professor of Medicine
    (617) 638-5180
    david.felson@bmc.org

    *Advisory Panel Member

    Research Interests: Prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis, Identifying biomechanical risk factors for disease and testing biomechanical treatments and characterizing MRI features of normal knees and knees with pain.

    Matthew P. Fox, DSc

    Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health 
    (617) 358-2062
    mfox@bu.edu

    *Advisory Panel Member

    Research Interests: HIV treatment and retention in care in resource-limited settings and treatment of childhood pneumonia.

    Allen L. Gifford, MD

    Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management 
    (781) 687-3417
    agifford@bu.edu

    Research Interests: HIV and Hepatitis Quality Improvement Research, Implementation Research, Medication Adherence

    Christopher J. Gill, MD, MS

    Professor of Global Health
    (617) 638-6584
    cgill@bu.edu

    Research Interests: HIV, Child survival, mHealth, Vaccines, Respiratory pathogens, Diarrheal disease

    Suryaram Gummuluru, PhD

    Professor of Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology 
    (617) 358-1774
    rgummuluru@bu.edu

    Research Interests: HIV/AIDS, Virus Evasion of Innate Responses, Inflammation and Virus Replication, Role of dendritic cells (DCs) in the initiation and propagation of HIV-1 replication

    Davidson H. Hamer, MD

    Professor of Global Health and Medicine
    (617) 358-2402
    dhamer@bu.edu

    Research Interests:Tropical infectious diseases, Neonatal and child survival, Micronutrient interventions, Maternal and neonatal health, Malaria, Pneumonia, Diarrheal diseases

    Andrew J. Henderson, PhD

    Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Assistant Dean, Division of Graduate Medical Sciences
    (617) 414-5240
    Andrew.Henderson@bmc.org

    *Advisory Panel Member

    Research Interests: Cellular mechanisms that regulate HIV replication and transcription, Elucidating T cell costimulatory signal transduction cascades that positively and negatively regulate HIV transcription, Determining mechanisms by which HIV circumvents anti-inflammatory signals to promote HIV replication and AIDS-associated inflammatory diseases, Characterizing the transcriptional status of HIV provirus in T cell and macrophage subsets.

    Karen R. Jacobson, MD,MPH

    Assistant Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-5213
    Karen.Jacobson@bmc.org

    Research Interests: Epidemiology of drug resistant tuberculosis, including identification of social, biological, and economic determinants of and risk factors for drug resistance and approaches for improving TB outcomes in resource-limited settings.

    Helen E. Jenkins, PhD

    Associate Professor of Biostatistics 
    (617) 358-2640
    helenje@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Novel ways to analyze data that can have a public health impact in the field of infectious diseases, Tuberculosis including developing new estimates of pediatric TB incidence and mortality, and spatial methods to understand geographic heterogeneity of TB

    Karsten Lunze, MD, MPH, DrPH, FACPM, FAAP

    Director of Global Health, Co-Director, Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Substance Use Research Core
    (617) 414-7399
    Karsten.Lunze@bmc.org

    Research Interests: Stigma and HIV prevention in key populations, Maternal and newborn health

    Manish Sagar, MD

    Professor of Medicine and Microbiology
    (617) 414-5239
    Manish.Sagar@bmc.org

    Research Interests: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission, Pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 heterosexual transmission

    Jeffrey H. Samet, MD, MA, MPH

    Professor of Epidemiology, Global Health, Medicine, Community Health Sciences at BU, Chief of the Section of Internal Medicine 
     (617) 414-7444
    Jeff.Samet@bmc.org

    *Advisory Panel Member

    Research Interests: Linkage of addiction treatment and medical care; addressing substance use issues in the primary care setting; the impact of alcohol and drug use in HIV-infected persons.

    Jennifer Snyder-Cappione, PhD

    Assistant Professor of Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology 
    (617) 638-4296
    cappione@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Regulation of IFN-gamma and cytotoxic effector functions by CD8+ T cells, The role of iNKT cells in HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections as well as sarcoidosis, Determining the diagnostic and prognostic potential of ex vivo immune functional profiling in human inflammatory diseases, Investigating the differentiation potential and lineage relationships of iNKT cell subsets, Elucidating the role of T cell and iNKT cell exhaustion in the progression of infectious diseases and cancer

    Michael D. Stein, MD

    Professor of Health Law, Policy, & Management
    (617) 358-1956
    mdstein@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Substance use disorders and HIV/AIDS, sleep and pain, mental health disorders, and the determinants of risk-taking

    Elisha M. Wachman, MD

    Associate Professor of Pediatrics
    (617) 414-3690
    emorgan@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Genetics and epigenetics of NAS, Breastfeeding in the setting of maternal substance use disorders, and the use of non-pharmacologic care methods to improve NAS outcomes

    Alexander Y. Walley, MD, MSc

    Professor of Medicine 
    (617) 414-6975
    awalley@bu.edu

    Research Interests: The medical complications of drug use, specifically HIV and overdose, the treatment of addictions with behavioral and pharmacologic interventions, and risk behaviors among HIV-infected people and people with HIV risk behaviors.

    Laura Forsberg White, PhD

    Professor of Biostatistics
    (617) 358-2519
    lfwhite@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Developing statistical tools to better understand the transmission dynamics and epidemiology of infectious diseases and substance use disorders

    Junior Faculty Mentors

    Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD, MPH

    Associate Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-5282
    Sabrina.Assoumou@bmc.org

    Research Interests:Medical complications of substance use including HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Models of care and on improving the continuum of care for individuals with HIV and/or HCV

    Tara C. Bouton, MD, MPH

    Assistant Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-5213
    tcbouton@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Interactions between tuberculosis resistance-conferring mutations, HIV, and clinical outcomes in both diseases

    Rachel L. Epstein, MD, MScE

    Assistant Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-5295
    Rachel.Epstein@bmc.org

    Research Interests: Working to utilize large data sets and decision modelling to inform policy and program design to improve care for individuals with Hepatitis C, HIV, and substance use, with a particular focus on pregnant women and youth

    Simeon D. Kimmel, MD, MA

    Assistant Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-2846
    sdkimmel@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Integration of addiction and harm reduction services with infectious disease care to improve clinical outcomes for those with and at risk for infectious and medical complications of substance use.

    Jake R. Morgan, PhD

    Research Assistant Professor of Health Law, Policy, and Management
    (617) 358-2047
    jakem@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Using real world data to predict individual- and population-level health outcomes and inform health policy

    Carl D. Streed, MD, MPH, FACP

    Assistant Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-7399
    cjstreed@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Improve the health and well-being of sexual and gender minority individuals and communities, Assess and address the health and well-being of transgender and gender diverse individuals

    Kaku So-Armah, PhD

    Associate Professor of Medicine
    (617) 414-4376
    kaku@bu.edu

    Research Interests: Role of co-morbid diseases and immunologic alterations in HIV-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk