Manish Sagar, MD Named the Associate Director of Basic and Preclinical Science

The Office of the Chief Scientific Officer along with Research Operations leadership are pleased to announce that Manish Sagar, MD has been named the Associate Director of Basic and Preclinical Science. As Associate Director, Dr. Sagar will lead efforts to support and catalyze the foundational science conducted by our basic and preclinical scientists across BMC, in service of addressing our patients’ most pressing health needs. 

 

Dr. Sagar is a Professor of Medicine, Virology, Immunology & Microbiology at Boston Medical Center/ Boston University Chobanian & Avedesian School of Medicine. His research focuses on HIV and SARS-CoV-2 transmission and pathogenesis, and it spans the translational spectrum from basic sciences to clinical trials. His work has been continuously funded through the National Institutes of Health, private foundations, and pharmaceutical companies since 2000. He also cares for patients with infectious diseases, such as HIV, and he is an active investigator in numerous inpatient and outpatient clinical trials. In his research and clinical practice, he actively mentors postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and medical trainees. He also co-directs the program for early research career development aimed at producing the next generation of academic researchers. 

 

We used the principles and practices outlined in the Review Based Guidelines for the Equitable Appointment of Leadership Roles (RBG) for this open call and interview process, including using standardized interview questions and specific evaluation criteria, and are deeply appreciative of the many truly outstanding faculty members that stepped up to apply for this important leadership role.

 

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Sagar in his new role!

DoM’s Dr. Carl Streed Is Recognized by the American Medical Association for Outstanding LGBTQ+ Healthcare

With lawmakers across the country narrowing LGBTQIA+ rights, research aiming to improve the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and gender nonconforming individuals comes with a renewed sense of urgency and importance. Already this year, more than 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country—more than twice the number from last year—with most targeting sex and gender education in schools and transgender healthcare for adults and youth. In June, the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign for the first time declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States.

Amidst the chaos, there are doctors, healthcare professionals, and researchers who show up to their jobs every day to serve the LGBTQIA+ community. Carl Streed, the research lead for the GenderCare Center at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston University’s primary teaching hospital, is one of them. Carl Streed, the research lead for BMC’s GenderCare Center, won the AMA’s 2023 Excellence in LGBTQ Health Award. Photo by Doug Birkenheuer

Streed, a Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine, has earned the 2023 Excellence in LGBTQ Health Award from the American Medical Association (AMA). The award recognizes physicians who are dedicated to patient care for underserved communities and who show compassion and altruism through their work.

“It’s truly an honor to receive this award from my colleagues and the AMA Foundation,” says Streed, who will donate the award money to an organization that supports LGBTQIA+ students. “As an alum of the Point Foundation, the [nation’s] largest LGBTQ scholarship-granting nonprofit, I’ve benefited from their mentorship and support and wanted to ensure future scholars have the same opportunity.”

BMC’s GenderCare Center provides gender-affirming care—medically necessary, evidence-based care—to help patients transition from the gender designated at birth to the gender they align with. It also works to advance education, research, and advocacy efforts across the state.

“I joined BMC in 2018,” says Streed. “I chose to join the GenderCare Center because providing gender-affirming care brings joy to my patients’ lives, and that nourishes my soul.”

But similar to abortion care, access to gender-affirming care depends entirely on where you live. This year 19 states have passed laws restricting gender-affirming care, complicating the legal landscape significantly across the country and putting many transgender youths and adults at greater risk for poor mental and physical health. And political attacks on healthcare don’t only impact physicians, patients, and medical research in red states. Doctors have been experiencing a rise in threats for doing their jobs even in places without bans on gender-affirming care—including at Boston Children’s Hospital, where there have been several bomb threats reported.

“Political and economic barriers remain some of the greatest obstacles to transgender folks accessing competent and compassionate care,” Streed says. “Research to understand the needs of transgender persons and communities is limited by the direct attacks on access to gender-affirming care.”

Streed’s work as a physician and researcher aims to improve healthcare and well-being for LGBTQ+ individuals, especially transgender patients. His research priorities range from LGBTQIA+ medical education to the effects of hormone therapy on cardiovascular health to access to cancer screenings for trans people. There are currently no large, longitudinal studies—like BU’s Framingham Heart Study, for example—tracking the effects of testosterone or estrogen therapies on overall health, like blood pressure, insulin resistance, and cholesterol, so Streed hopes to eventually change that.

“Gender-affirming care is primary care,” he says. “It’s been overwhelmingly shown that hormone therapy improves psychological well-being for transgender individuals.”

 

By Jessica Colarossi

Research Accelerator Program Awardees

We are pleased to announce the awardees of the Research Accelerator Program. The program is designed to support faculty within their first 3 years of appointment in developing their research careers. It is meant to bridge the gap between fellowship training and a first career development award such as a K-award. Each awardee will receive 150K annually for 1 -2 years.

Please join us in congratulating:

 

Miriam Harris, MD, MSc - General Internal Medicine

Dr. Harris's research aims to enhance HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) access within hospital-based addiction services for women who use drugs and engage in sex work. Integrated HIV and addiction services offer an opportunity to increase HIV prevention to this high risk but underprioritized population. This work aims to create a framework for HIV prevention and addiction treatment integration that can serve as a model for other sites around the US.

 

Insa Schmidt, MD, MPH – Nephrology

Dr. Schmidt's research focuses on improving outcomes in patients with kidney disease through the development of new diagnostic tools and prediction of adverse clinical events. Building on her previous work, the research funded through the Research Accelerator Program Award will use machine learning techniques to combine rich data from multiple sources, including digital kidney pathology, biomarkers, and clinical information, to improve clinical disease phenotyping and outcome prediction for patients with kidney disease.

 

Erin Crossey, MD – Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine

The lymphatic network is responsible for fluid homeostasis and immune cell trafficking throughout the body, but it is unknown whether specialized subsets of lymphatic cells exist in the lung given the unique physiology of this organ. Dr. Crossey's research focuses on addressing knowledge gaps in lymphatic biology using strategies to isolate and sequence lung lymphatic cells as well as by developing techniques that can illuminate their function during health and disease

Medicine Grand Rounds – May 26

Medicine Grand Rounds

Friday, May 26 | 12:00-1:00 PM | Keefer Auditorium (Hybrid)


"History of Internal Medicine Training in the United States"

Presented by:

Keith Armitage, MD
Program Director,
Internal Medicine,
Vice Chair,
Department of Medicine,
UH Cleveland Medical Center
Professor of Medicine,
CWRU School of Medicine

Zoom Info:

Zoom Link

Meeting ID: 925 7746 3257

Passcode: 890982