News
University’s Health, Clinical Rankings Climb
Times Higher Education puts BU 22nd among schools worldwide For the second year in a row, BU’s health and medical education programs have been named among the top 100 worldwide in the 2013–2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, conducted by Thomson Reuters. The influential survey ranked BU 22nd for clinical, preclinical, and health programs, an... More
GSDM’s Shenkin Third in Command among Dentists Nationwide
The American Dental Association (ADA) announced on Nov. 4, that Dr. Jonathan Shenkin of Freeport, Maine, clinical associate professor at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM), was elected ADA second vice president. ADA vice president is a two-year position, with two VPs (first and second) serving at any time. In his second... More
Few Patients with Newly-Diagnosed Hyperlipidemia Receive Recommended Thyroid Screening
Despite current guidelines that recommend newly diagnosed high-cholesterol patients have a TSH blood test done to make sure they do not have hypothyroidism, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that only about half of these patients were screened for thyroid dysfunction. The findings, which appear online... More
Study Shows Decrease in Sepsis Mortality Rates
A recent study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) shows a significant decrease in severe sepsis mortality rates over the past 20 years. Looking at data from patients with severe sepsis enrolled in clinical trials, researchers found that in-hospital mortality rates decreased from 47 percent between 1991 and 1995... More
Robert Meenan to Step Down as SPH Dean
At helm 21 years, led school to national prominence University President Robert A. Brown has informed School of Public Health faculty and staff in a letter sent yesterday that Robert Meenan has decided to step down after more than two decades as dean of SPH. A rheumatologist with master’s degrees in public health and in business administration, More
Commemorating GSDM Excellence: The Kramer Symposium
On Oct. 24, the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) held the inaugural Gerald M. Kramer Symposium on Periodontology, led by Dr. Serge Dibart, Chair of the Department of Periodontology and Director of the Advanced Specialty Education Program in Periodontics. Former colleagues, students, and acquaintances of Dr. Kramer along with other... More
Vitamin D Guru to Deliver University Lecture Nov. 6
MED’s Holick will discuss the sunshine nutrient and why we need it “Vitamin D chose me,” says Michael Holick, who has been an outspoken advocate worldwide for awareness of the ravages of vitamin D deficiency. As tonight’s 2013 University Lecturer, the School of Medicine professor of medicine, physiology, and biophysics will speak about his long career... More
Researchers Model Familial Amyloidosis in vitro Using iPSC Technology
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have generated the first known disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from a patient with familial transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR). The findings, which are reported in Stem Cell Reports, may lead to new treatments for genetic diseases such as familial amyloidosis. iPSCs are... More
BUSM Professor, BMC Physician Appointed to National Health Information Technology Policy Committee
Devin Mann, MD, MS, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and attending physician at Boston Medical Center (BMC), has been appointed to the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Mann, who was one of three new appointments, will serve as a researcher on the... More
2013 University Lecture Nov. 6: The D-Lightful Vitamin D for Health, Given by BUSM’s Holick
Professor of Medicine, Physiology, and Biophysics at BU School of Medicine Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD, will be delivering the 2013 University Lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 6 on the Charles River Campus. Dr. Holick will speak on The D-Lightful Vitamin D for Health. Since 1950, the University Lecture has offered members of the BU community and... More
Higher-Level TB Research to Begin at NEIDL
Boston Public Health Commission gives go-ahead BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories will begin doing tuberculosis research at a higher biosafety level in the coming months, following approval of the work by the Boston Public Health Commission. The research will be transferred from another lab on the Medical Campus. TB researchers Igor Kramnik, a School of Medicine... More
Families Prone to Longevity Offer Clues to Disease Risk
People with longer life spans also are less likely to suffer from osteoporosis, cancer and other health problems, suggesting that longevity-prone families may be “an important resource to discover genetic and environmental factors” that keep people healthy longer, a study led by a BUSPH researcher has found. The study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in... More
BUSM Researchers Study Epigenetic Mechanisms of Tumor Metastasis for Improved Cancer Therapy
A review article by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) suggests that epigenetics may be a useful target to stop the growth, spread and relapse of cancer. The findings are published online in Volume 14 of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The term epigenetics refers to the external modifications to DNA that turn genes... More
Apply for New Endowed Professor Position: Genetics
BUSM has established a new endowed professor position, the Aubrey Milunsky Professor of Human Genetics. Any faculty member with a superb research program in a discipline related to human genetics is encouraged to submit an application. For the purposes of this position, human genetics is broadly defined. It is considered to encompass... More
BUSM Professor, BMC Physician Receives Award for Advancing Research on Tobacco Smoke’s Effect on Lungs
Avrum Spira, MD, MSc, the Alexander Graham Bell professor of medicine and chief of the division of computational biomedicine at Boston University School of Medicine, is the recipient of the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Disease. The award will be presented to Spira today at the Opening Session of the Annual Meeting of the... More
Seeking New Homes for Gently Used Lab Equipment
Attention researchers! Did you know that there is a resource to facilitate the reuse/recycle of surplus research equipment within the BU Medical Campus community? Visit the BUMC Equipment Exchange. This week the Exchange is featuring a donation from the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology: a JEOL 100S TEM microscope. This one owner scope can be fitted... More
BUSM’s Streeter Continues to Find Connections Between Yoga, Improved Mood
Yoga – whether it’s your cup of tea or not – may be more than just a form of alternative exercise according to BUSM Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology Chris Streeter, MD. In her research published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Streeter found that those who practiced yoga, compared with walkers, had greater... More
Social Service Barriers Delay Care among Women with Abnormal Cancer Screening
A recent study performed by researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), and Tufts Medical Center found that women with multiple barriers to healthcare, especially those with social barriers such as problems with housing and income, experienced delays in cancer screening follow up... More
Two BU Profs Inducted into Institute of Medicine
MED’s Jack, SPH’s Jette earn honor for research, service Two BU professors have been inducted into the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a branch of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that confers membership on people in the health and medical fields who combine outstanding professional achievements with a commitment to service. Among the 70 new IOM... More
GSDM-Led Team Identifies Molecular Explanation for Sjogren’s
A collaborative research team led by GSDM Professor of Molecular & Cell Biology and Associate Dean for Research Dr. Maria Kukuruzinska has identified a molecular explanation for at least a subset of cases of the disabling autoimmune disease Sjogren’s Syndrome. The team’s findings are published in the journal Laboratory Investigation. Sjogren’s Syndrome (SS) is a complex... More
Transporting Nutrients into Cells without Energy or a Transporter: BUSM Researchers Make a Case for Free Fatty Acids
The current global epidemic of obesity-linked diabetes and its associated consequences -cardiovascular, neurological and renal diseases - is a growing public health problem for which therapeutic options are limited. In obesity, fatty acids, derived mostly from adipose tissue, alter lipid metabolism in other tissues such as liver and skeletal muscles. Both impaired fatty acid metabolism and... More
Focusing on Weight May Be Hazardous to Your Health
SPH Bicknell lecturer: what’s wrong with approach to obesity epidemic This summer there was much rejoicing in the public health community over the recently announced falling obesity rate among preschoolers in many states, the first time in decades the rate has gone down. “Although obesity remains epidemic, the tide has begun to turn for some kids in... More
Federal Shutdown Shuts Down Some BU Research
D.C. brawl touches Boston Alan Jette has been trying to save the government a little money. The School of Public Health professor has been researching cost-effective ways to assess applicants claiming work disabilities so that they can receive Social Security benefits. But his research has been has been halted by, um, a putative attempt to save the... More
BUSM’s Pokines Edits New Taphonomy Textbook
James Pokines, PhD, DABFA, assistant professor in the Forensic Anthropology Program at Boston University School of Medicine, recently co-edited a groundbreaking reference book, Manual of Forensic Taphonomy. The word ‘taphonomy’ derives from ancient Greek, ‘tapho’ referring to ‘burial’ and ‘nomos’ to ‘laws.’ The book presents the first update in the entire field in more than... More
Trauma-Related Psychophysiologic Reactivity Identified as Best Predictor of PTSD Diagnosis
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and several other institutions including the National Center for PSTD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Suffolk University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, have determined that psychophysiologic reactivity to trauma-related, script-driven imagery procedures is a promising biological predictor of a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. These findings appear... More