News
Worker Sickness a Legacy of the Arms Race: SPH prof tests for work-related illnesses in nuclear arms industry
After a dozen years probing for work-related sickness among nuclear weapons workers, Lewis Pepper can say he’s made a difference. Prodded in part by his work, Congress a decade ago compensated more than 28,000 workers for a variety of illnesses. Now Pepper, a School of Public Health assistant professor of environmental health, is pushing to... More
Forum: When Public Health and Journalism Collide
In an era of earthquakes, tsunamis, oil spills, mine explosions and wars, public health professionals and journalists often find themselves drawn to the same scene, grappling with the same issues – sometimes collaborating and other times colliding. These complex interactions are the focus of a unique, one-day conference at BU, “When Disaster Strikes: Reporting and Responding.” The... More
GSDM's Dr. Michelle Henshaw Honored at 2011 ADEA General Session
The 2011 American Dental Education Association (ADEA) General Session took place in San Diego, California from March 12-16. At the Session the ADEA Gies Foundation honored Assistant Dean for Community Partnerships & Extramural Affairs Dr. Michelle Henshaw with the 2011 William J. Gies Award for Innovation in the Dental Educator category. Dr. Henshaw was selected... More
More Than Just Skin Deep: BUSM Center Transforms Skin Cells into Stem Cells
Darrell Kotton, Gustavo Mostoslavsky, and George Murphy roll up their sleeves and proudly display small oval marks on their forearms. Biopsies from which the medical researchers harvested their own skin cells to create—well, actually the sky may be the limit. “Pretty much all the biology books are wrong now,” says Murphy, a School of Medicine assistant... More
GMS Doctoral Student Nadia Krasner Selected for 2011 ASN Predoctoral Fellowship
Nadia Krasner, a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Medical Nutrition Sciences, has been selected to receive a $5,000 fellowship through the American Society of Nutrition. The award recognizes Ms. Krasner's excellence in her proposed project Does GLP-1 Mediated Activation of AMPK have an Anti-Inflammatory Effect in Vascular Endothelium. The grant, sponsored by Pfizer, More
Twenty-five BUMC Faculty Participate in 2011 Emerging Leaders Forum
Nominated by their department chairs 25 junior faculty members from the Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) participated in the Emerging Leaders Forum. The two-day event, organized by the BUMC Faculty Affairs Office under the leadership of Mya Mangawang, PhD, assistant provost for Faculty Affairs, focused on exploring and developing the characteristics of highly effective leaders. The faculty participants were nominated by their Chairs based on their record of effectiveness, innovation, reliability and capacity to energize and motivate others. More
GSDM: Scenes from a Mission to Nicaragua
Recently three fourth-year DMD students from GSDM, Ali Mahin Arastu, Gulia Muca, and Maria Honorado, traveled to Rio San Juan, Nicaragua with the San Juan Rio Relief Organization to bring oral health outreach to the poverty-stricken region. Learn what their experience was like from this collection of videos that they filmed during the trip: Clinic Introduction Tour of... More
Study Finds Racial Disparities Among Developmentally Delayed Toddlers in Early-Intervention Programs
Black toddlers are five times less likely than their white counterparts to receive early-intervention services for developmental delays -- a disparity that should be addressed by clinicians working proactively with families, according to a study led by a BU School of Public Health researcher. In a study published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, More
On the Road to Residency, the Class of 2011 Match Across the Country
With a countdown from Dean Antman to the stroke of noon, members of the BUSM class of 2011 excitedly stepped forward to receive their Match Day letters from faculty and administrators. With 161 BUSM students in the match this year, 33 of them will be staying on campus for residency at Boston Medical Center, others are heading across the country from New England to California and Canada. Forty-five percent of the class is pursuing internal medicine, pediatrics and family medicine. More
Less Weight Gain Found Among African American Women in Dense Urban Areas Than in Auto-Oriented Sprawling Areas
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine’s (BUSM) Slone Epidemiology Center have found that African-American women who live in more densely populated urban areas gain less weight than those in more sprawling auto-oriented areas. The results, which appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, were based on data collected in... More
What Kids Drink: Teens' Alcohol Preferences
Nearly half of underage drinkers prefer liquor to beer and are more likely to binge drink, drink and drive, and engage in risky sexual behaviors, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher. "We know a lot about the consumption of alcohol beverages among youth in terms of the... More
GSDM Volunteers Fight Cavities in Teacapan
For three weeks in a row each year the children of Teacapan—a small fishing village in Mexico—receive dental care from Project Stretch volunteers. The other 49 weeks of the year dental care is largely unavailable to them. GSDM volunteers, under the leadership of Assistant Director of Extramural Programs Kathy Held, have participated in a week-long... More
BUSM’s Jackson Appointed to HHS Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry
Vice Chair for Education, Department of Medicine and Director of the Primary Care Training Program at BUSM Angela Jackson, MD was appointed by the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to the Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry. The committee advises and makes recommendations to the... More
BUMC Research Symposium touts interdisciplinary research and collaboration
The inaugural Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) research symposium, held on March 10, brought together researchers from multiple disciplines to discuss traumatic brain injury (TBI) as it relates to sports and combat deployment. Medical Campus Provost Karen Antman, MD, delivered opening remarks that highlighted the collaborative efforts behind the creation of the symposia. “These symposia were established... More
Learn about Common Statistical Issues in Medical Research March 17
Join Howard Cabral, PhD, MPH, co-director, Biostatistics Graduate Program, and director, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core, CTSI, as he speaks about Common Statistical Issues in Medical Research. This one hour lecture is sponsored by the BU Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Successful biomedical and public health studies require careful planning and conduct. Study... More
American Medical Association Names New JAMA Editor-In-Chief: Howard C. Bauchner, MD, to Become 16th Editor in Journal’s 127-Year History
Howard C. Bauchner, M.D., from Boston University School of Medicine and Public Health, will become the next JAMA Editor-in-Chief on July 1, 2011, according to Michael D. Maves, M.D., the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Medical Association. Dr. Bauchner will be the 16th editor in the journal’s 127-year history. More
BUMC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) Established
*Update* Read about the new Office of Professional Development and Postdoctoral Affairs Visit the website The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA), recently established on the Boston University Medical Campus, is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of postdocs and focuses on supporting them. The Office is housed within the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS). Postdoctoral fellows... More
BUSM Summer Research Program Serchuck Award Winners
The BUSM Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP) offers first-year Boston University medical students scholarships to complete eight-week research projects with a BUMC faculty member. This past summer 23 students participated in the program. These participants showcased their research results at the annual medical student summer research symposium on Feb. 10, 2011 in Hiebert Lounge. As... More
Novel Mechanism for Control of Gene Expression Revealed
GSDM Professor Dr. David Levin discovered recently a novel, evolutionarily conserved mechanism for the regulation of gene expression. The study describing this work titled, “Mpk1 MAPK Association with the Paf1 Complex Blocks Sen1-Mediated Premature Transcription Termination,” appears in the March 4 issue of Cell. Normal cell growth, embryonic development, and responses to stress, require... More
March 9 Public Health Forum: A Revolution in the Environmental Health Sciences Brings Challenges and Opportunities
Join John Peterson Myers, PhD, as he presents the talk "Bad News and Good News: A Revolution in the Environmental Health Sciences Brings Challenges and Opportunities" at the BUSPH Public Health Forum on Wednesday, March 9 at noon in BUSM Instructional Building, room L-112. Myers is the founder and CEO of Environmental Health Sciences, a Virginia-based... More
Diet and Exercise Restore Immune Function in Obesity
Boston University scientists say that moderate daily exercise and dietary control might reverse immune dysfunctions found in people with obesity. Overeating and a sedentary lifestyle are well-known risk factors for obesity, which is linked to hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, gum disease, certain cancers, and asthma. Research has suggested that a change in immune function is a predecessor... More
March 3: Health Law Scholar and Patients' Rights Activist Lori Andrews to Address Patient Safety
Lori Andrews, path-breaking bioethicist, legal activist, scholar, and author, will present the first annual Cathy Shine Lecture, Thursday, March 3, at Boston University School of Public Health. The lecture will be held at noon in Room L-110 of the Boston University School of Medicine Instructional Building on the Boston University Medical Campus, 72 East Concord St. More
BUSM Professor Co-authors First Book on Deaf Ethnicity
In the first book to examine the 300-year ancestry of deaf people in America, Richard C. Pillard, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and his co-authors argue that deaf people who use sign language to communicate are members of an ethnic group. The book, “The People of the... More
BUSPH Study Finds Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People at Increased Risk for Sexual Assault
A new study led by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) has found that across 75 different research reports, lesbian and bisexual women may be up to three times as likely as heterosexual women to report having been sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and that gay men appear to be approximately 15... More
GSDM Students Push Boundaries of Dentistry and Adventure in Guatemala
All three said they’d go back in a heartbeat. “I’ve wanted to do something like this ever since I was in undergrad,” said Ty Eriks DMD 11. “The experience was definitely life changing.” Eriks, along with Alex Vasserman DMD 11 and Tadeu Szpoganicz DMD 11 traveled to Poptun, Guatemala, January 6 to January 17, with Liga... More