News
BUSM Lecture to Honor Victim of 9/11 Tragedy
BUSM will present the Eighth Annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture in Immunology on Friday, September 11, 2009 at noon in the School's Keefer Auditorium. The annual lecture honors Sue Kim Hanson, MA, PhD '02, a former researcher in BUSM's Pulmonary Center. Kim Hanson, along with her husband and daughter, were passengers on one of... More
Grodin Honored for Commitment to Public Health and Justice
Michael Grodin, professor of health law, bioethics and human rights at BU School of Public Health, was recently awarded the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Diversity Council Justice Award in recognition of his "dedication to peace, justice, public health and human rights." The Diversity Council is an advisory body of MDPH that advances diversity within... More
Sept. 9 Public Health Forum: Making Good on Universal Health Coverage in Massachusetts
On September 9, join Christina Severin, SPH '95, as she discusses universal health care coverage in Massachusetts. Severin is president of Network Health, a managed-care organization that provides state-subsidized coverage to thousands of residents in Massachusetts. It insures more than 160,000 MassHealth and Commonwealth Care patients, and is one of five non-profits contracted by the state... More
BUMC Flu Vaccination Schedule
Seasonal Flu and H1N1 Vaccines Will Be Available for Students, Faculty and Staff This message is from the Boston Medical Center Flu Task Force -- Boston Medical Center will be offering the seasonal influenza vaccine and H1N1 influenza vaccine to employees, students, licensed independent practitioners (LIPs) and patients over the next several months. All employees, students... More
BUSM researchers discover Zcchc11-dependent uridylation of microRNA directs cytokine expression
BUSM researchers have discovered a novel mechanism that cells use to regulate gene expression. A type of molecule called microRNA is capable of inhibiting expression of select genes. The study, which was spearheaded by Matthew R. Jones, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and appears on-line in Nature Cell Biology, shows that a specific enzyme... More
Researchers Studying Possible Analgesic Affects of Testosterone
The Androgen Clinical Research Unit (ACRU) at Boston Medical Center in conjunction with Boston University is dedicated to conducting research that advances the understanding of the effects of testosterone administration on various clinical outcomes. The mission at ACRU is to evaluate the effects of testosterone on physical function, sexual function, muscle strength, metabolism, cardiovascular risks, and... More
FASEB Journal Highlights Dr. Xiuli Sun's Research
The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) published Research Associate Xiuli Sun's ORAL BIO 08 abstract titled, "Kinetics of histatin proteolysis in whole saliva and the effect on bioactive domains with metal-binding, antifungal, and wound-healing properties," in the August 2009 issue. The FASEB Journal publication details research that Dr. Sun has... More
Outreach Van Project (OVP) Seeks Physician Volunteers
The Outreach Van Project (OVP) is in search of physicians to supervise medical efforts on Thursday evenings. OVP does not require any specific physician specialty, skills, or language fluency. The care OVP provides is very basic and anything physicians are not comfortable treating is referred to Boston Medical Center (BMC). The van... More
Researchers Find Alcoholics Display Abnormal Brain Activity When Processing Facial Expressions
BUSM researchers have found that individuals who have a long history of alcoholism, but who have been abstinent for at least a month up to many years, showed abnormal brain activity when looking at facial expressions of others. The findings, which appear in the August 11 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, confirm that... More
Disclosing Genetic Risk for Alzheimer's Disease Does Not Cause Psychological Distress
Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers have shown that disclosing genetic risk information to adult children of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) who request this information does not result in significant short-term psychological distress. The report from the REVEAL Study*, which appears in the July 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first randomized trial to disclose to participants whether or not they carried the ε4 variant of the APOE gene, a variant that has been found to increase the risk of developing AD. More
Demanding Quality: BUMC Faculty Helping to Create New Medicare Payment Paradigm
In the complicated, multi-billion dollar business of Medicare reimbursement, one important consideration -- quality -- has been neglected when determining what doctors and hospitals get paid for the services they deliver. For nearly 40 years, the federal government has been a passive payer of the medical bills for the nation's largest health plan, anteing up for... More
Workshop July 29: When Disaster Strikes…Is BUMC Prepared?
On July 29, Steve Morash, director of emergency planning and response at Boston University, will lead a seminar on BUMC's plan for addressing major crises at BU. This is an excellent opportunity for students, staff, faculty and administrators to learn about how the services provided by the schools and hospitals lining Albany Street would respond... More
Patient Journey in the UK National Health Service, topic of Grand Rounds Lecture
Rodger Charlton, MD, FRCGP, Associate Clinical Professor in Medical Education and Lead for GP Specialty Teaching at Warwick Medical School, will be speaking at the Department of Family Medicine Grand Rounds on the "Patient Journey in the UK National Health Service". The event will be held on Tuesday, July 28 from 12-1 in the... More
BUSM and GSDM Receive $152K for Student Scholarships
Financially disadvantaged students accepted at BUSM and GSDM have reason to cheer. The Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently awarded BUSM $125,502 and GSDM $26,893 through the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students program. Financially needy students from disadvantaged backgrounds enrolled full-time in health professions will be given scholarships through... More
McCahan Medical Campus Education Day Showcases Outstanding Educational Activities
The fourth annual John McCahan Education Day was held on June 22, 2009 at the Boston University School of Medicine. This year's event, sponsored by Boston University's Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Public Health, provided participants from all three schools with the opportunity to showcase their scholarly activities in education and to learn new skills. Faculty, trainees, and staff attended workshops, a poster session, and presentations by the recipients of best poster abstracts. More
Alice Jacobs, MD Receives American Heart Association Award
Alice K. Jacobs, M.D., professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Interventional Cardiology at Boston Medical Center received the American Heart Association Gold Heart Award. The award is the highest honor the association gives to volunteers who have provided continued, distinguished service. More
Franzblau Honored by Einstein College of Medicine
Carl Franzblau, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and associate dean Division of Graduate Medical Sciences received a Distinguished PhD Alumnus Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine on June 2, 2009. Dr. Franzblau is a member of the class of 1962 and was one of the first students to be... More
President Names First Warren Professors
President Robert A. Brown has appointed two faculty members as the first William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professors at Boston University: George Annas, the Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights and chair of the School of Public Health department of health law, bioethics and human rights, and James Collins, a College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering. More
Holick Receives Linus Pauling Prize for Health Research
Michael Holick, MD, a professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at BUSM who has revolutionized the understanding of vitamin D and its role in disease prevention, received the $50,000 Linus Pauling Institute Prize for Health Research. The prize was presented at a biennial conference, Diet and Optimum Health, sponsored by the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon... More
BUSM's CityLab Academy Graduation a Success
Thirty-one students graduated from Boston University School of Medicine's (BUSM) CityLab Academy today. CityLab Academy is a free nine-month academic and laboratory skills training program for qualified high school graduates interested in pursuing a career and further education in biotechnology. Guest speakers at the ceremony included Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Karen Antman, MD, provost of... More
Photographs of UV Exposure Can Impact Sunburns in Preteens
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that among preteens, the use of photographs to measure ultraviolet (UV) exposure, could motivate them to improve sun protection practices and limit number of sunburns. These findings appear in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of the Dermatology Nurses' Association. More
Flu Numbers Climb a Bit, Fear Lessens a Lot
Although the number of people infected with H1N1 (swine) flu continues to climb, health officials in Massachusetts and elsewhere are worrying less about its virulence. Genetic and epidemiological data suggest that this strain of flu may be no more virulent than strains that surface every year. More
Dental School Resident Recovering from ‘Probable' Swine Flu
Orthodontic clinic closed through May 8 A resident at Boston University's Goldman School of Dental Medicine has been identified by Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) authorities as having a probable case of swine flu, also known as H1N1. The resident, who is recovering, felt sick on April 28 and was tested for the swine flu virus... More
SPH Public Health Forum: Malaria Elimination – Hype or Hope?
On May 13 join Laurence Slutsker, MD, MPH, at the SPH Public Health Forum as he presents the talk "Malaria Elimination - Hype or Hope?" Dr. Slutsker is chief of the Malaria Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and clinical assistant professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He joined the... More
BUMC Facilities Management Teams with Neighborhood Associations to Make Boston Shine
Tyrone Crumble and Jesus Viera, members of BUMC's Office of Facilities Management teamed up with members of the Blackstone/Franklin Square and Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Associations to spruce up parks bordering the Boston University Medical Campus. The effort is part of Boston Shines, the City of Boston's bi-annual city-wide neighborhood cleanup program. More