Student Updates
NIH Grant Support Index to Help Younger/Mid-Career Researchers
The increasingly competitive environment for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding is threatening the future of biomedical research and the careers of thousands of scientists. NIH is considering mechanisms that would reduce this environment, and provide stable and sustained support to younger and mid-career researchers.
As early as October 2017, NIH will use a “Grant Support Index” to limit the number of NIH-funded grants a single PI can hold. The Index is a modified grant counting system that does not use cost as a measurement, but does recognize differing levels of intellectual and leadership commitment of funded PIs.
Learn more about the NIH rationale for limiting researchers to three R01-equivalent grants, and how the index will be implemented at these pages:
Rollout for New Space Request Solution
On Monday, June 5, the Medical Campus began a soft launch of the new space request solution 25Live (this web-based solution replaces R25.) During this launch, you will continue to request space via email using the same process you do now, but the confirmations and email sent to you will look different.
The Scheduling Team and a small number of Medical Campus Super-users have been actively testing 25Live including a variety of Academic (curriculum) and Event (non-curriculum) scenarios. The soft launch provides an opportunity for schedulers to work with the system in daily operations and address issues that may surface prior to the full campus launch.
The full launch of 25Live will take place in July and that date will be communicated in late June. At that time, users will enter requests for space directly through 25Live.
Training times and locations:
- Thursday, June 22 | 10-11:30 a.m. | Instructional Building, L1105
- Friday, June 23 | 10-11:30 a.m. | Instructional Building, L1105
- Thursday, June 29 | 10-11:30 a.m. | Instructional Building, L1110
- Friday, June 30 | 10-11:30 a.m. | Instructional Building, L1110
GMS STaRS Scholars Join BUMC Research Labs
The Summer Training as Research Scholars (STaRS) program welcomed 14 high achieving undergraduates from across the U.S. to an immersive 10-week summer research experience in laboratories across the Medical Campus. The program also includes five current first- and second-year medical students and one MD/PhD candidate at BUSM. STaRS received over 600 applications this year, for a final class of 19 students.
The STaRS program, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes of the NIH, has trained 67 scholars over its four-year duration, and has received over 1,400 applications. Trainees work alongside faculty and fellow students on cutting-edge biomedical research projects, build powerful and lasting relationships and set a course for college and career success. Past trainees have gone on to gain admission to highly competitive graduate programs and medical schools throughout the country, including programs at Boston University School of Medicine and the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences.
This summer, the program has selected 19 scholars from across the country to join BUMC laboratories and engage in an immersive research experience. Mentors include: Rhoda Au, PhD; Steven Borkan, MD; Francesca Seta, PhD; Andrew Wilson, MD; Jeffrey Siracuse, M.D., RPVI; Matt Layne, PhD; Jennie Luebke, PhD; Jiyoun Kim, MD; Feng Hui, MD PhD; Lee Wetzler, MD; Richard Wainford, PhD; Andrew Henderson, PhD; Deborah Sterns-Kurosawa, PhD; Camron Bryant, PhD; Karin Schon, PhD; Vickery Trinkaus-Randall, PhD; Hasmeena Kathuria, MD; Jean-Bosco Tagne, PhD and Lee Quinton, PhD.
STaRS is run through the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences and officially kicked off on Monday, June 5. It will conclude with a research symposium on Thursday, August 10 in Heibert Lounge from 11 a.m.- 3 p.m.
BUMC Celebrates 12th Annual John McCahan Medical Campus Education Day
Faculty, staff, students and trainees from across the Medical Campus gathered on Wednesday, May 31, for a day of educational sharing and networking through workshops, posters and presentations at the 12th annual John McCahan Medical Education day.
Keynote speaker Mary Deane Sorcinelli, EdD, co-principal investigator, Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, Association of American Universities (AAU), spoke to more than 100 attendees on professional development, mentoring and innovative teaching strategies.
This year’s theme, “Fostering a Culture of Teaching and Learning” was highlighted in many of the posters and workshops throughout the day and encouraged connections between educators across the Medical Campus.
Hundreds Enjoy Diversity Networking BBQ
More than 200 students, residents and faculty with diversity-related interests from across the Boston University Medical Campus, including Boston Medical Center, gathered for a networking mixer on Tuesday, May 23, on Talbot Green. 
Sponsored by offices invested in diversity and inclusion from across the Medical Campus, attendees included BUMC Provost and BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD; BMC Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Ravin Davidoff, MBBCh; Assistant Deans of Diversity Samantha Kaplan, MD (BUSM) and Yvette Cozier, PhD (BUSPH); BUSM Associate Dean Academic Affairs Doug Hughes, MD; GSDM Director of Diversity Larry Dunham, DDS; GSDM Assistant Dean of Students Joseph Calabrese, DMD; and Jeff Schneider, MD, BMC Office of Graduate Medical Education Designated Institutional Official.
The evening featured a lively performance by the BUMC Band, an ensemble of students and faculty, along with friends from the Berklee College of Music, all of whom enjoy a broad variety of music. The relaxed atmosphere provided an opportunity for individuals to get to know one another better, while enjoying the good weather, live music and food.
The Medical Campus is dedicated to educating, recruiting and retaining a multicultural constituency and believes that diversity is essential to the development of future leaders in healthcare and research to serve our community, our nation and the world.
New Process for Medical Campus Space Requests
Monday, May 22, Wednesday, May 24 and Thursday, May 25
11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Instructional Building, L1110
Do you request BU Medical Campus classroom or event space? Beginning in June there will be a new online, web-based system to reserve space. The new system is called 25Live and it allows you to check room availability, request space and communicate needs all within the web environment!
Attend a drop-in training session, open to all faculty and staff who request BU Medical Campus space.
- Monday, May 22 | 11 a.m.- 1:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, May 24 | 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
- Thursday, May 25 | 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Fourteen Faculty Promoted to Associate Professor
The following BUSM faculty have been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor:
 |
Megan R. Gerber MED, Medicine, is a nationally recognized expert intimate partner violence (IPV) detection and intervention in medical settings. Her research has focused on medical outcomes after interpersonal trauma. She currently serves as the Medical Director of women’s health at VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) and was appointed as Senior Consultant to Women’s Health Services, VA Central Office in October, 2016. Dr. Gerber co-chaired the national VA Taskforce on IPVthat drafted and implemented system-wide guidelines and recommendations. She leads the Boston site for the VA Women’s Health Practice-Based Research Network and serves as the Boston site director for the BU-VABHS Women’s Health Fellowship. In 2014, she received the David Littman Award for excellence in clinical care and teaching at VA Boston.
|
 |
Katherine Iverson, MED, Psychiatry, is an expert in identifying and treating intimate partner violence (IPV) among women veterans. A recent recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, she co-developed an innovative model of brief counseling for women who experience IPV, called Recovering from IPV through Strengths and Empowerment (RISE). In addition, she led the development of an IPV brochure to guide clinical response to IPV disclosures and raise awareness within VHA. Both the IPV screening items and brochure resulting from her VA-funded Career Development Award have been disseminated nationally within VHA. Dr. Iverson has chaired the National VHA Women’s Health IPV Research Work Group and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ Gender and Trauma Special Interest Group. She routinely consults with clinicians and policy makers to enhance the implementation of IPV services throughout VHA. Dr. Iverson is also a practicing therapist and supervisor in the VA Boston Healthcare System Women’s Stress Disorder Clinic.
|
 |
Jeffrey Kalish, MED, Surgery & Radiology, is widely recognized for his clinical research in endovascular and open vascular interventions, which has significantly improved the quality and effectiveness of ultrasound-guided access during peripheral vascular intervention. As Director of Endovascular Surgery and Associate Chief Medical Information officer at BMC, he developed and led the hospital’s Inferior Vena Cava Filter Retrieval Taskforce and presented the results at national meetings. In 2014 Dr. Kalish won the Society for Vascular Surgery’s E.J. Wylie Traveling Fellowship for his leadership in improving care for the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing. He adopted advaces observed at visits to military centers to his civilian practice and formed a multi-disciplinary team (STRONG) to benefit amputee patients at BMC. Dr. Kalish has been an excellent teacher and mentor to medical and physician assistant students, residents and fellows in vascular surgery, as well as junior faculty, not only improving their surgical skills but also encouraging clinical research initiatives.
|
 |
Barbara Kamholz, MED, Psychiatry, a Behavioral and Cognitive Psychologist is Associate Director, Outpatient Mental Health Services at VA Boston Healthcare System and Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Education for BMC’s Psychiatry Residency Training. She is nationally recognized for her well funded work in CBT practice and Education. Dr. Kamholz serves as Associate Editor of the journal, Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, Coordinator for Convention and Education Issues for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and Chair for the Professional Development Subcommittee of the Convention Committee for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
|
 |
Patricia Kavanagh, MED, Pediatrics, has a national reputation in systems approaches to improve the care of children and adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). The Quality Lead for the Department of Pediatrics, and attending physician in the BMC Pediatric ED, she and colleagues defined and refined treatment standards for children with sickle cell disease, relevant to the Boston-area patient population but also globally. Her federal grants include a K23 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. She led the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Sickle Cell Disease Newborn Screening Program at BMC. Nationally she Co-Founded and Chaired the Taskforce for Emergency Department Sickle Cell Care Collaborative and serves on the Oversight Steering Committee of HRSA’s Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program, its Data and Measurement Workgroup, the Steering Committee for the American Society of Hematology’s Sickle Cell Disease Coalition, and on the national Sickle Cell Disease Council for Change.
|
 |
Benjamin P. Linas, MED and SPH, Medicine and Epidemiology, respectively, is a national leader in hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection and HCV/HIV co-infection comparative- and cost-effectiveness research using computational biology, clinical epidemiology and clinical economics methods. Dr. Linas has an excellent track record of productivity, ample funding from the NIH and CDC, and a growing core of successful trainees. Dr. Linas Directs the HIV/HCV core of the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorders, HCV, and HIV, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in collaboration with Cornell, U Penn and Miami.
|
 |
Mark Logue, MED, Psychiatry, is nationally recognized for his genetic work in PTSD, Alzheimer Disease, and panic disorderand for publishing the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of PTSD and the first GWAS of Alzheimer Disease in African Americans. Dr. Logue is deeply involved in a PTSD genomics consortium whose large-scale meta-analysis GWAS was recently published in Molecular Psychiatry. He plays a leadership role in the PTSD consortium subgroup investigating the epigenetics of PTSD and co-leads a consortium subgroup examining the genetics of neuroimaging and PTSD. Dr. Logue holds a position at the National Center for PTSD and is a Review Editor in Neurogenomics: Frontiers in Genetics.
|
 |
James Pokines, MED, Anatomy & Neurobiology, a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (ABFA) is a leader in the fields of taphonomy, forensic archaeology, Paleolithic archaeology, and zooarchaeology. His worldwide field research includes the Nile Delta of Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, South Africa, Cantabrian Spain, and Bolivia. Dr. Pokines is the course director of five Forensic Anthropology graduate courses, and also the Forensic Anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is the incoming Vice President for the ABFA, where he also serves on multiple committees.
|
 |
Ashish Upadhyay, MED, Nephrology, is a recognized expert in cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease. He has examined the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease risk factors in kidney disease, led the evidence review team for the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) clinical practice guidelines on lipid management in kidney disease, and participated in the evidence review teams for the KDIGO guidelines on blood pressure and anemia management in kidney disease. Dr. Upadhyay is also an Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program where he leads the program’s scholarship curriculum, and oversees the inpatient education and evidence-based medicine teaching. Dr. Upadhyay also serves on the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation’s Renal Disease and Detoxification Committee, the primary source of national and international consensus standards for hemodialysis technology and dialysis water sterilization processes.
|
 |
Xaralabos Varelas, MED, Biochemistry, a creative cellular and molecular biologist whose research focuses on the development of tissues and organs, and how the underlying homeostatic signals go awry in cancer. His well-funded work on the regulation and function of the Hippo signaling pathway, an essential developmental pathway that has emerged as a central mediator of cancer,has identified novel regulators and functions for Hippo pathway signaling, and described important roles for this pathway in various cancers and in animal development.Dr. Varelas also mentors students within his research program and serves on a many student thesis committees on the Medical and Charles River campuses.
|
 |
Alexander Walley, MED, Medicine, has gained national and international prominence for his work examining and implementing naloxone rescue kits for the prevention of opioid overdose. His landmark publication in the British Medical Journal in 2013 is among the most influential papers documenting the effectiveness of this treatment. Dr. Walley founded the Boston Medical Center Addiction Consult Service in 2015. He directs the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program, one of the nine inaugural fellowships credentialed in 2011 by the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and National Institute on Drug Abuse-supported Fellow Immersion Training in Addiction Medicine Program. He is a core faculty member for the Chief Resident Immersion Training in Addiction Medicine Program and medical director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Program, which provides overdose prevention education and naloxone rescue kits to high risk individuals and their social networks in Massachusetts.
|
 |
Renda Soylemez Wiener, MED, Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep and Critical Care, an accomplished scholar in pulmonary and critical care outcomes research, has more than 80 publications (five among the top 1% of the most highly cited papers in clinical medicine per the Web of Science). Dr. Wiener’s research examines the harms of overly aggressive medical care and seeks to improve medical decision-making, implementation of patient-centered care, and de-implementation of low value and harmful practices. She has served on multiple clinical practice guideline panels and led development of regional and national policy for lung cancer screening and pulmonary nodule evaluation. She currently serves as the Acting Associate Director for the Bedford VA Center for Healthcare Organization & Implementation Research.
|
 |
Erika Wolf, MED, Psychiatry, a highly regarded clinical psychologist and scientist,has gained national acclaim for showing that PTSD is associated with accelerated cellular aging in DNA methylation data and that PTSD-related metabolic syndrome is associated with substantial cortical thinning. Her follow-up work suggested that metabolic syndrome occurs prematurely among veterans with PTSD and that PTSD longitudinally predicts increasing metabolic syndrome risk over time. Dr. Wolf received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a VA Patient Care Service Award, and early career investigator awards from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and Division 56 of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Wolf supervises and trains clinical psychology interns and post-doctoral fellows at VA Boston Healthcare System in psychological assessments, psychotherapy, and research skills, including data analyses and manuscript writing. She also serves on the editorial boards of four scientific journals.
|
 |
Ziming Xuan, SPH, Community Health Sciences, has attained national acclaim for his work on the social-contextual determinants (especially the role of health policies on complex risky behaviors and diseases among vulnerable populations), and the assessment, implementation and evaluation of social-behavioral interventions to promote healthy behaviors and enhance community well-being. He is gaining international influence as an invited speaker on alcohol problems in China and as an advisor to the World Health Organization on alcohol advertising and promotion in Africa. In addition to his research and teaching responsibilities, he serves as an assistant field editor for the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, and as a reviewer for 11 scientific journals, including the American Journal of Epidemiology, American Journal of Public Health and Pediatrics. |
Memorial Day Parking and Transportation Information
Memorial Day is observed on Monday, May 29.
Shuttle Services
There will be no shuttle services, including the HealthNet service and Boston University Bus.
Parking
All parking facilities will be open. 610 Garage monthly parkers may park in the 710 Albany St. or Doctors Office Building (DOB) garages. All valid 610 Garage access will be programmed to work in the 710 Albany Street and DOB garages on Monday, May 29 ONLY. Those who are not enrolled in the monthly parking program may park in 710 and DOB garages for $7 on Monday, May 29 ONLY.
MBTA
The MBTA is operating on a Sunday schedule, except the CT buses (CT1, CT3) which will not be operating. The Commuter Rail is operating on a Sunday schedule. For detail information, please visit http://www.mbta.com/events/
Any questions? Please call TranSComm at 638-7473 or the Parking Office at 638-4915.
New Features Supplement BU Profiles
A new release of BU Profiles has launched. With 3,300 faculty, postdocs, students and others having a profile, you can use BU Profiles to find specific expertise and identify potential collaborators and mentors.
This release has several New Features. View screenshots and more at http://profiles.bu.edu/whatsnew/.
New Features
- A new design with tabbed navigation and improved compatibility for mobile devices.
- BU and BMC sponsored research, updated monthly.
- Altmetric (alternative research metrics) adds a real-time view of the reach and influence of your work using online mentions and shares of publications across social media sites, blogs, mainstream media and more.
- View related profiles to quickly view co-author profiles from your publications.
- Links to PMID, PMCID and DOI references when available.
- Graduate degrees are now shown for faculty.
Please use this feedback form to make suggestions or request a BU Profile.
Cataldo Leone Elected Faculty Council Vice Chair
Cataldo Leone, DMD, DMSc, GSDM Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, Periodontology and Molecular & Cell Biology, has been appointed as the Vice Chair of the Boston University Faculty Council, effective at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year.