Category: News

BU Researchers Awarded NIH Grant to Investigate Chronic Wound Stress as a Driver of Aging

(Boston)–-Researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have received a two-year, $686,700 R61 grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) to explore whether chronic wound stress accelerates the aging process and contributes to functional decline. The project, “Stress-Induced Aging: Investigating Chronic Wound Stress as a Catalyst for Systemic Aging and […]

BU Researcher Awarded NIH Grant to Address Disparities for Firearm Violence Victims

(Boston)—Dane Scantling, DO, MPH, FACS, assistant professor of surgery at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has received a three-year, $500,256 K08 grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to fund his project, “Improving access to trauma care for victims of firearm violence.” Firearm injuries have become a […]

Medical Parole Needs Reform

BU researcher proposes evaluations be done by an external review board, rather than parole boards or prison commissioners (Boston)—Compassionate release, or medical parole, describes a legal pathway for people who are incarcerated to be released because of severe illness. Almost every state has policies overseeing the release of individuals who are medically vulnerable, which includes […]

New Study Seeks to Understand the Links between Social Drivers of Health by Investigating Cardiovascular Health in Young Adults

“Detailing childhood social determinants helps target those factors that drive cardiovascular disease in adulthood” (Boston)—Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death and disability for adults in the U.S.Recent projections from the American Heart Association suggest that by 2050, more than 45 million American adults will have clinical CVD and more than 184 million […]

BU Researchers Identify Mutational Signatures and Tumor Activity in Chinese Patients

Identifying the lifestyle and clinical factors that correlate with these mutation-causing processes will help develop better strategies for prevention (Boston)—Many different mutational signatures, or “fingerprints” of DNA damage have been identified across different tumor types which can provide a record of environmental exposure or clues about the etiology of carcinogenesis. Most of the mutational signature […]

New CTSA Ansible is out! NCATS Updates

Catch NCATS Director Michael Kurilla’s end-of-year reflections, explore new working groups on AI in healthcare and pediatric clinical trials, and read an inspiring Hub Spotlight on how research saved one life and changed many others. Read it here: https://mailchi.mp/ccos/ctsa-ansible-august-7-2025

Trust & Learning Cardiac Assessment

BU Researchers Find that New Curriculum’s Focus on Patient Trust Makes Learning Bedside Cardiac Assessment Meaningful “Researchers used an educational approach in which the process of learning was seen as meaningful, not just learning isolated facts or skills.” (Boston) — The patient–doctor relationship is built on trust—not only in a doctor’s knowledge and skills, but […]

BU Researchers Discover Protein Necessary for SARS-CoV-2 to Evade the Body’s Defenses

“Targeting this protein could offer a new way to fight COVID-19” (Boston)—The human body is naturally equipped with defenses to fight off viral infections. For a virus to successfully infect it, it must first overcome these defenses. To do so, viruses have evolved specialized tools—proteins known as “virulence factors”—that help them shut down or dodge […]

Press Release: Atrial Fibrillation: A Review

(Boston)—In the U.S., atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat in the upper chambers of the heart, affects up to one in three people in their lifetime. Significant complications associated with this condition include ischemic stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, dementia and mortality. In a new review article […]