SPH Welcomes New Global Health Chair
Patricia Hibberd wants to leverage technology to save young lives When Patricia Hibberd (above) looks at her smartphone, she sees a chance to save young lives. Hibberd, the new chair of the School of Public Health’s Department of Global Health, has been working in Malawi, India, and Pakistan to develop a low-cost thermal imaging system […]
New Tool to Diagnose Zika
BU researcher on team that created prototype for simple new test Dana Braff (ENG’17), one of the lead authors on a Cell paper that describes a prototype for a new Zika diagnostic (photo above). Zika grabbed the world’s attention in late 2015, when scientists in Brazil began to suspect a connection between the virus and […]
Zika: The Next Pandemic
SPH professor concerned about virus, but also “prepared to be alarmed” The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue, chikungunya, and zika. On February 1, 2016, Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared Zika virus “a public health emergency of international concern.” Chan’s statement said the 2016 outbreak is an “extraordinary event” and […]
BU Awarded $23.4 Million NIH Grant
For turning discoveries into treatments, diagnostics, improved health David Center directs Boston University’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute, which received an NIH renewal grant to help investigators on both campuses conduct multidisciplinary clinical research. Photo by Cydney Scott. BU’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has been awarded a $23.4 million, four-year National Institutes of […]
Molecule Makers
A unique chemical library offers new hope for hard-to-treat diseases By Kate Becker and photos by Dan Aguirre. Can a molecule be beautiful? As director of BU’s Center for Molecular Discovery (CMD), John Porco has helped to create some 7,000 new molecules. To a chemist’s eye, their ornate “architecture” makes them beautiful, says Porco. But […]
$1.6 NIH Grant for Pneumonia Research
Medical School professor will study how immunity to the disease develops and how it protects certain people “The goal of this study is to better define the immune mechanisms preventing pneumonia during late childhood and much of adulthood,” says Joseph Mizgerd. Photo by Cydney Scott. Joseph Mizgerd, a professor of medicine, microbiology, and biochemistry at […]
Fighting a Deadly Virus
Hartwell Award to help MED prof explore new ways to tackle RSV Rachel Fearns, a MED associate professor of microbiology and winner of a 2014 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award, studies the molecular mechanisms within RSV, a common virus that is a major cause of pneumonia in infants and young children. Photo (to the left) […]
RNA Rising
Dental school scientist wins $2 million from NIH to study RNA in African sleeping sickness By: Barbara Moran Biologist Inna Afasizheva was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the NIH. Her decades of work have increased our understanding of a process called RNA editing. Photo by Michael D. Spencer. In 1953, James Watson […]
Preventing an Antibiotic Apocalypse
The business model for drug innovation is broken — universities key to figuring out fixes, says health law prof By: Sara Rimer Kevin Outterson is a leading scholar on the economic and legal global framework needed to combat resistance and keep antibiotics available for future generations. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi. When Kevin Outterson, a professor […]
Five BU Medical Campus Faculty Honored by Their Peers
Elected Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Five faculty at the Boston University Medical Campus have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. David Michael Center, BU School of Medicine (MED) professor of medicine and biochemistry and associate provost […]