9:15 am - 10:30 am: Welcome New BIDMC Faculty – Flash Talks
Daniel Hochbaum, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Endocrinology
“Hochbaum Lab: Mechanisms Coordinating Brain and Body"
Daniel Hochbaum is a principal investigator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an assistant professor at HMS. Utilizing a bottom-up approach spanning molecules, synapses, circuits, and behavior, his work explores how the brain and body are coordinated in the face of ever-changing environments and experiences, and how this coordination frays in the context of neurological and metabolic disease. His work has been recognized by various awards and honors, including election to the Society of Fellows at Harvard University as a Junior Fellow, and a Career Award at the Scientific Interface, from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Virology & Vaccine Research
"An Attenuated Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (LCMV) Vector Enhances Tumor Control in Mice via IFN-I"
Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster is a Principal Investigator at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC. He completed his doctoral studies with Dr. Rafi Ahmed at Emory University, where he studied immune responses to viral infections. He then completed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Dan Barouch at BIDMC. Dr. Penaloza-MacMaster recently relocated his laboratory from Northwestern University, where he served as an Associate Professor. His research program is focused on developing improved vaccines and immunotherapies for viral infections and cancer. Dr. Penaloza-MacMaster also serves as an Associate Editor at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and is a Standing Member of the NIH Host Defense Study Section. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a Task Force Advisor for the Illinois Department of Public Health Director, providing guidance on vaccine deployment strategies for the state of Illinois. He is also the recipient of the 2025 NIH Director’s DP1 Pioneer Award to pursue innovative research on vaccines. Today, he will present recent data from his laboratory on the use of arenavirus vaccine vectors to enhance antitumor immunity.
Chenxi Qiu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
"Intron Retention and Proteotoxicity: ‘Chicken and Egg' in Alzheimer’s Disease”
Chenxi Qiu is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. His lab studies how early molecular mechanisms contribute to neurodegeneration, and tackles this question using molecular biology, iPSC-derived neurons, genomics, and in vivo systems. Prior to joining BIDMC, he trained in Bruce Yankner’s lab at Harvard Medical School, where he received K99/R00 support to establish his independent program.
Nara Michaelson, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
“Imaging Demyelination in Multiple Sclerosis”
Nara Michaelson is an attending neurologist and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who started on August 1st, 2025. Originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, she first moved to the east coast to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and majored in Brain & Cognitive Sciences (Course IX). She attended Dartmouth Medical School, where she was the President of the Student Interest Group in Neurology (SIGN) chapter and organized events to raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. She completed her neurology residency at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. There she worked with Dr. Susan Gauthier studying the impact of paramagnetic rim lesions (PRLs) in MS minority populations. More recently, she finished her Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Fellowship at Mass General Brigham in Boston, MA prior to starting at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She has a strong interest in clinical trial design, and she was awarded an Anne B Young/Translational Neuroscience fellowship to study drug development in collaboration with scientists at Biogen. In addition, she received a Sylvia Lawry fellowship from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). Her extracurricular interests include promoting the use of creative writing in medicine, such as through short stories and reflective poetry.
Elena Piskounova, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology
"Mechanisms of Metastasis -The role of the Integrated Stress Response”
Elena Piskounova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and the Cancer Center at BIDMC. She has recently joined BIDMC and HMS from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. Originally from Russia, Dr. Piskounova received combined Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from University of Oxford, UK. She then went on to complete her PhD training in Biological and Biomedical Sciences in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Gregory at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Piskounova did her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Sean Morrison at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she discovered that oxidative stress is a major barrier for metastasis and identified key metabolic adaptations required for the survival of metastasizing cancer cells. Dr. Piskounova’s laboratory studies unique mechanisms of stress resistance that enable metastasis in order to identify novel therapeutic targets specific to metastatic disease.
Jingyi Wu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Genetics
"Cancer Fitness and Therapeutics Mechanisms Through an Epigenetic Lens"
Jingyi Wu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Cancer Center, where she launched her lab in January this year. She has been studying epigenetics for 13 years, with an interdisciplinary background in cancer biology, developmental biology, epigenetics, genomics, and bioinformatics. Her lab focuses on developing and applying cutting-edge genomic technologies to uncover the role of epigenetic regulation in cancer.
Young-Kwon Hong, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Vascular Biology
"Clearing Brain Waste by Stimulating Brain Lymphatics"
Young-Kwon Hong recently joined the Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), following his tenure at the University of Southern California, where he served as a Professor and Director of Basic and Translational Research. His research centers on the critical role of the lymphatic system in regulating fluid homeostasis and facilitating the clearance of tissue and cellular waste. In today’s presentation, Dr. Hong will highlight his team’s recent discoveries and technological innovations aimed at enhancing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage via the lymphatic system—a novel approach with significant implications for promoting and preserving brain health.
Steven Grover, PhD
Staff Scientist II, Department of Medicine, Hemostasis & Thrombosis
"C1-inhibitor and VTE Risk"
Steven Grover recently joined the Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis at BIDMC as a principal investigator. Dr Grover obtained a BSc from the University of Manchester and a PhD from King’s College London, conducting postdoctoral training at both BIDMC and UNC Chapel Hill. Before joining BIDMC Dr. Grover was a Research Assistant Professor at the UNC Chapel Hill. Dr Grover’s lab studies novel mechanistic drivers of venous thromboembolism, leveraging clinical epidemiology, patient samples and preclinical disease models with a current focus on the endogenous anticoagulant C1-inhibitor.
11:30 am – 12 pm: Morning Keynote Presentation
George Church, PhD
Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard and MIT
Founding Core Faculty & Lead, Synthetic Biology, Wyss Institute at Harvard University
“Toward Affordable Protein, Gene, Cell & Organ Therapies.”
George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world's only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental & Trait data (GET Conference). His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994 . His innovations have contributed to nearly all "next generation" DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This plus his lab's work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics ( Knome/PierianDx, Alacris, Nebula, Veritas ) & synthetic biology / therapeutics ( AbVitro/Juno, Gen9/enEvolv/Zymergen/Warpdrive/Gingko, Editas, Egenesis ). He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, ELSI, environmental & biosecurity policies. He was director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and 3 NIH Centers for Excellence in Genomic Science (2004-2020). His honors include election to NAS & NAE & Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 716 papers, 156 patent publications & a book (Regenesis).
1:15 pm – 1:45 pm: Afternoon Keynote Presentation
C. Ronald Kahn, MD
Chief Academic Officer, Joslin Diabetes Center
Section Head, Integrative Physiology and Metabolism, Joslin Diabetes Center
Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
“New Insights into Insulin Action and Insulin Resistance: From Molecules to Human Disease"
C. Ronald Kahn is an internationally recognized expert in diabetes and obesity research, as well as a preeminent investigator in the area of insulin signal transduction and mechanisms of altered signaling in diabetes and metabolic disease. Dr. Kahn is Head of the Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism at Joslin Diabetes Center and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kahn served as Research Director of Joslin Diabetes Center from 1981 to 2000 and served as President of Joslin Diabetes Center from 2000 to 2007. He is currently the Center’s Chief Academic Officer. Dr. Kahn has received more than 70 awards and honors, including the Wolf Prize in Medicine, the Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians and the highest honors of the American Diabetes Association, U.S. and British Endocrine Societies, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science and National Academy of Medicine. He has authored more than 700 original publications and 200 reviews and chapters. Dr. Kahn holds undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Louisville. He also holds an honorary Master of Science from Harvard University, honorary Doctorates from the University of Paris, University of Louisville, University of Geneva, Washington University in St. Louis, Louisiana State University and the University of Copenhagen and is an honorary Professor and Director of the Diabetes Center at Peking University School of Medicine.
1:45 pm - 2:30 pm: Joslin and BIDMC: A Journey of Collaborative Excellence
Harold F. Dvorak, MD, Honored Guest Attendee
Professor Emeritus of Pathology at Harvard Medical School
Founding Director of the Center for Vascular Biology Research at BIDMC
Co-founder and Head of the scientific advisory board, Angiex
Hal Dvorak is an internationally renowned physician-scientist whose pioneering work has profoundly shaped our understanding of vascular biology, cancer, and chronic diseases such as diabetes. Dr. Dvorak completed his MD at HMS in 1963 and has been a Professor at HMS for 58 years. He is best known for his discovery of “vascular permeability factor,” also known as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) which plays a central role in angiogenesis and abnormal blood vessel formation. VEGF is the target of the blockbuster first-in-class cancer therapeutic Avastin and the related therapeutic Lucentis for Age-related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Retinopathy, which was co-developed by Genentech and Dr. George King (Joslin Diabetes Center). Prof Dvorak has been awarded the Canada Gairdner International Award, which is considered the Canadian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
George L. King, MD
Director of Research, Senior Vice President, and Head of the Section on Vascular Cell Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center
“Are Cardiovascular Diseases Different in T1D & T2D?”
George L. King is the Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center, as well as a Thomas J. Beatson, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine, internal medicine residency at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals in Seattle and endocrinology fellowships the National Institutes of Health. Dr. King has published over 350 papers and multiple books and patents. Dr. King’s work focuses on finding the causes of diabetic complications, founder of The Medalist Study to discover new treatments for diabetic complications, and understanding the reasons for the high rate of diabetes in Asian Americans. His laboratory discovered that VEGF, the protein most responsible for causing the severe form of diabetic eye disease. Dr. King has received numerous awards: Cogan Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology; Alcon Award for Vision Research, Harold Amos Diversity Award from Harvard Medical School; the Chinese American Medical Society Scientific Award; The Man of Year Award from The Chinese Hospital of San Francisco; the 2015 Edwin Bierman Award from the American Diabetes Association; with several others, the Champalimaud Award for Vision, the largest award in the vision research field and Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Levine Award from the JDRF 2016. Dr. King is a member of The Association of American Physicians and a fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Connie W. Tsao, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine, BIDMC
Director, Cardiac MRI
“Myocardial Characterization of Long Duration Type 1 Diabetes using Cardiac MRI”
Connie W. Tsao is a non-invasive cardiologist and cardiovascular epidemiologist, Director of Cardiac MRI in the Cardiovascular Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tsao has received research funding from the AHA, ACC, and NIH, and her research focuses on applications of advanced cardiovascular imaging, particularly using cardiovascular MRI, to identify subclinical disease and prognosis in cardiovascular outcomes, including general and cerebrovascular CVD as well as cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Dr. Tsao is an active member of several national and international societal committees, including the American Heart Association and Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. With the American Heart Association, she is Past Chair of the Statistics Committee that writes the annual Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update, Council on Epidemiology and Prevention’s Leadership Committee, and a past Chair of the Early Career Committee. Dr. Tsao is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and JACC: Advances.
Barbara B. Kahn, MD
Vice Chair for Research Strategy, Department of Medicine
George R. Minot Professor of Medicine, HMS
Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Associate Director of the Boston Area Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center
“35 years of collaborations with Joslin investigators, which have advanced the understanding of diabetes pathogenesis”
Barbara Kahn is recognized internationally for her scientific discoveries illuminating the molecular mechanisms underlying obesity and Type 2 diabetes, including the regulation of insulin sensitivity, adipocyte biology, and inter-tissue communication. Dr. Kahn’s seminal studies demonstrated the role of adipocytes as master regulators of whole-body insulin-sensitivity. Dr. Kahn has won numerous awards for her scientific discoveries in the fields of diabetes and endocrinology. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: Concurrent Session 1 - Breakthroughs and Cutting-Edge Research at BIDMC, Highlighting Key Advances in Immunology
Joji Fujisaki, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesia
“Immune privilege of the hematopoietic stem cell niche”
My research over the past 20 years has been at the unique interface of stem cell biology and immunology. My overarching research goal is to investigate the immunological attributes of the stem cell niches. We have particularly focused on testing whether somatic stem cell niches serve as an immunological sanctuary for normal and malignant stem cells, termed the immune privileged site. Despite the growing application of tumor immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation, the basic regulatory mechanisms of the immune response against stem cells, either normal or malignant, have remained largely unexplored. I have received MD from University of Tokyo. I have been trained in Hematology and Oncology at National Cancer Center in Japan. Subsequently, I joined to Dr. Charles Lin’s group in MGH as a postdoctoral fellow. My work in MGH resulted in my first authored manuscript published in Nature in 2011, where I was privileged to be one of the corresponding authors, as well as another manuscript in Nature (2009). After being awarded a PhD in 2010, in 2012, I have been recruited as an Assistant Professor, at Columbia Center for Translational Immunology, Columbia University, which Dr. Megan Sykes directs. My own group has demonstrated that the HSC niche accommodates special CD150Hi niche-residential regulatory T cells (Tregs)”. These CD150Hi niche Tregs impart immune privilege (Cell Stem Cell). After the promotion to Associate Professor in Columbia University, I have been recruited as Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Center for Inflammation Research, Department of Anesthesia, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). My most recent work at BIDMC has demonstrated highly immune-privileged, primitive late-rising HSCs, amongst other stem cells, shielded by highly immunoprotective BM niches, composed of specialized ciliated CD200Hi capillaries and distinctly activated niche Tregs. This work has been published in Nature (2025). The work has been highlighted in Cell Research.
Vicki Boussiotis, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Medicine
“Immune-mediated Cardiovascular Complications of Checkpoint Immunotherapy”
Vicki Boussiotis obtained her MD/PhD from the University of Athens, Greece, where she also completed clinical training in Internal Medicine and Hematology. She then moved to Dana-Farber Cancer institute for postdoctoral training and joined a laboratory doing groundbreaking research that changed the route of Immunology: the discovery of the B7 family of costimulatory molecules. Her first postdoctoral project revealed that additional B7-like molecules exist and led to the discovery of the second member of the B7 family, which she named B7-2 (later clustered as CD86). She had an indispensable role in the discovery of PD-L1 and PD-L2 as members of the B7 superfamily, their expression in cancer, and their immunosuppressive function. She also completed training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and clinical Oncology at the Partner’s Fellowship program. Currently, her lab is studying how signaling, metabolic, and epigenetic reprogramming mediated by checkpoint receptors affect the fate of innate and adaptive immune cells toward productive immunity vs immune paralysis, and identifying mechanisms regulating the fate of hematopoietic cells in the context of cancer. Her vision is to unify and integrate these discoveries into new approaches that will evolve into standard of care personalized diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer patients. As a physician-scientist, she is an attending physician at the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Bone Marrow Transplantation at BIDMC. She is also a member of the Cancer Immunology Program of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and a faculty member of Harvard Immunology Graduate Program.
Sizun Jiang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research
“Spatial-omics To Interrogate Host-Disease Interactions”
Sizun Jiang is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute. He completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University studying host-pathogen interactions, followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University focusing on spatial technologies. His laboratory investigates viral pathogenesis, tumor biology, and immune dysregulation through the development of spatial technology platforms and computational approaches. Dr. Jiang's research has been recognized through awards from HHMI, the Broad Institute, NIAID, Harvard, and other leading institutions.
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: Concurrent Session 2 - Breakthroughs and Cutting-Edge Research at BIDMC, Highlighting Key Advances in Neuroscience
Recep Ozdemir, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neurology
“Personalized Non-invasive Brain Stimulation to Study & Modulate Human Brain Function”
Recep Ozdemir is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA, a Research Scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Director of the Electroencephalographic Signal Processing Core at the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation. Dr. Ozdemir has a broad background in human performance and extensive experience in the application of noninvasive brain stimulation, neuroimaging, and electrophysiology, as well as in developing biomedical signal processing pipelines for large-scale data analyses. He has been involved in multiple multi-center NIH-funded research projects investigating the mechanisms of cortical and spinal plasticity in humans. His current research focuses on the neurophysiology of cognitive brain aging in health and disease, and on developing computational methods to detect abnormalities in brain physiology as potential biomarkers of impaired cognitive function.
Maria Mavrikaki, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pathology
“Spatial Transcriptomics Study of the Human Frontal Cortex”
Maria Mavrikaki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School. Maria is a neuroscientist who transitioned from McLean Hospital and Harvard's Department of Psychiatry to join BIDMC in 2019 as an Instructor in Frank Slack’s lab. She established her independent lab at BIDMC in 2024. Her pioneering research, which revealed association between severe COVID-19 and molecular signatures of brain aging, has been highlighted in top-tier journals and major media outlets. Building on this work, her ongoing research explores the spatial topography of molecular signatures of brain aging, supported by an R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging. Today, she will share her current work, which uses state-of-the-art spatial transcriptomics to uncover how the human brain changes with age and to better understand cognitive aging.
Hanneke Verstegen, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
“Unraveling the Neural Control of Lower Urinary Tract Function”
Hanneke Verstegen is a neuroscientist with a broad background in neuroscience research and with specific training in molecular and cellular biology and behavioral and systems neuroscience. Dr. Verstegen has expertise in stereotaxic surgery techniques and the design and execution of experimental paradigms employing cutting edge neuroscience techniques, and mouse genetics. She earned her Ph.D. within the Neuroscience and Brain Technologies Department at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Her doctoral thesis research involved elucidating signaling pathways and protein kinases that control synaptic vesicles to release their neurotransmitter content. Following conferral of her doctorate, she joined Dr. Bradford Lowell’s laboratory at BIDMC/ Harvard Medical School as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In the Lowell lab, she focused on understanding the ‘neural circuit basis’ for the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure, with a specific emphasis on the identification and characterization of neuronal cell subpopulations within specific nuclei of the hypothalamus. Her training included the utilization of genetically engineered mice in combination with AAV technology, opto- and chemogenetics, and in vivo fiber photometry. The overarching goal was to link the activity of defined subpopulations of neurons with specific neurobehavioral and physiological responses. Dr. Verstegen’s current research interests include the neural control of lower urinary tract (LUT) function. Because disturbances in nervous system regulation of bladder and urethral sphincter function can cause or contribute to LUT symptoms (LUTS), understanding these control circuits may lead to potential therapies. The Verstegen lab’s research projects focus on identifying neuron populations involved in successful bladder function, their regulation by upstream targets and circuits and whether inhibitory input to this void-triggering pathway may promote urinary continence. Their studies aim to reveal how forebrain, brainstem and spinal inputs converge in the control of the bladder.
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: Concurrent Session 3 - Breakthroughs and Cutting-Edge Research at BIDMC, Highlighting Key Advances in Cancer
Alex Toker, PhD
Professor, Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School
Chief of Division of Signal Transduction at Beth Israel Deaconess, Medical Center (BIDMC), Associate Director of Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC, Ludwig Investigator, Ludwig Center at Harvard, and Member of Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center
“Targeting the PI3-Kinase and AKT Pathway in Cancer”
Alex Toker received a B.S. from King's College, University of London, and a PhD from the National Institute for Medical Research. He conducted post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Lewis Cantley in the Department of Medicine at BIDMC. He joined the faculty at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute in 1997 and in 2000 moved to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology. In 2003, he was promoted to Associate Professor and joined the faculty of the HMS PhD program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. In 2010, he was promoted to Professor of Pathology. He is currently the Chief of the Division of Signal Transduction in the Department of Medicine and the Cancer Center at BIDMC, and also serves as the Associate Director for the BIDMC Cancer Research Institute. He is a member of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and an investigator of the Ludwig Center at Harvard. He is a recipient of an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute, an elected Fellow of the ASBMB, President of the American Association of University Pathologists, and a recipient of the 2022 Avanti Award in Lipids (ASBMB). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC). For over 25 years, Dr. Toker’s research has focused on signal transduction mechanisms in normal and malignant cells. In the mid-1990s, he discovered the mechanism by which phosphoinositide 3-kinase transduces signals to the protein kinase effector AKT/PKB, and has since maintained an active interest in AKT regulation and function, with special emphasis in breast cancer. His group was the first to discover specific functions of AKT isoforms in breast cancer, and has also identified a number of specific substrates that transduce the AKT signal in phenotypes associated with malignancy. More recently his group has been investigating the reprogramming of metabolic pathways by aberrant PI3K and AKT signaling in human cancers, and has also uncovered mechanisms that mediate resistance to both small molecule inhibitors under clinical development, as well as chemotherapeutic agents that are standard-of-care in the clinic. The goal of his laboratory is to decipher the complex mechanisms by which these pathways impact cancer progression, with the ultimate goal of developing drugs to interfere with malignancy and metastasis.
Peter Tsvetkov, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, BIDMC
“Finding New Ways to Kill Cancer Cells”
Peter Tsvetkov is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. The Tsvetkov lab investigates how metabolic regulation and metal homeostasis intersect to control cell fate, with a particular focus on copper biology and mitochondrial metabolism in cancer. Their work helped define a new form of regulated cell death, cuproptosis, driven by copper overload. These findings have helped catalyze an emerging field in cancer biology that explores how copper - and metal ions more broadly -modulate cancer onset and progression, and whether certain tumors may be particularly vulnerable to disruptions in metal homeostasis. The lab is currently developing novel copper-binding compounds to exploit these vulnerabilities therapeutically. These efforts have led to active patent applications and ongoing preclinical studies in biomarker-defined tumor models, including those resistant to standard therapies.
Giulia Cheloni, PhD
Instructor in Medicine, BIDMC Cancer Center
“Improving the Response to CAR T Therapy: Harnessing the Broader T Cell Repertoire Against Cancer”
Dr. Giulia Cheloni is an Instructor in Medicine at the BIDMC Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Florence in Italy and UMass Medical School, where she investigated therapeutic strategies to target leukemic stem cells. She joined BIDMC in 2017 and now works in the research group of Dr. David Avigan. Her research focuses on tumor immunobiology, with an emphasis on CAR T-cell therapy and personalized cancer vaccines. She has led several translational projects using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to study the immune landscape in blood cancers, with the goal of developing new therapeutic approaches that improve both response rates and durability of cancer immunotherapy.
Andrea Bullock, MD
Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Group Leader for the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, BIDMC
“Breakthroughs and Cutting-Edge Research at BIDMC: Highlighting Key Advances in Gastrointestinal Malignancies”
Andrea Bullock leads a team of physician scientists who maintain robust programs across multiple domains including Outcomes, Translational, Basic Science, and Quality Improvement efforts. The GI Oncology Program at BIDMC collaborates with multiple departments across the institution and is a national leader in research in colorectal as well as pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers.
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: Concurrent Session 4 - Breakthroughs and Cutting-Edge Research at BIDMC, Highlighting Key Advances in Community-Based Clinical Research/Epidemiology
Anna Modest, PhD, MPH
Director of Research Operations
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Director, BIDMC Statistical Support Core
“An epidemiologist's approach to a clinical question: Using large data for PAS research”
Anna Modest is a reproductive epidemiologist, Director of Research Operations in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. Her role is to collaborate with and mentor faculty and trainees within the Department in all research endeavors. Dr. Modest’s research includes multiple areas in reproductive health with an emphasis on placental disorders of pregnancy and she has published over 120 papers. Outside the Department, Dr. Modest is the Director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Statistical Support Core and biostatistics consultant for Harvard Catalyst. As part of Dr. Modest’s work with placenta accreta spectrum, she has been involved in 9 papers, many of them with trainees, and several more currently under review. Along with the PAS team, this has led to more than have a million dollars in funding over the course of the last several years to continue and expand this work.
Dhruv Kazi, MD
Associate Director & Section Head of Health Economics, Smith Center
Director of the Cardiac Critical Care Unit, BIDMC
“Beyond Randomization: Evaluating Comparative Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness Using Real-World Data”
Dhruv Kazi is a cardiologist, health economist, and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Kazi is also an Associate Director and Head of Health Economics at the Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he directs the cardiac critical care program. He earned his medical degree from the University of Mumbai, his MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and his MS from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Kazi uses real-world data and mathematical modeling to examine the clinical and economic effects of novel therapies on the cardiovascular health and national healthcare spending. His research seeks to understand how such interventions affect the health and socioeconomic well-being of different sections of society, particularly clinically and socioeconomically high-risk populations. Dr. Kazi is an Associate Editor of Circulation, one of, the world’s leading cardiovascular science journals. He has numerous leadership roles at the American Heart Association, including as the former Science Chairperson of its International Committee, a role in which he oversaw the AHA’s science and research partnerships in more than 100 countries.
Kelly Graham, MD, MPH
Core Faculty, Center for Healthcare Delivery Science
Director, Ambulatory Training & Primary Care Track
Co-Director, Faculty Scholarship, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
“Emerging Population Health Factors Driving the Decline in Primary Care Access: Areas of Concern and Potential Solutions”
Kelly Graham is a primary care physician at Healthcare Associates, the flagship teaching practice at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). She serves as the Primary Care Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and Co-Director of the Faculty Scholarship Program in the Division of General Medicine. A trained health services researcher, Dr. Graham focuses on improving primary care training and outcomes within academic medical centers. Dr. Graham recently led a multicenter study examining health outcomes among patients receiving primary care in academic medical centers. Building on these findings, she is collaborating with the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) to develop national recommendations for academic training practices. Her current research, which investigates factors influencing access to primary care in academic settings, is under review at a major medical journal.
4:15 pm – 5:15 pm: 4th Pitch It! Competition
Aaron Hakim, MD
Instructor in Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
“GalNAc-siRNA Conjugates Against a Novel, Genetically-Validated Target for Chronic Liver Disease”
Aaron Hakim is an Instructor in Medicine and a Clinical Fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), where he also completed his residency in internal medicine. He is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and has expertise in liver disease, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Dr. Hakim served as a vice president at Great Point Partners, a biotechnology-focused investment fund. His research has appeared in peer reviewed journals including the Journal of Hepatology, The Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Hakim earned his medical degree with honors at Yale School of Medicine and graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with an M.S. in Molecular Biology and a B.S. in Economics and Molecular Biology.
Antoine E. Karnoub, PhD
Associate Professor of Pathology, BIDMC and HMS
Director of BIDMC’s Office of Postdoctoral Scholars
“RNA Therapeutics Targeting POGK in Cancer”
Antoine Karnoub is Principal Investigator in the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Affiliate Member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Karnoub received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology/Chemistry from the Lebanese American University and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Immunology from the American University of Beirut School of Medicine. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he trained in Protein Biochemistry, Cell Biology, and Signal Transduction in the laboratories of Drs. Sharon Campbell and Channing Der, culminating in a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2001. Dr. Karnoub began his postdoctoral training investigating the biology of Ras GTPases at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center before he transitioned to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study Tumor Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Weinberg. Dr. Karnoub’s research led to the discovery of critical participatory roles for stromal progenitor cells called mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) in multiple aspects of breast cancer pathogenesis - such as tumor initiation, growth, dissemination, and metastatic colonization - emphasizing intimate contributions of the tumor microenvironment to carcinoma development and progression. Having delineated key molecular signaling pathways that mediate the heterotypic interactions between tumor-associated MSCs and cancer cells in the context of tumor malignancy, his group’s most recent investigations have described essential roles for non-coding RNAs as determining conduits of tumor-stroma crosstalk. Their current research is focused on characterizing such networks in more detail with the overall translational objective of identifying novel RNA-based cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets of utility in the oncology clinic. Dr. Karnoub has been recipient of several awards in support of his work, which include, among others, the Genzyme-Whitehead Institute Award, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Foundation Scholar Award, the Susan G. Komen Catalyst Award, and Breakthrough Awards from the US Department of Defense.
Benjamin R Freedman, PhD
Assistant Professor in Orthopedic Surgery, BIDMC and HMS
“EXTEND: Injectable Extracellular Matrix with Induced Tenocytes for Tendon Regeneration"
Dr. Benjamin Freedman’s research focuses on the design and synthesis of biomaterials to improve the repair of biological tissues during aging, with a special focus in orthopaedics. These biomaterials are designed to provide an interface to anchor directly to tissue surfaces and control release of therapeutics to improve tissue healing. Novel materials are tuned to create niche environments to maintain tendon stem/progenitor cell homeostasis and be used as delivery vehicles to augment tendon healing. Previously while in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania (PI: Louis J. Soslowsky), Dr. Freedman used many in vivo animal models, mechanical testing methods, imaging modalities, and microscopy techniques to study the role of healing, proteoglycans, collagen type V, and fatigue loading on tendon. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and Wyss Institute (PI: David J. Mooney), he applied his knowledge of tendons and the extracellular matrix in healthy and pathological states to develop novel biomaterials which serve as the foundation of ongoing work in his laboratory. Collectively, their work has been published in several high impact journals including Nature BME, Science Translational Medicine, Advanced Materials, Science Advances, and PNAS, and has been covered in over 50 news outlets.
Chenxi Qiu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
“Cis P-tau conformation-specific antibody for treatment of vascular dementia”
Chenxi Qiu is a molecular neuroscientist with a genomics background. The Qiu lab aims to develop functional genomics and systems neuroscience tools to investigate the fundamental molecular mechanisms of memory formation and how these processes are perturbed in the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, they focus on how traumatic brain injury or vascular insufficiency contributes to cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. To address these questions, the lab employs a wide range of in vivo neurobiology tools, including calcium imaging and optogenetics, alongside cutting-edge in vivo functional genomic approaches such as pooled CRISPR screens and deep mutational scanning.
