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A Note From the Immediate Past-Director

This month, the BRI hosted one of my favorite events - Discover Brigham. Discover Brigham (formerly Research Day) has been held annually since 2012 to celebrate our investigators and their research. It was an inspiring and informative event that captivated more than 700 attendees. Be sure to check out all of the highlights on the BRI website and in Clinical and Research News!
 
Also this month, Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, Chief Academic Officer, presented his annual Research Year in Review at the Research Connection LIVE Lunch. Slides from his talk featuring FY2019 data are available on the Research Navigator. The monthly RC LIVE lunches are open to the BWH research community; register for an upcoming lunch here .
 
Please enjoy our research paper of the month, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
Thanks,

Elizabeth Petri Henske, MD
Immediate Past-Director, BRI
November 2019
A Successful Discover Brigham!
"Discover Brigham is our opportunity to showcase the amazing, innovative medical research going on here and celebrate our research community. My charge to you is three-fold: learn something new, meet someone new, and spark an idea" - Dr. Betsy Nabel
More than 700 people joined us at Discover Brigham this year to learn about research, interact with research demonstrations, and find out who won the 2019 BRIght Futures Prize. Betsy Nabel, MD, Brigham Health President, kicked off the event by welcoming attendees, followed by a keynote address by Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP from the IBM Corporation and IBM Watson Health. Dr Rhee’s talk on "Inventing and Predicting a New Era of Health with AI and Techquity," addressed the inter-connectivity between technology, health, and equity.
 
The event included hospital-wide live demonstrations such as Bespoke Bodies, STRATUS and Yoga in the Workplace, all of which allowed for more interactive participation from attendees. Each of the eight thematic sessions were unique and interesting, spanning a diverse set of topics including the promise of cancer treatment through CAR T-cell therapy and the potential applications of a Central African plant that produces vital blood components. Ninety-nine posters spanning a range of research topics were displayed throughout the Brigham allowing for scientists to highlight their research and connect with colleagues, attendees and potential collaborators. You can read more about these demos, panels, and poster session in this month's Clinical and Research News.
And the winner of the 8th Annual Bright Futures Prize is...
Natalie Artzi, PhD , Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Biomedical Engineering Division, for her project focused on engineering therapies for better outcomes for children with brain cancer. With more than 42,000 votes from more than 110 countries and all 50 states, this year we set a new record for BRIght Futures voting.
In addition, the BRI recognized all innovators and inventors and all BRI award recipients since last Discover Brigham, as well as five Research Excellence Award winners and one Connors-BRI Women's Health & Gender Biology Excellence Award.
Research Excellence Award Winners:

  • Muhammad Chaudhary, MD, Research Fellow
  • Jose Halperin, MD, Associate Director
  • Charlotte Jouvene, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  • Catherine Lee, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  • Marlen Menlyadiev, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Connors-BRI Women's Health & Gender Biology Excellence Award

  • Aviva Cohn, MD, Clinical Research Fellow
A Strong Year for Research
At this month's RC LIVE Lunch, there was not one empty seat in Carrie Hall as Dr. Paul Anderson stood at the podium to present the BWH FY19 Research Year in Review. All in all, it was another strong year for research at the Brigham and he made sure to highlight the many prestigious awards that were given out, such as this year's inaugural President's Scholar Awards . Dr. Anderson thanked everyone in the room, and at BWH, for their unending work, efforts, and commitment that make our hospital so successful. These slides will be posted to the Research Navigator , and Dr. Anderson will also be presenting the information again at December's BRISC meeting . Join us next month on December 9th to learn about Disease Deconstruction by Single Cell Genomics .
Research Paper of the Month
Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH
Rheumatologist, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Department of Medicine, Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy
Dr. Coste nbader and her colleague's findings were recently p ublished in Clinical Chemistry . The study analysis of the VITamin D and OmegA-3 Trial (VITAL) showed that neither vitamin D nor omega-3s were effective at reducing systemic inflammation that are typically tied to diseases of aging and obesity.  

“In this case, there isn’t a strong message that either supplement will reduce risk of systemic inflammation, at least not the biomarkers of disease," said Dr. Costenbader, corresponding author. She also noted that "It will be interesting and important to see the results of future VITAL analyses, especially those that look at risk of diseases rather than biomarkers.”

Read the full article here .
Resources & Funding Opportunities
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