The Brigham Research Institute (BRI) announced 2018 award recipients at Discover Brigham, an annual event an annual event for the Brigham community and greater public that educates and inspires collaboration around innovative science, technology and medicine at the hospital.
Research Excellence Awards
Research Excellence Award recipients received $1,000 each for outstanding contributions to research. This year’s recipients are:
- Hassan Aliakbarian, MD, of the Department of Surgery: “Identifying Preoperative Predictors of Weight Loss and Weight Regain for Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass: A Prospective Human Study”
- Xianjun Dong, PhD, of the Department of Neurology: “BRAINcode: An Encyclopedia of Human Dopamine Neuron Transcriptomes in Health and Disease”
- Mohamed Draz, MSc, PhD, of the Division of Engineering in Medicine: “DNA-Engineered Micromotors Powered by Metal Nanoparticles for Motion-Based Cellphone Diagnostics”
- Lian Folger, of the Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine: “A Novel Icterometer for Hyperbilirubinemia Screening in Low-Resource Settings”
- Julia Merchant, of the Department of Neurology: “In Vitro Validation of Novel Neuronal Target Genes Implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease Using a Human iPSC-Induced Neuron System”
- Andrew Nguyen, of the Department of Medicine and student at Harvard Medical School: “CRISPR/Cas9 Pharmacogenomic Screen of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential (CHIP)”
- Jennifer Stuart, ScD, MSc, of the Division of Women’s Health: “Hypertensive Disorders in First Pregnancy and Maternal Cardiovascular Disease: Mediation by Postpartum Cardiovascular Risk Factors”
Connors-BRI Center Excellence Award in Women’s Health and Gender Biology
This award honors recipients with a $1,000 grant for outstanding contributions to women’s health research. This year’s winners are:
- Margo Nathan, MD, and Miryam Yusufov, MA, both of the Department of Psychiatry: “Psychological Profile Predicting Treatment Non-Adherence to Anti-Estrogen Therapy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients”
Cardiovascular, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases (CVDM) Cardiorenal Symposium Selected Speaker Award
This award was presented to fellows and junior faculty who were invited to present their work in a short talk session during the plenary session at the CVDM Cardiorenal Symposium earlier this year. The winners are:
- Amrendra Ajay, PhD, of the Division of Renal Medicine: “CRISPR mediated activation of STAT3 upregulates profibrotic response in pericytes”
- Sanjay Ranjit, PhD, of the Department of Medicine: “Role of Endoplasmic Reticulum Aminopeptidase 1 in Salt-Sensitive Blood Pressure”
- Muthiah Vaduganathan, MD, MPH, of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine: “Medicine: Serum and Urine Renal Biomarkers and Cardiovascular Risk in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Recent Acute Coronary Syndromes from the EXAMINE Trial”
- Yiming Zhou, PhD, of the Division of Renal Medicine: “A Small Molecule Inhibitor of TRPC5 Ion Channels Suppresses Progressive Kidney Disease in Animal Models”
CVDM Obesity Research Incubator Session Poster Award
This award was presented to researchers whose poster presentations at the CVDM Obesity Research Incubator Session were judged to be outstanding among the field by a panel of faculty.
- Mehmet Furkan Burak, MD, of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension: “A Monoclonal anti- aP2 Antibody treats type 2 diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease”
- Jingyi Qian, PhD, of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders: “Sex Differences in the Effects of Circadian Misalignment on Appetite Hormones and Substrate Utilization”
