Other Special Academic Units of the University

Graduate School research centers and institutes are described under Research Centers and Institutes earlier on this site.

Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation

The Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, a part of Sargent College, conducts research relevant to the recovery and rehabilitation of persons with psychiatric disabilities and develops and disseminates preservice and in-service training programs. A workshop series occurs each spring and fall along with web broadcasts and web-based training courses for professional development. Jointly funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the Center for Mental Health Services, and other organizations, the center provides technical assistance, consultation, and evaluation services for professionals and agencies around the world. Further information is available from Cathy St. Pierre, Dissemination Manager, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 940 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215; 617-353-3549; Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation website at www.bu.edu/cpr; e‑mail: psyrehab@bu.edu.

Health Policy Institute

The Boston University Health Policy Institute (HPI) brings together scholars, policymakers, corporate and health institution managers, and health professionals to address some of the most critical health care challenges of our times. The HPI is made up of the Health Care Entrepreneurship Program, the Center for Educational Development in Health, the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery, and the Health Policy Research Program. Through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research National Program Office, the Health Policy Institute is linked with the School of Management, the School of Medicine, and the School of Public Health. For more information, write the director, Richard H. Egdahl, MD, 53 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215.

Humanities Foundation

The Humanities Foundation administers special humanities programs and activities through a major National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant awarded in 1981. The Humanities Foundation consists of several endowments to support graduate and undergraduate awards, scholarships, visiting faculty, conferences, colloquia, lecture series, library acquisitions, and general program enrichment. It serves as a forum for discussing and shaping the future of the humanities at Boston University. Among its most important programs is the Society of Fellows, which makes it possible for junior faculty to have released time for research and provides a structure in which both junior and senior faculty can present and discuss research in progress. The Director of the Foundation is Katherine T. O’Connor. For further information, call or write Frances Heaton, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 132A, Boston, MA 02215; 617-353-6250; e-mail: fheaton@bu.edu; website at www.bu.edu/hf.

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Center for the Study of Communication & the Deaf

The Center for the Study of Communication & the Deaf is directed by Dr. Robert Hoffmeister. It was established in 1982 to conduct research in parent-child interaction, the assessment of American Sign Language (ASL) in Deaf children, and the acquisition and use of ASL by Deaf children. The goal of the center is to assist parents and professionals concerned with the education of the Deaf. Currently the center has five ongoing projects: 1) an examination of the role of language on the thinking of Deaf children (Theory of Mind), 2) the learning of ASL as a second language in hearing persons, 3) the relationship of ASL to literacy and reading development in Deaf children, 4) the development of an ASL/English curriculum for preschool through grade 8, and 5) the development of a language test to determine stages of ASL acquisition in Deaf children. Further information is available from Dr. Hoffmeister at the School of Education, 605 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215; e-mail: rhoff@bu.edu.

Morin Center for Banking & Financial Law

Established in the School of Law in 1978, the Morin Center for Banking & Financial Law administers the School of Law’s Graduate Program in Banking & Financial Law. This unique multidisciplinary program, leading to the Master of Laws degree, trains lawyers in the full range of banking law subjects as well as the economic and managerial aspects of the domestic and international financial services industry. The center also sponsors the Annual Review of Banking and Financial Law, a scholarly publication edited by JD students, and conducts a lecture series in the legal areas affecting financial institutions. Information is available from the director, Professor Cornelius K. Hurley, Morin Center for Banking & Financial Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215; 617-353-3023; e-mail: banklaw@bu.edu.

Arthritis Center

The Boston University Arthritis Center coordinates the arthritis-related activities of the professional schools of the University, including the School of Medicine and Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. These activities include basic science research, health services research, patient care, arthritis education, and community outreach. The professional staff of the Arthritis Center includes 13 full-time faculty: 8 physicians, 3 PhD basic science investigators, one nurse investigator, and one statistician.

Of the physicians, three are engaged primarily in basic research, three in epidemiology, and two in a variety of clinical research endeavors. In addition, several full-time doctoral-level researchers, a research nurse coordinator, and more than 20 support staff contribute to the overall program. Work is supported by NIH, government, and foundation grants.

The Arthritis Center provides continuing consultative and experimental therapeutics programs for a broad range of rheumatic diseases. The unit is responsible for over 10,000 patient visits at various care sites including Boston Medical Center and the Boston VA. The population base ranges from inner city Boston to tertiary care referrals coming from a regional and national base. In two diseases, scleroderma and amyloidosis, Boston University is a major referral center attracting patients from throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Basic research programs in the Arthritis Center are directed at the understanding of the molecular basis of disease. During the past year this work was supported by NIH grants and grants from the Arthritis Foundation, the Scleroderma Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and other sources. The faculty published over 50 research papers, presented some 50 research seminars, and had 20 visiting professorships or grand rounds presentations. The faculty serve on panels for grants, on editorial boards, and various advisory committees.

Specific areas of investigation include research in molecular biology, immunology, inflammation and repair, mechanisms of autoimmunity and the pathogenesis of scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, and amyloidosis. There is a major clinical and basic research program in scleroderma, an autoimmune connective tissue disease. Amyloidosis is an uncommon disorder which has been a focus of both basic and clinical investigation at the Arthritis Center for over 25 years. The Arthritis Center also has a nationally recognized program in epidemiology, health services research, and health economics. Members of this program have carried out important studies in osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and the effects of therapeutic agents on outcomes in rheumatic disease.

The Scleroderma Program was established at Boston University in 1994. The program is an interdisciplinary program of basic research, clinical research, and patient care. Since its inception, over 1,000 patients have been referred for evaluation, making it the largest program of its kind in New England. Basic research in scleroderma focuses on molecular genetics and cell biology of fibroblasts, the key cell in overproduction of collagen in this disease. Clinical research programs include novel biologic agents for skin disease, evaluation of cyclophosphamide and other agents for treatment of lung disease and pulmonary hypertension.

The amyloid clinical program, directed by Dr. Martha Skinner, is a worldwide referral center for patients with amyloidosis. Pioneering therapeutic programs including bone marrow ablation and stem cell transplant and liver transplantation were developed. The program serves as a valuable patient and physician resource for information. Research in amyloid has focused on identifying genetic defects in hereditary amyloid and on determining why amyloid precursor proteins form amyloid fibrils.

In epidemiology, a rheumatology research unit by Dr. David Felson, Boston University Medical Center, is a leading center in studies of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Important areas of investigation include the potential protective role of nutritional factors in osteoarthritis, the role of estrogens and mechanical factors in development of osteoarthritis. The program maintains an important link with the Framingham study and database which has been important in many of the published studies.

The Vasculitis Center, directed by Peter A. Merkel, MD, MPH, is a newly established program that integrates the substantial clinical expertise and research projects already present within the Department of Medicine, to focus on the various forms of vasculitis. The BU  Vasculitis Center is an internationally known referral center for these complex diseases with BUMC having the largest cohort of patients with vasculitis in the Northeast. The clinical reseach of the center includes multiple projects ranging from clinical therapeutic trials for Wegener’s granulomatosis, giant cell arteritis, and Takayasu’s arteritis to clinical epidemiology and outcome measure development to translational vascular biology studies. The BU  Vasculitis Center is the lead site in the newly formed, NIH-funded, Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC). The  VCRC is an international, multicenter, clinical research infrastructure established to conduct longitudinal cohort studies and clinical trials in these rare diseases.

The faculty of the section are responsible for a substantial amount of medical student, resident, and postgraduate education. In addition to formal lectures for students, the faculty give many formal teaching conferences at Boston University and dozens of regional and national presentations.

Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute

The Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute of the School of Medicine, founded in 1974, stimulates, conducts, and coordinates research and training related to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The institute assists in formulating research projects, developing grant applications, providing information on sources of funding, and critically reviewing grant and contract proposals in the cardiovascular area. Over the past three decades, distinguished research advances in the area of hypertension, lipid physical chemistry, atherogenesis, endothelial function, thrombosis, nitric oxide and free radical biology, and gene therapy have been carried out by the institute’s researchers, who have been singled out by the National Institutes of Health by the award of notable grant programs, including Specialized Centers of Research in both hypertension and ischemic heart disease.

The breadth and depth of programs is exemplified by a few examples of current research topics: the effect of hypertension on the blood vessel wall; molecular markers for cholesterol transport in the blood; lipoproteins and atherosclerosis; molecular mechanisms involved in arterial injury, cardiac ischemia, and infarction; inhibition of experimental atherosclerosis by antihypertensive drugs; role of thrombotic determinants in atherosclerosis; oxidative stress in atherosclerosis; gene therapy of vascular diseases; gene regulation in megakaryocytes; determinants of vascular function; gene regulation of apoproteins; endothelial function and dysfunction; studies on arterial elasticity in peripheral vascular disease; clinical trials of renin inhibitors and of antiarrhythmic drugs; investigation into the comparative benefits of therapies for coronary artery disease; the role of nitric oxide in vascular disease; the benefit of ACE inhibitors and of inotropic agents in congestive heart failure; and proteomics in cardiovascular biology and pathobiology. Other research areas include the Framingham Heart Study, the most highly regarded epidemiological study of cardiovascular disease in the world.

For further information, write to Administrator, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University School of Medicine, 715 Albany Street, W507, Boston, MA 02118; 617-638-4887.

Affiliated Institutions

Cooperative Agreements  Students may receive credit for certain courses at Hebrew College of Brookline, which offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Consortium arrangements permit cross-registration with Boston College, Brandeis University, and Tufts University.

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19 December 2008
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