The BU CTSI Team Science/IBRO/Evans Center IBR, under the directorship of Dr. Katya Ravid, are pleased to announce the establishment and support of a new Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC) titled “Respiratory Viruses: A Focus on COVID-19 ARC,” co-directed by Drs. Markus Bosmann and Mohsan Saeed. This multidisciplinary researcher team at Boston University (BUMC, CRC) aims to dissect how this virus invades the lung epithelium, replicates inside cells, and is recognized and counteracted by the host immune defense. These directions will serve as a platform for pre-clinical models of SARS-CoV-2 infection to design innovative diagnostics, preventive agents and therapeutics.
The CTSI’s Team Science Initiative, directed by Dr. Katya Ravid, assists in engaging such interactive networks.
Meet the Director of the IBRO/Evans Center
Katya Ravid, DSc
Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Director of BU Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office / Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
Dr. Ravid is the founding and current Director of the BU Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office / Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research. The goal of the Evans Center is to promote growth and discovery in emerging interdisciplinary biomedical research and educational areas by providing faculty affiliated with the Department of Medicine and with various schools, departments and centers at Boston University a dynamic, interdisciplinary organizational structure, which allows investigators with different areas of expertise to collectively address mechanisms of disease, and to facilitate new training opportunities. Faculty affiliated with the Evans Center hold academic appointments with different departments. The Center provides opportunities for collaborations within Affinity Research Collaboratives (ARCs) organized around foci of common research interests. For more details please visit our web page here.
Meet the COVID-19 ARC Directors
Markus Bosmann, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Dr. Bosmann is the director of the Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC) on Respiratory Viruses: A focus on COVID-19. He is an Associate Professor in the Pulmonary Center, Department of Medicine holding a secondary appointment in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, BUSM. He graduated as doctor of medicine with a summa cum laude honor thesis from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. He continued his career with residency trainings in medicine, laboratory medicine and a research postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor followed by a junior faculty appointment at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. His research interests are focused on the cellular and molecular pathogenesis of infection-associated inflammation. The work in his multidisciplinary, diverse research team is centered around understanding the host response to microbial pathogens in the context of lung injury, pneumonia and sepsis.
Mohan Saeed, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry; Investigator, NEIDL
Dr. Saeed is the co-director of the Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC) on Respiratory Viruses: A focus on COVID-19. He is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and an Investigator at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), Boston University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pathology, Immunology, and Microbiology from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and did his postdoctoral training with Dr. Charles M. Rice at the Rockefeller University. During his Ph.D. and postdoc, he primarily focused on hepatitis C virus (HCV) and uncovered novel aspects of HCV pathobiology. Towards the end of his postdoc, Dr. Saeed branched off of HCV and established a research program focusing on the role of viral proteases in disease development. In March, 2019, he joined the Boston University, where his research focuses on deciphering the molecular details of the virus-host interface. He combines state-of-the-art systems biology and molecular virology approaches to investigate how viruses overcome host immunity and hijack the cellular machinery to promote their replication.
COVID-19 ARC Research
- More information about this exciting new ARC can be found here
Contact
- To participate in this ARC, please contact Dr. Markus Bosmann (mbosmann@bu.edu).
- For information on ARCs contact Dr. K. Ravid (kravid@bu.edu)
