Morgan Vascular Biology Lab
Director: Kathleen G. Morgan

Our goals are understanding and finding new therapies for cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in America. We focus primarily on the contractile smooth muscle cells that comprise a large portion of the walls of blood vessels. In collaboration with researchers at BU School of Medicine, we’re trying to determine why blood vessels—particularly the aorta—stiffen with age. Since the cardiovascular diseases that can follow are currently irreversible, preventing this vessel stiffening would be a life-changing advance.

We are one of relatively few labs with expertise in the mechanisms of contractile function of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Among our achievements, we were responsible for the first calcium measurements in vascular smooth muscle—the basis for calcium channel blockers such as anti-hypertensives. We do extensive work with smooth muscle proteins, hoping that one of them could serve as a target molecule for the reversal of aging-induced aortic stiffness.

Human Systems Neuroscience Laboratory
Director: Basilis (Vasileios) Zikopoulos

Research in the Human Systems Neuroscience Laboratory focuses on the study of the organization and dynamics of cortical brain circuits, and their disruption in disease. Increasingly, our work has been focusing on processes that shape network dynamics and the delicate balance of excitation and inhibition, which are consistently disrupted in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

We use advanced experimental and computational approaches to image and study molecular, synaptic, cellular interactions and interareal network connectivity, as the basis of cognitive and emotional processing for flexible attention and goal-oriented behavior in humans, non-human primates and other relevant animal model systems. Our innovative multi-disciplinary approach includes correlated light, confocal and electron microscopy; and large-scale, and thus far unprecedented, three-dimensional analysis and reconstruction of labeled pathways and their synaptic and neurochemical interactions within functionally-distinct networks.

These cutting-edge, high-resolution experimental approaches, complemented by advanced computational and image analysis techniques, have made it possible to conduct detailed quantitative analyses and develop brain-based circuit and computational models, describing novel circuits that have a key role in cognitive and emotional processes. This experimental and theoretical framework that helps us derive principles from complex data on connections and their interactions provides a solid foundation to integrate bench and clinical research across neuroscience disciplines.

Neural Systems Laboratory
Director: Helen Barbas

The Neural Systems Lab specializes in the organization of the prefrontal cortex and its role in central executive functions in primates. Our research objective is to investigate prefrontal pathways that interface with both excitatory and inhibitory neurons in cortical and subcortical structures, possibly providing the basis for selecting relevant information and suppressing irrelevant information in primate behavior.

The use of neural tracers to label pathways, combined with a multi-modal approach, makes our work cutting-edge. We use histochemical, immunocytochemical, and molecular procedures; quantitative approaches and imaging; and multidimensional analyses.

Dieli-Conwright Laboratory Website
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Using an “Exercise Is Medicine” approach, the Dieli-Conwright Laboratory is centered on testing personalized exercise interventions to improve cancer outcomes among individuals across the lifespan diagnosed with cancer. Rooted in clinical exercise physiology, the lab examines mechanisms by which post-diagnosis exercise can impact cancer outcomes, with a specific focus on biomarkers related to body composition, inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, and cognition. Researchers derive randomized controlled trials to test whether various types of prescriptive exercise improve cancer outcomes in individuals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds diagnosed with cancer across the lifespan, from adolescents and young adults to older adults.
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Jingyan Han Website
Boston University School of Medicine

The Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute of Boston University Medical Campus was established in 1974 to foster advances in research, treatment, and education in the broad area of heart and vascular disease. The Institute provides a unified structure that combines and integrates the components of basic science, clinical investigation, medical education, patient care, health-policy planning, and community research. Institute labs are involved in a wide range of cardiovascular research including atherosclerosis, diabetes, heart failure, aneurysms, amyloidosis and hypertension.

University Medical Center of Hamburg University

Our lab is focused on studying various aspects of brain connectivity. Specifically, we use statistics and neuroinformatics to establish the characteristic organization of brain networks and explore the implications of this organization for brain dynamics and function through computational modeling. We believe brain dynamics and function need to be understood in the context of the brain’s complex network organization.

We are using a very wide range of approaches, from neuroinformatics (done in close collaboration with experimental neuroanatomists, particularly the Barbas lab at BU Health Sciences) and computational modeling of brain dynamics to experimental studies of brain modulation by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in order to understand from several different perspectives ‘how the brain works.’

We have students with a wide range of backgrounds, from biology and psychology to physics and computer science—reflecting the diverse techniques and approaches that are employed in modern neuroscience. Most of our graduates stay in academia, and have established their own labs by now.

As part of our research, we also study the consequences of lesions in brain networks, using ‘virtual lesions’ (produced by TMS) as well as computational modeling.

Cardiovascular Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

The major focus of our laboratory is basic and translational cardiovascular research with an emphasis on developing novel therapies for cardiovascular diseases. One of our research interests is to study the molecular mechanisms of cardiac apoptosis (programmed cell death) and develop new anti-apoptotic applications in cardiovascular diseases. One of the ways in which heart muscle is injured following a loss of blood supply (as in a myocardial infarction, or heart attack) occurs when blood reenters, or reperfuses, the tissue. This results in a cascade of events, including the release of free radicals and the initiation of apoptosis. Hydrogen peroxide is the most abundant free radical produced during reperfusion injury.

Our work is highly innovative, in that we are using nanotechnology to design and engineer molecules that are selectively activated by the hydrogen peroxide released during reperfusion injury. The beauty of this system is that therapeutic substances engineered into the nanoparticles are released only at the site of the injury, rather than being distributed throughout the entire body. This same system could also be exploited to image the damaged tissue.

In a second project, we showed that Vitamin D therapy prevents the progression of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure in animal models. We are currently investigating the molecular mechanism of cardiac dysfunction associated with Vitamin D deficiency and examining the potential role of Vitamin D therapy in the treatment of heart failure. Also, in collaboration with other investigators, we identified novel Vitamin D receptor agonists and are studying these novel compounds for clinical applications.

Deepak Kumar Website
The Lab is a trans-disciplinary collaboration with the objective of preventing and managing musculoskeletal disorders, primarily osteoarthritis. We use state-of-the-art technologies to study the quality and quantity of movement during daily activities, and its effects on the health of cartilage, muscle, bone, etc. This information helps us identify risk factors for hip and knee osteoarthritis. Specific populations that may be at-risk include athletes with femoroacetabular impingement at the hip, ACL tears, meniscus injuries, and older adults with obesity, and women. Our goal is to develop novel strategies to prevent and manage the disability associated with hip and knee osteoarthritis.

United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine

We focus on identifying the mechanisms that mediate systemic inflammatory response to heat stroke. Specifically, our objective is to identify new biomarkers in the circulation that reflect inflammatory changes occurring in organs during heat stroke recovery. To accelerate the process of finding pathways that mediate injury, we use a novel, systems biology approach, collaborating with mathematical modelers who develop predictive models for identifying biomarkers and molecular targets. We can then test these targets in our experimental models—the only ones that currently enable the examination of physiological, biochemical, and molecular changes through long-term heat stroke recovery.

We’re also interested in finding new pharmacologics that can be used to treat heat stroke. Currently, there are no scientifically validated diagnostics or pharmacologic treatments.

Katya Ravid Lab Website
Boston University School of Medicine

Our lab is conducting investigations in the area of blood and vascular pathologies. The cells of all blood lineages arise from pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells that reside in the marrow. The bone marrow also contains stem cells of other lineages, including fat, vascular etc. Our research is focused on two interrelated projects that bear on mechanisms associated with the development of blood and vascular pathologies: (1) molecular mechanisms involved in bone marrow megakaryocyte/platelet development; (2) the role of vascular and bone marrow cell (mesenchymal stem cells) adenosine receptors in tissue regeneration. Transgenic and knockout mouse models are used to assist in exploring mechanisms in vivo.