Category: Research
1st Genetic On/Off Switch
Jim Collins, a biomedical engineering professor, applies dynamical systems theory to the workings of physiological systems to develop the world’s first genetic toggle switch. The switch, a molecular device that can turn genes off or on, gives researchers a chance to observe how genes interact with different cells throughout the body, in both healthy and diseased systems.
Center for Neuroscience
The Center for Neurocience is a University-wide initiative to advance cutting-edge interdisciplinary, collaborative research and education on the neural basis of behavior and cognition. Researchers pursue experimental and theoretical-computational approaches that span molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, and cognitive levels of analysis. The goal is to expand the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of brain function and to translate these advances into practical applications, including treatment of neurologic and psychiatric disorders and the development of new directions in educational practice.
SPH Receives Grant for Emergency & Disaster Response
Boston University School of Public Health receives a $2.5 million grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to coordinate an effort to improve emergency and disaster response among public health and medical care providers throughout Boston and the metropolitan area.
Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Research Center
The Women's Health Interdisciplinary Research Center (WHIRC) promotes interdisciplinary research on women's health at the Medical Campus by bringing bench scientists, clinical investigators, and public health researchers together to determine collaborative research directions and obtain funds.
The Center for Reliable Information Systems & Cyber Security
The Center for Reliable Information Systems & Cyber Security (RISCS) promotes and coordinates research and education in system reliability and information security by emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach that includes fields as diverse as reliable and secure computations, engineering, economics, ethics, and law. Current research areas include cryptology, network and software security, software safety, economic and game-theoretic approaches to Internet computing, database security, robust monitoring, and fair and secure file sharing.
Center for the Assessment of Pharmaceutical Practices
The Center for the Assessment of Pharmaceutical Practices opens with the overarching goal to promote the safe and effective use of medications for the nation's public health through research, education, and consultation. The Center offers opportunities for collaboration and development in research and education related to pharmaceutical practices. The center also has a number of educational programs and offers consultative services.
Center for Biomedical Imaging
The Center for Biomedical Imaging houses a new 3 Tesla Philips MRI scanner for functional, structural, and spectroscopic human and animal studies.
Nutrition & Fitness Center
Located at Sargent College Clinical Center, BU’s Nutrition & Fitness Center (BUNFC) is established to expand a successful pilot nutrition and physical activity program developed for BU faculty and staff. Integrating the latest developments in scientific research and culinary art, BUNFC helps people achieve realistic health goals.
Institute for the Advancement of the Social Sciences
The Institute for the Advancement of the Social Sciences serves to advance the study of human affairs in all their variety, i.e., the study of human societies and cultures as they existed in the past and as they exist today through modern culture and nationalism.
Center for Global Christianity & Mission
The Center for Global Christianity & Mission at the Boston University School of Theology explores the most important development in Christianity during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: the shift of Christianity's demographic center to the southern hemisphere and parts of Asia. The total number of Christians worldwide continues to grow, even as the European and North American component of the world church has shrunk to less than one-third of the total.
“The center seeks to address several critical aspects of Christianity’s 'shift southward' in the twenty-first century. First, Christianity must be understood as a multi-cultural and global movement, an enduring theological tradition that finds new life in the lived realities of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Second, the dramatic growth of world Christianity begs for analysis of the missionary dimension in all churches, as initiators rather than receptors of mission outreach. Third, growing churches are in need of theologically trained leaders, ranging from seminary professors, to grassroots leaders of indigenous churches. And finally, persons being educated to lead religious communities need to incorporate the understanding of these realities into their ministry and outreach."—Dana L. Robert and Prof. M. L. Daneel, Co-Directors
