Mass General Brigham Research

Mass General Brigham Research Medicine changes lives. Research changes the world.

The Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the United States, with a community of over 10,000 people working across more than 30 institutes, centers, and departments. Embedded within Massachusetts General Hospital, the Research Institute is built on a culture of excellence, compassion and groundbreaking scientific achievement. Our res

earchers work side-by-side with physicians—in the lab, in the clinic, and at the bedside—harnessing the latest technological advancements to foster discovery at every stage. We partner with academia, industry, governments, philanthropists and our community to prevent disease, make medical innovation sustainable, and find cures to improve the lives of our patients and those across the globe.

Last night, the Mass General Research Institute was honored for being on the Fierce 50 list by Fierce Pharma! The list s...
12/06/2024

Last night, the Mass General Research Institute was honored for being on the Fierce 50 list by Fierce Pharma!

The list shines a spotlight on the people and companies who are driving meaningful change in healthcare, pharma and biotech, and we are greatly honored to be a part of the 2024 list.

Susan Slaugenhaupt, PhD, our Scientific Director, accepted the award alongside other members of the research community at the event yesterday.

Check out the link in our bio for more information.

11/14/2024
Honoring MGH Nurses on Veterans Day🩺This Veterans Day, we remember the brave MGH School of Nursing graduates who served ...
11/11/2024

Honoring MGH Nurses on Veterans Day🩺

This Veterans Day, we remember the brave MGH School of Nursing graduates who served in Vietnam. As young nurses, they stepped into the unknown, caring for soldiers on the front lines and facing unimaginable challenges with courage and compassion.

Through the MGH Nurses' Alumni Association’s oral history project, we hear their powerful stories of resilience and adaptability—from grueling shifts and improvised care to the deep bonds formed in the midst of war. Their legacy reminds us of the vital role nurses play in times of conflict and the lasting impact of their dedication.

Today, we honor their service and the enduring inspiration they provide. Learn more about these remarkable veterans: https://mgriblog.org/2024/11/11/the-legacy-of-mass-general-nurses-who-served-during-the-vietnam-war/

Cozy Corner by Maryam Azimi Mohammadabadi, PhD | This image shows researcher Dr. Mohammadabadi in the tissue culture roo...
09/13/2024

Cozy Corner by Maryam Azimi Mohammadabadi, PhD | This image shows researcher Dr. Mohammadabadi in the tissue culture room working on an experiment.

"In Persian, 'گوشه دنج' means a cozy corner, a place where you feel the most peaceful, and you're always there - to relax, to think, to be yourself." says Dr. Mohammadabadi. "It's the place where, if someone ever looked for you, the only option is there! For me, it's the Tissue Culture room, where I speak with my cells and sing for them. That's my cozy corner!"

Dr. Mohammadabadi works in the lab of Bo Rueda, PhD, at the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology. A major effort of the laboratory is the identification and functional characterization of gynecological cancer cells.

Read more about the Rueda lab: https://buff.ly/3ZkH0BQ

We are so honored that the Mass General Research Institute is being named one of the fifty most brilliant visionaries in...
09/09/2024

We are so honored that the Mass General Research Institute is being named one of the fifty most brilliant visionaries in Life Science and Healthcare by Fierce Healthcare!

Congratulations to all of our researchers for making this possible.

Read more: https://buff.ly/47lkU47

09/03/2024

The Claflin awards were established at Mass General to recognize and support women researchers during a critical time in their careers.

September is Pain Awareness Month, and in this research lab, they are hoping to give a new meaning to the sentence, typi...
09/03/2024

September is Pain Awareness Month, and in this research lab, they are hoping to give a new meaning to the sentence, typically used as an expression of dismissal, “your pain is all in your head."

Researchers from the Pain and Neuroinflammation Imaging Lab led by Marco Loggia, PhD, are studying how chronic pain affects the human brain.

Read more about their lab: https://buff.ly/3ytPATG

A Path Paved with Gemstones | Submitted by Fleur Lobo, PhD from the Zhang LabIn this photo, we can see a section of a br...
08/28/2024

A Path Paved with Gemstones | Submitted by Fleur Lobo, PhD from the Zhang Lab

In this photo, we can see a section of a brain with Alzheimer's.

When someone suffers from Alzheimer's, their brain cells start to die and their memory and other important mental functions deteriorate over time. This is a process called neurodegeneration.

Right now, over 6.7 million Americans are suffering from this disease, and in this photo, we can see a protein called Tau (magenta) that actually helps protect against the process of neurodegeneration.

Researchers like Dr. Lobo from the Zhang Lab are currently investigating how small molecules in our brains interact with this protective protein Tau, and how it can help us prevent Alzheimer's in the future.

Read more about their research: https://buff.ly/3MpiOX8

Tiny Dancers: Cilia in Cross Section | Submitted by Maxwell Roth, MD, from the Selig LabCilia are hair-like structures o...
08/21/2024

Tiny Dancers: Cilia in Cross Section | Submitted by Maxwell Roth, MD, from the Selig Lab

Cilia are hair-like structures on the surface of cells. They act like tiny machines, constantly beating in coordinated waves. The beating or waving motion of the cilia is achieved through the sliding of adjacent microtubules (small black circles) past one another via help from motor proteins.

Their primary job is to move substances through tubes in your body. In the respiratory tract, for example, they help clear out mucous, dust, and bacteria.

Understanding cilia is crucial in medicine, as problems with them can lead to various health issues, such as respiratory infections or infertility.

Read more about their research: https://buff.ly/3ywifHR

True or false: Identifying and removing certain trigger foods from your diet is always the best treatment for digestive ...
08/20/2024

True or false: Identifying and removing certain trigger foods from your diet is always the best treatment for digestive symptoms.

Turns out, this is actually false. According to researcher Kyle Staller, MD, MPH, in what we call ‘disorders of gut-brain interaction,’ abnormal nervous system function in the GI tract causes patients to feel abnormal sensations even when digestion is seemingly working normally.

Therefore, targeting these abnormal nervous system responses may be a better goal of treatment rather than eliminating foods from the diet.

Read about more nutrition and diet tips from our researchers: https://buff.ly/4fIlCfj

Prototype Tangential Flow Device for Future Cancer Diagnostics | Submitted by Joshua Spitzberg, PhD, and Kilean Lucas, P...
08/13/2024

Prototype Tangential Flow Device for Future Cancer Diagnostics | Submitted by Joshua Spitzberg, PhD, and Kilean Lucas, PhD from the Weissleder Lab.

Diagnosing cancer at a very early stage has always been a hope for doctors. In this image, researchers have created a prototype filtering device that could do just that.

Human plasma is full of tiny bubbles called vesicles, which carry proteins from their host cells. The researchers have created new microchips with super tiny filters to catch and study these vesicles, especially the ones from early-stage tumors.

This innovative device could help us detect and treat cancer before it spreads.

Read more about the Weissleder Lab: https://buff.ly/4dc8sWq

A Bee Having Its Lunch Casually | Submitted by Abhijith Chandrashekar Dixith, MSc, from the Mouro Pinto Lab.Did you know...
08/06/2024

A Bee Having Its Lunch Casually | Submitted by Abhijith Chandrashekar Dixith, MSc, from the Mouro Pinto Lab.

Did you know that photography is an important part of medical research? Every day, scientists use images of all kinds to advance research in their field, whether through brain scans, patient documentation and beyond.

This photo was taken by a researcher who was practicing their macro photography skills.

"I have always wanted to take macro photography more seriously but never found the right moments to capture. Luckily, this happened to be right on time. I hope to take more macro photos to enhance my research," says Chandrashekar Dixith.

Read more about the Mouro Pinto Lab: https://buff.ly/3WRda5Y

Have you ever wondered about your risk of developing stroke, dementia, depression or other brain diseases? Mass General ...
07/23/2024

Have you ever wondered about your risk of developing stroke, dementia, depression or other brain diseases?

Mass General Research Institute investigators have actually developed a new quiz you can take that can help predict your risk of all of those conditions, called the McCance Brain Care Score™.

The quiz evaluates 12 modifiable physical, lifestyle and social factors that can help patients protect their brain health, and they have now shown that it can predict risk of late-age depression as well.

To take the quiz and read more about the McCance Brain Care Score™ see here: https://buff.ly/3Wf0MLM

The Tree of Knowledge submitted by Sara Veiga, PhD 🌳 In this image, we can see an animal model of a group of sensory neu...
07/18/2024

The Tree of Knowledge submitted by Sara Veiga, PhD 🌳

In this image, we can see an animal model of a group of sensory neurons located in the spine, otherwise known as a dorsal root ganglion (DRG). The DRG here was stained using a combination of four different fluorescently labeled antibodies, to understand neurofibromatosis which is a condition that is rare but causes cancer to grow in the nervous system.

"In science, progress comes from setting the roots of our knowledge, nurturing it with new discoveries and allowing it to branch into other fields, leading to bigger and better outlooks in health and disease research," says Dr. Veiga, a Research Fellow in the Stott Lab at the Mass General Research Institute.

Read more about the Stott Lab: https://buff.ly/3zPRVJ2

It's World Emoji Day!🔬 Emojis are an increasingly common communication tool—it’s estimated that 92% of the online popula...
07/17/2024

It's World Emoji Day!🔬

Emojis are an increasingly common communication tool—it’s estimated that 92% of the online population use emojis daily and over 10 billion emojis are sent each day.

But do they have a place in healthcare?

Turns out that emojis can actually be an important part of healthcare communication, and could be used to boost comprehension of written discharge instructions, collect more comprehensive data on symptoms, disease progression and treatment outcomes and even reduce disparities in care due to language barriers and differences in health literacy levels.

Read more about how researchers have actually played an important part in creating anatomically correct emojis here: https://buff.ly/3OdAjJ9

Did you know that researchers use organoids, or miniature versions of organs to help progress medical research? In this ...
07/10/2024

Did you know that researchers use organoids, or miniature versions of organs to help progress medical research?

In this image titled, Lab-Grown Fruits: Kidney Organoids, submitted by Murat Tekguc, MD, PhD, we can see the microstructure of one such organoid, created from stem cells in their lab.

This image specifically depicts the structural components that make up the functional units in the kidney.

The Morizane Lab specializes in kidney disease research using stem cell-derived tissues, specifically generating 3D kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). These kidney organoids contain multiple cell types and are used for drug development and regenerative medicine.

Read more about their lab: https://buff.ly/4bJLgNO

For more than 150 years, a school of nursing has been associated with Massachusetts General Hospital. As the third schoo...
07/09/2024

For more than 150 years, a school of nursing has been associated with Massachusetts General Hospital.

As the third school to be founded in the US in 1873 with training based on the Nightingale model, its graduates have been pioneers and leaders in nursing.

From founding schools across the country to pioneering a new wave of healthcare innovation, read more about the impact MGH nurses have had on health: https://buff.ly/4czQSLz

June 8 is Brain Tumor Awareness Day 🧠 When it comes to statistics about brain cancer, the numbers of new cases and relat...
06/07/2024

June 8 is Brain Tumor Awareness Day 🧠

When it comes to statistics about brain cancer, the numbers of new cases and relative rates of survival are grim. According to the National Cancer Institute, there will be an estimated 24,400 new cases of brain cancer in 2024 and the five-year survival rate is only 33.4%.

However, researchers across Mass General Brigham are working to change this.

We asked brain tumor researchers from across Mass General Brigham about what initially drew them to their field, what they wish everyone knew about it, and what promising areas of research they are working on.

Check out what they shared here: https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/newsroom/articles/confronting-brain-cancer

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The Mass General Research Institute is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the United States, with a community of over 10,000 people working across more than 30 institutes, centers, and departments. Embedded within Massachusetts General Hospital, the Research Institute is built on a culture of excellence, compassion and groundbreaking scientific achievement. Our researchers work side-by-side with physicians—in the lab, in the clinic, and at the bedside—harnessing the latest technological advancements to foster discovery at every stage. We partner with academia, industry, governments, philanthropists and our community to prevent disease, make medical innovation sustainable, and find cures to improve the lives of our patients and those across the globe.