The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine is a prominent national center for both laboratory and clinical research. Senior residents and fellows are encouraged to participate in any of the multitude of ongoing projects in all clinical subspecialties, as well as in the basic science laboratories. They are also welcome to initiate their own projects.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Department of Anesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine consistently remain among the nation’s top recipients of NIH funding for research. Extramural funding and space allotment for research have increased dramatically in the department in recent years. More than 20 percent of the faculty members are principal investigators, working in 14 different laboratories covering over 20,000 square feet. These faculty members include world leaders in their fields of research, are widely published and serve as outstanding mentors. Our faculty have been recognized by the ASA Excellence in Research Award, the Gaston Labat Award for Teaching and Research in Regional Anesthesia, and many others. Also included among the anesthesia faculty are members of the ASA Committee on Research and editors of Anesthesiology, Anesthesia & Analgesia, and Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. Recent successes among the junior faculty include two KO8 awards from the NIH and two Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) awards.
Residents have the opportunity to become involved in basic science research through the NIH Harvard Anesthesia Center Training Grant awarded to the Harvard Anesthesia Department. This grant supports research fellows who spend at least 80 percent of their time in the laboratory and guarantees time for learning and conducting basic science research. Interested residents also have the option of working in a laboratory during the CA-3 year. They can continue this work into the CA-4 year by pursuing either Clinical Scientist Track.
Scientific fields of study are wide-ranging and include molecular biology, immunology, biochemistry, neurobiology, membrane biophysics, ion channel physiology, cell biology and behavioral testing. Many of the anesthesia research laboratories are grouped within several research centers.
The Pain Research Center
The Pain Research Center focuses on interdisciplinary programs investigating cellular and ionic mechanisms of acute, chronic (e.g., neuropathic) and cancer-related pain, as well as the pharmacology of intravenous, local, and general anesthetics, and the pharmacology of opioid tolerance. Other areas of investigation include alternative therapies for relief of acute and chronic pain, design of long-acting local anesthetics for reversible blockade of neurologic functions, molecular biology of ion channels and pre-emptive analgesia. This Center is directed by Professor Gary Strichartz, PhD, a leader in research on local anesthetics and pain mechanisms.
The Center for Experimental Therapeutics and Reperfusion Injury
The Center for Experimental Therapeutics and Reperfusion Injury focuses on the molecular biology of inflammation, as well as acute and chronic ischemia and reperfusion injury, with a particular focus on the role of lipid-derived mediators in regulating leukocyte function. In recent years, groups within the center have discovered distinct classes of these lipid mediators, lipoxins, that inhibit and regulate responses in neutrophils involved in inflammation and reperfusion injury. This group is led by Charles N. Serhan, PhD, a world authority on bioactive lipids, eicosanoids and lipoxins.
The Laboratory of Molecular Anesthesia
The Laboratory of Molecular Anesthesia focuses on the molecular biology of Ca2+ metabolism in striated muscle, and specifically on mechanisms governing Excitation-Contraction Coupling. One special area of interest is Malignant Hyperthermia, a pharmacogenetic disease that is caused by exposure to volatile anesthetics. Other areas of investigation include gene therapy of Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy using skeletal muscle stem cells as the gene delivery vehicle and expression profiling of human heart failure. This group is led by a clinician-scientist, P. D. Allen, PhD, MD, who is a world authority on the molecular biology of E-C coupling.
Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Under the leadership of the Chairman, Charles Vacanti, MD, a new Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine is being established. The goal of the research is to generate new functional tissue utilizing autologous cells associated with synthetic, biodegradable, biocompatible polymer scaffolds. The scaffolds provide anchorage sites to prevent dispersion of cells from the site of implantation, as well as structural cues and a template to guide the generation of new tissue. The use of a novel adult-derived stem cell in combination with such scaffoldings is also being explored. Specific tissue to be studied will include cartilage, bone, nerves, tendon, ligament, skin and islets. Preliminary experiments have resulted in the generation of functional spinal cord tissue in SCI rats as well as the generation of islets using adult derived stem cells isolated from the pancreas in other animals.
Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials
The Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials is a multi-disciplinary group of chemists, chemical engineers, cell and molecular biologists, and physicians who are focused on the applications of micro- and nanotechnologies to development and engineering of smart nanoparticles for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Other areas of focus in the group include drug target identification and validation and high throughput synthesis and screening of nanomaterials for drug delivery. The group is led by Omid Farokhzad, an anesthesiologist-scientist with expertise in interventional pain medicine, who has pioneered the combinatorial development and screening of multifunctional nanoparticles for a myriad of clinical applications.
CABG Genomics Program
The Perioperative Genomics Research Group within the Department examines the impact of genetic variation upon outcomes after cardiac surgery. The CABG Genomics Program is a multi-institutional study of genomic influences on adverse cardiac and non-cardiac outcomes after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. The program is led by a team including Drs. Simon Body, Stanton Shernan, Amanda Fox, Jochen Muehlschlegel, Tjorvi Perry, and Kuang-Yu Liu in this department, together with Dr. Charles Collard of the Texas Heart Institute. To date, the group has enrolled over 1750 primary CABG surgical patients in four surgical centers, performing genomic analyses and perioperative biomarker assessment and recording detailed in-hospital and post-discharge followup using a case report form and study database developed by Departmental IT staff. This research has uncovered several markers predictive of an increased risk of adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery. These research efforts are important to improving cardiac surgical risk stratification as well as to future development of pharmacologic and medical interventions that will improve perioperative morbidity and mortality.
Clinical Research
The clinical research program is equally active and diverse with particular strengths in obstetric, regional and ambulatory anesthesia, neurophysiological monitoring, and post-operative pain management. There are currently over 60 clinical research projects underway led by members of the department. Some clinical research projects result from the continuation of laboratory studies in the clinical arena.
Translational Pain Research
The Translational Pain Research Group works to bring laboratory research into a safe and effective clinical research setting. The group provides a wealth of educational information on chronic pain, and offers the opportunity for patients to participate in clinical trials of novel approaches to chronic pain therapies.
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