Professor Charles N.
Serhan
The Simon Gelman Professor of
Anesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
(Biochemistry and
Molecular Pharmacology),
Harvard Medical School and
BWH
Endowed Distinguished Scientist
Center Faculty - 2005
Harvard Medical School - Brigham and Women's Hospital
Affiliate Faculty - 2005
Geraldine Canny, Ph.D., Director, Mucosal Immunity Laboratory, University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland
Nan Chiang, Ph.D., Instructor, Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Sean Colgan, Ph.D., Kern Professor of Medicine, and Director, Mucosal Inflammation Program, University of Colorado, Denver
Glenn Furuta, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Children’s Hospital, Boston
Simon Gelman, M.D., Ph.D., Vandam/Covino Distinguished Professor of Anaesthesia, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Karsten Gronert, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pharmacology, New York Medical Center
Melanie Hart, Ph.D., Instructor, Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Song Hong, Ph.D., Instructor, Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Bruce D. Levy, M.D., Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Pin-Lan Li, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin
Nancy Louis, M.D., Instructor in Anaesthesia, Neonatal Div., Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital
Birgitta Schmidt, M.D., Assistant Director Dermatopathology, Department of Pathology, Children's Hospital
Stan Shernan, M.D., Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Mary Walsh, Ph.D., Instructor, Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Visiting International Faculty - 2005:
Makoto Arita, Ph.D., University of Tokyo, Japan (
Host lab: C.N. Serhan)
Marc Busche, MD, Medizinische Hochschule, Dept of Trauma Surgery, Hannover, Germany (
Host Lab: GL Stahl)
Eva Särndahl, Ph.D., Linköping University, Sweden (
Host lab: C.N. Serhan)
Jan Schwab, M.D Ph.D., University of Tuebingen, Germany (
Host lab: C.N. Serhan)
Cormac Taylor, Ph.D., University College Dublin, Ireland (
Host lab: S.P. Colgan)
Previous Faculty
A Note from the Center's Director, Charles
N. Serhan
Opportunities in Interdisciplinary and Translational
Research
Our
Center for Experimental Therapeutics and
Reperfusion Injury offers
many opportunities for training in topics that are of interest in
internal medicine, surgery, pathology and their respective
subspecialties (hematology, nephrology, etc.). This Center is a
multidisciplinary research effort with a
cluster of
talented faculty members that have
both unique scientific expertise and perspective focusing on
defining key molecular events of importance in the biopathogenesis
of reperfusion injury, a sequence of events that affects many
diseases including asthma, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary and
renal disorders, as well as diseases with inflammatory
components such as arthritis and
oral medicine with clinical sequelae such as periodontal disease. In
addition to these clinical endpoints, the underlying interactions
between blood cells and vascular tissues evoke acute inflammatory
responses that can be initiated within the host stress in surgery
and persist in the perioperative arena.
The perioperative arena represents a wide, unmet
clinical challenge and need for development of novel therapeutics
that, if achieved, can shorten the duration of perioperative holding
time and eventual hospital stay. In many respects, the cell biology
and molecular mechanisms that are involved in acute reperfusion
injury as observed in the surgical arena resemble the cellular and
molecular events that take place in acute inflammation and host
defense. Hence, detailed understanding of these molecular mechanisms
and events can provide a wealth of new information that could have
wide-ranging implications for the medical subspecialties and our
appreciation of host defense as well as preventative medicine.
Scope of Research
The research programs within the Center
take a multidisciplinary approach. The current tools of molecular
medicine, namely biochemistry, cell and molecular biology,
pharmacology, physiology and structural elucidation of small
molecule natural products, all converge, with representatives from
each discipline focused on elucidating key components in ischemia
and reperfusion injury. This provides a unique opportunity for
program development and a balanced training environment, as
evidenced by the large number of trainees
and the strong extramural support
to this the Center.
Mission Statements & Goals
An interdisciplinary research team of experienced
as well as new investigators is assembled within the Center with the
following general mission statements:
"To identify novel
targets and pathways critical in regulating neutrophil-mediated
inflammation and establish the templates for physiologic small
molecule-based interventions."
and
"To define the molecular mechanisms underlying reperfusion
injury and identify novel therapeutic interventions that can prevent
cell injury."
From these two broad mission statements we
have created a platform for the interweaving of molecular definition
and put a focus on structural elucidation, physiology and
pharmacology as they intertwine in a modern appreciation and
powerful use of molecular biology in evaluating the cell biology of
inflammation and reperfusion injury in animal models such as
transgenic and knockout mice and genetically engineered larger
animal models including transgenic rabbits.
To accomplish our objectives, the Center environment and
structure provides a platform that brings together a group of
investigators and faculty members who have recognized expertise in
the areas of biochemistry, pharmacology, physiology, physiological
chemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology, all with a special
interest in white blood cell function and their interactions with
cells of the vessel wall as well as mucosal lining. Hence, one focal
strength of the Center is its multidisciplinary approach to the
well-appreciated problems associated with aberrant neutrophil
activation that can occur during inflammation in a wide range of
clinical scenarios as well as in ischemia-reperfusion injury.
The individual research report narratives of the Center.s
faculty (see individual web sites) indicates that research in each
principal investigator.s laboratory tests hypothesis-driven research
based on recent discoveries in their laboratories that are funded by
several extramural research sources:
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and
Skin Diseases
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial
Research
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases
National Institute of General Medical
Sciences
American Heart Association
Arthritis
Foundation
Fulbright Scholars program
Crohn.s and Colitis
FoundationA strategic research cluster:
This coming together of uniquely qualified investigators in a
strategic alliance to solve problems of fundamental importance in
the biomedical sciences places the Center in a highly unique and
strategic position to rapidly translate very basic research
discoveries at the molecular and cellular level into shaping
thoughts regarding the pathobiology of human disease and potential
novel approaches and clinical treatments. On the other side of this
equation, the opportunity for a cross dialogue with clinicians and
clinician-scientists provides scientists working in this Center the
ability to articulate well informed hypotheses in their experiments,
aimed to elucidate clinical observations and phenomena to provide
insight and a basis for informed intervention. This unique alliance
between clinicians, clinician-scientists and basic scientists within
each laboratory within the Center places this group of investigators
in a unique position to achieve success in their individual research
programs.
Brigham and Women's Hospital Location and Environment
The laboratories of our faculty members are located in the Thorn building, floors 7 and 13 of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Our location provides an opportunity for daily interactions between individual laboratories and a framework for synergy with faculty members of the Center, their trainees, postdoctoral fellows and research associates as well as other investigators located within the Thorn Medical Research Building and the Harvard Medical Research Community.
