Focus Areas in the Genomic Medicine Cycle
Major leadership positions
Managing Co-Director, Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, Mass General Hospital
Associate Member, Broad Institute
MGH Unit(s)
Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health
Department of Neurology
MGH Dept/Division/Unit(s)
Division of Neurocritical Care
Overview
The Cerebrovascular Health Research Program applies multidisciplinary tools to identify the mechanisms to preserve healthy brain blood vessels across the lifespan.
The hallmark of our work is the combination of careful clinical characterization of patients with the most rigorous approaches to genetics. We work in partnership with patients and their families to understand the factors that contribute to maintaining vascular brain health across the lifespan. We are a leading contributor to the performance and analysis of high-throughput genome-wide association and sequencing studies in stroke and related traits. At our core, we serve as a training ground for outstanding scientists and clinician-scientists who go on to become world-class leaders in the field. The lab has created a legacy of multidisciplinary teams that are successfully tackling some of the most pressing challenges in brain disease. Among these teams is the International Stroke Genetics Consortium, which we founded in 2007 to bring together the world’s pre-eminent stroke investigators.
Priority Projects
- Identifying and modifying the biological and social determinants of brain health for individuals who have recovered from a stroke. This clinical study, enrolling at centers across the country, comprehensively assesses research participants in order to determine how we can most effectively reduce their risk of losing their memory, having another stroke, or developing depression over time. In order to measure and, ultimately reduce, health inequalities, we are enrolling individuals from across all sociodemographic backgrounds.
- Gene discovery for hemorrhagic stroke: With members of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium we are leading the largest, most comprehensive genome-wide association and sequencing studies of hemorrhagic stroke patients in order to discover novel mechanisms, and ultimately, drug targets for this devastating disease.
- Restoring the health of the nervous system in long-COVID: This study, enrolling across Boston, includes immunological assessments and clinical trials for individuals with long-COVID suffering from brain fog and dysautonomia.
- Longitudinal stroke cohorts: a major goal of the lab is to longitudinally follow stroke survivors to better understand their recovery and the challenges that come along with their recovery.
Lab Members
| Name: | Email: | Role: |
|---|---|---|
| Christopher Anderson, MD, MMSc | cdanderson@partners.org | Co-PI |
| Alessandro Biffi, MD | abiffi@partners.org | Co-PI |
| Akashleena Mallick, MD | amallick1@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Akshata Sonni, PhD | asonni@partners.org | McCance Program Director |
| Brigitte Jacoby | bjacoby@mgh.harvard.edu | Clinical Research Coordinator |
| Carla Fortes-Monteiro | cfortes-monteiro@mgh.harvard.edu | Sr. Clinical Research Coordinator |
| Christina Kourkoulis | ckourkoulis@partners.org | Director of Operations |
| Courtney Nunley | cnunley@mgh.harvard.edu | Communications Associate |
| Danielle Hoffman | drhoffman@mgh.harvard.edu | Clinical Research Coordinator |
| Denise Driscoll | ddriscoll7@mgh.harvard.edu | Staff Assistant III |
| Dominque Popescu, PhD | dpopescu@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Edith Ackerman | eeackerman@partners.org | Communications Manager |
| Ernst Mayerhofer, MD | emayerhofer@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Jeanette Prendable | jprendable@mgh.harvard.edu | Administrative Assistant |
| Jonathan Duskin | duskin@bwh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Jordan Karten | jkarten@mgh.harvard.edu | Project Manager |
| Leidys Gutierrez Martinez | lgutierrezmartinez@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Livia Parodi, PhD | lparodi@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Marios Georgakis, MD, PhD | mgeorgakis@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Natalie Zaba | Clinical Research Coordinator | |
| Nirupama Yechoor | nyechoor@mgh.harvard.edu | Post-doctoral Research Fellow |
| Savvina Prapiadou | sprapiadou@mgh.harvard.edu | Visiting Research Student |
| Sophia Keins | skeins@mgh.harvard.edu | Clinical Research Coordinator II |
| Valdery Moura Junior | vmoura@mgh.harvard.edu | Director of Data Science Technology |
| Zechariah Davis | zddavis@mgh.harvard.edu | Visiting Research Student |
Lab/Contact Telephone
617-726-5359
Fax
617-643-3293
Primary Email
jrosand@partners.org
The Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) comprises one of the largest and most vibrant hubs of genomic medicine research in the world. The CGM includes 46 faculty collaborating to define the ‘genomic medicine cycle’ – which envisages a genomics community seeking to advance research from basic genomics research to ultimately using genome information for diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. All of our investigators are faculty at Harvard Medical School, and many members of our community are also investigators at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.
