Scientific Leadership

Institutional Cooperation

Fostering Collaborations

The Center Investigators















































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The MGH Burn Research Center serves to engage multiple segments of the research and clinical communities within MGH, Shriners Hospital, and MIT and to foster a cohesive institutional approach to the basic and clinical science of physiological responses to injury.

Our P50 center grant program engages multiple key investigators who might not traditionally be involved in trauma research to commit their efforts to injury research, and to consistently produce important contributions to the field. The interactive team members serve as examples to include: basic scientists in physiology (Kelleher), anesthesiologists (Martyn and Kaneki), chemical and metabolic engineering (Stephanopoulos), internal medicine specialists in diabetes mellitus (Avruch) and nuclear medicine (Fischman), biostatisticians (Schoenfeld), chemistry and biomedical NMR (Tzika), and molecular biology (Rahme). These latter interactions offer a tremendous opportunity to understand the complex data sets produced by the cell biological and physiological studies. Integration of these disciplines within our research program results in a more complete understanding of complex systems and broad applicability to biology.

The Center’s clinical program is based on the approximately 400 acute burn patients admitted annually to the Burn Centers at MGH and the Boston Shriners Hospital. The American Burn Association/American College of Surgeons Burn Center Hospital Verification Program has verified both of these facilities as Burn Centers. In addition, more than 2,000 patients are admitted annually to the American College of Surgeons-verified Level I Adult and Pediatric Trauma Centers at the MGH and these patients are also available for study. The clinical studies facilities at the MGH and Boston Shriners Hospital have been extended to include the study of burn patients and healthy volunteers in the MGH PET Camera Facility as well as patients in the ICUs using the newly acquired, mobile μPET Camera. In addition to the clinical facilities, the Center enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with the Shriners Hospital and MIT for basic science facilities, which complement and expand an already substantial array of resources.

In addition to the synergistic nature of the clinical program, the Center enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with the Boston Shriners Hospital and MIT for basic science facilities, which complements and expands the substantial array of services at MGH. In particular, our NIH-funded Center has benefited extensively through the coordination of research efforts of the Center with those research efforts supported at the Shriners Hospital. This association has greatly expanded the resources available for the studies of the Center through the following:

  1. The common use of major equipment
  2. The ability to perform complicated methodologies already developed through non-overlapping but coordinated funding for developmental work
  3. The creation of an extended critical mass of capable, interested, and interactive investigators leading to cross-stimulation through close association with this wide range of experienced investigators all interested and knowledgeable in the problem of burn injury
  4. From the investments of each institution and NIH for equipment and other capital expenses to establish and maintain the state-of-the-art instruments, the unique resources shared among the institutions become more cost effective and efficient to the overall research efforts
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