More than 260 senior scientists oversee research teams at BIDMC. In the videos below, you'll hear firsthand from some of BIDMC's senior investigators, who talked with Heather Kahn about their work and its impact to health and patient care.
The Science Behind Low-Carb Diets
Hear from BIDMC's Eleftheria Maratos-Flier, MD, a scientist in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, whose research is helping to explain how and why low-carb diets and other weight loss regimens work.
Can A Broken Heart Cause Heart Disease?
Murray Mittleman, MD, DrPH, oversees the Epidemiology Research Unit in BIDMC's Cardiovascular Institute. Here, he talks about some of his recent research which found that intense grief can increase a person's risk of heart attack, dubbed the "broken heart syndrome." (Video updated to include information on pollution and heart disease on February 14, 2012.)
Can A Sugar Pill Help You Feel Better? Surprising New Research on Placebos
Ted Kaptchuk, Director of the Program in Placebo Studies & the Therapeutic Encounter at BIDMC, talks about the role of the placebo to health and describes the surprising results of a recent study which found that patients with irritable bowel syndrome felt better after receiving placebo treatments - even though they knew they were getting sugar pills.
Genetics and Personalized Cancer Therapies
The brave new world of the genome and genetics research is leading to the development of targeted cancer therapies that eliminate the debilitating side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Scientific Director of BIDMC's Cancer Center explains his work developing personalized therapies and discusses promising future directions in cancer research.
A Research Experiment Tests Bone-Strengthening Drugs - In Outer Space
Last summer, Mary Bouxsein, PhD, of BIDMC's Center for Advanced Orthopaedic Studies, oversaw a research experiment that was literally out of this world -a new molecule being tested to prevent bone loss was aboard NASA's final Space Shuttle mission. She discusses this experiment and talks about the importance of preventing osteoporosis and bone fractures here on Earth.
Creating and Testing Cancer Vaccines
David Avigan, MD, Director of BIDMC's Hematologic Malignancy/Bone Marrow Transplant Program, explains how specially developed vaccines can be created to "train" an individual's immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells, and talks about exciting new work being conducted by his research team.