Summer 2021 Inside Surgery
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Summer 2021 | Volume 11, No. 2 HOME << | >> News from the Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center INSIDE SURGERY page 3 << | >> IN THIS ISSUE 3 Surgery Research 14 News Briefs 6 A Point of Pride 19 Teaching Awards 7 2021 Graduates 20 Welcome New Trainees 8 Selected Publications 22 Harvard Surgery Research Day Summer 2021 10 HMS Promotions 23 In Memoriam Volume 11, No. 2 12 Alumni Spotlight: 24 Gift Supports Pancreatic Inside Surgery is published by the Prathima Nandivada, MD Cancer Research Office of the Chairman of the 13 New Faculty Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for faculty, trainees, staff, alumni, Message from the Chair affiliates, and friends. The mission of the s we emerge from the pandemic with hope of Department of Surgery: returning to the life we once knew, we remember A • Provide care of the very those who lost loved ones or livelihoods, or who struggle highest quality to regain a sense of balance and community. All of us • Improve health through continue to bear witness to the fragility of our global innovation and discovery community and the transience of health and well-being. • Prepare future leaders in American surgery As a society, we have long embraced the critical importance of fostering • Serve our communities with the generation of knowledge to make a difference in every facet of our lives. sensitivity and compassion One truly remarkable aspect of the past 18 months was our capacity to mobilize every available resource from the worlds of science, public policy, Surgery Chair and public health to “work the problem.” This effort catalyzed new fields of Elliot Chaikof, MD, PhD therapeutics of unprecedented efficacy and novel approaches to evaluating Editor/Writer Hilary Bennett and translating discoveries. Photography The generation of knowledge through research has been a cornerstone Danielle Duffey/BIDMC of our department since its founding. As you will read in our cover story, James Dwyer/BIDMC virtually all of our faculty and trainees conduct research that is transforming our understanding and treatment of challenging diseases, enhancing Please forward comments, news surgical training, and revealing and finding solutions to address disparities items, and requests to be added to or removed from the mailing list to: in surgical care. Editor, Inside Surgery, Beth Israel We believe that for research to thrive and bear fruit, it requires an Deaconess Medical Center, optimal milieu. We understand that innovation and discovery do not occur Department of Surgery, LMOB-9C, 110 Francis St., Boston, MA 02215. in isolation but rather at the interface of disciplines, where diverse viewpoints E-mail: surgerycommunications@ interact, problems are examined from multiple perspectives, and ideas bidmc.harvard.edu germinate into new solutions to intractable clinical problems. Thus, we Tel: 617-632-9581 continually strive to foster innovation by providing an environment that bidmc.org/surgery nurtures intellectual diversity, embraces individual freedom and flexibility, and promotes spontaneity and originality. By embracing these values, Cover photo: Susan Hagen, PhD, we are able to further our mission to develop more effective approaches Associate Vice Chair for Research to promote health and well-being, prevent illness, and treat or cure disease. in the Department of Surgery and Director of the BIDMC Microscopy The author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, “As for the future, and Histopathology Cores. Dr. Hagen’s your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” By questioning the status quo, research focuses on the development innovating, and collaborating, the women and men of the Department of of gastric cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide. Surgery work together to enable an equitable future where each and every one of us will be graced with better, healthier lives. Follow us on Twitter @BIDMCSurgery Follow us on Instagram @BIDMCSurgery Elliot Chaikof, MD, PhD bidmc.org/surgery Inside Surgery | Summer 2021 — Page 2 HOME << | >> ymphedema is an incurable, painful, and Lpotentially life-threatening condition that affects 1.2 million patients in the United States, most of whom have undergone surgery for breast cancer, which often requires the removal of lymph nodes. To plastic surgeon Dhruv Singhal, MD, Director of Lymphatic Surgery at BIDMC, this state of affairs is simply unacceptable. So, when he is not providing the latest treatments for patients with or at high risk of lymphedema, he is engaged in research focused on improving their care and, ideally, preventing the condition entirely. “One of the biggest challenges we face Dhruv Singhal, MD (left), conducts NIH-funded research aimed in treating lymphedema is that the current at predicting and preventing lymphedema. understanding of the lymphatic system is limited, and we also have no way to accurately measure its an intensely painful and potentially life-threatening function,” says Dr. Singhal, who is also Co-director condition—in patients with sickle cell disease. of the Boston Lymphatic Center. It is also true for surgical oncologist A. James Thanks to Dr. Singhal’s ongoing research, that Moser, MD, who is collaborating with researchers will likely change. Earlier this year, Dr. Singhal nationwide to identify biomarkers for the diagnosis received an R01 grant from the National Institutes and targeted treatment of pancreatic cancer (see of Health (NIH) to fund his research project that page 24), and Christiane Ferran, MD, PhD, whose seeks to define the anatomy of an alternate Harvard Medical School-funded research may lead pathway involved in lymphatic drainage from the to a novel treatment for type 1 diabetes that does arm (see page 16). He and his team will map its not require insulin. variations in both healthy women and those who have undergone breast cancer treatment that puts Surgery Research Leadership them at high risk for lymphedema. With this information, surgeons could predict Richard D. Cummings, PhD which variations predispose breast cancer Vice Chair, Basic and patients to develop lymphedema. Dr. Singhal then Translational Research plans to develop a novel method of noninvasive intraoperative optical imaging to assess the function of this pathway during surgery. “This would Susan Hagen, PhD enable us to predict a patient’s risk of developing Associate Vice Chair, Research lymphedema and, if warranted, implement preventive interventions,” says Dr. Singhal. Unsolved problems an inspiration Benjamin James, MD, MS For surgeon-scientists like Dr. Singhal, as well as Director, Resident Research non-clinical researchers in the Department of Surgery, the inspiration for their research—the question they “own”—often arises from unsolved James Rodrigue, PhD problems in the clinic, which fuels their passion Vice Chair, Clinical Research to find answers that will improve patients’ lives. That is certainly the case for Richard D. Cummings, PhD, whose laboratory research led to a new, FDA-approved treatment that significantly reduces the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises— Continued on page 4 > bidmc.org/surgery Inside Surgery | Summer 2021 — Page 3 HOME << | >> < Continued from page 3 And it is likewise the case for the scores of other Interdisciplinary Research surgeon-scientists and laboratory investigators—as well as the trainees they mentor—in the Department Research is conducted in all of our clinical divisions of Surgery, whose research is inspired by unsolved as well as our interdisciplinary research programs, problems and the patients it may someday benefit. which foster collaborations among investigators throughout Boston, the nation, and the world, in A cornerstone of the department both academia and the life sciences and medical technology industries. Research has been a cornerstone of the Department of Surgery since its founding more • Center for Drug Discovery and Translational than 150 years ago. Today, all divisions and nearly Research; Director: Lijun Sun, PhD all faculty members participate in translational or • Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine; clinical research programs, receiving funding from Directors: Richard D. Cummings, PhD, Jin-Rong multiple sources. Many of these programs include Zhou, PhD undergraduates, medical students, and residents • Harvard Medical School Center for Glycoscience; pursuing research electives and fellowships, as well Director: Richard D. Cummings, PhD as postdoctoral fellows. Additionally, numerous • Rongxiang Xu, MD Center for Regenerative research nurses, clinical coordinators, and Therapeutics; Director: Aristidis Veves, MD, DSc biostatisticians support these research efforts, which take place in 25,000 square feet of space across the BIDMC campus. The types of research in which the department is engaged are diverse and span the entire spectrum 580+ Scholarly Articles from bench to bedside. For example, investigators conduct laboratory-based research to define the Members of the Department of Surgery molecular basis of disease; develop novel surgical disseminate their findings internationally by publishing, on average, 580+ peer-reviewed approaches, tools, and devices; and evaluate the scholarly articles a year, as well as numerous effectiveness of competing interventions. They also chapters and textbooks in the fields of surgery carry out studies of large communities that shed and biomedical sciences. Many faculty also serve light on disparities in