Massachusetts General Hospital is home to the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the U.S., with an annual budget of nearly $1.2 billion in 2021. The Mass General Research Institute comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments.
But what do each of these groups do? Learn more about the individual labs and centers in our #ThroughTheMagnifyingGlass series, where we take a closer look at the teams that make up the Massachusetts General Research Institute.
Our inaugural research team is the Metabolism Unit within the Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at Mass General, which is led by Steven Grinspoon, MD.
The Metabolism Unit
What research do you perform, and why is it unique?
We focus on fat tissue and related inflammation. We study rare diseases in people, to discover important ways in which fat may be regulated in the general population. For example, recently we recently found certain genes that may result in the body producing less healthy fat, which accumulates in the liver and other unusual tissues and is more inflamed.
We carry out studies in a collaborative way, working together with doctors in other fields. For example, we recently saw that babies born without HIV to mothers with HIV are significantly more overweight than expected 15 years after birth. Insights from this work may help us to learn about how weight might change over time in babies born to mothers with COVID-19.
We perform studies across the spectrum of scientific discovery, from generating new hypotheses to conducting confirmatory clinical trials.
The Metabolism Unit is led by Dr. Steven Grinspoon, a recognized expert in substrate metabolism, with a focus on the regulation of ectopic adipose tissue and related inflammatory conditions.
What are you currently researching in your lab?
- How certain hormones made in the fat work to prevent diabetes
- How new drugs that block inflammation may change blood sugar among patients with obesity
- How stopping the natural process of fat breakdown effects blood sugar and inflammation
- If the way in which our cells produce energy is connected to the regulation of blood sugar
- How to stimulate the brain to increase the natural release of certain hormones, to better burn fat especially in the belly and liver areas
- New ways to look at inflammation and dangerous lesions in the heart
Meet the Team
Each faculty member brings a unique set of talents to the lab, be it in people skills, creative experimental design, statistical programming, or knowledge of the regulatory aspects of our work.
Each faculty member directs his or her own projects, but collectively we leverage these individual skill sets for the good of the entire Unit through weekly lab and small group meetings. We examine our mistakes in a transparent way, and also discuss our challenges, so that we can all learn and benefit from a very powerful collective knowledge that has built over time.
We are very close as a group and have a rich history of providing significant peer-to-peer mentoring from multiple senior faculty members to our younger faculty. We have also developed a Metabolism Unit Scholars Program to bring in talented young investigators to share knowledge and interchange ideas.
Is there a particular modus operandi the team has?
We believe strongly in the value of multidisciplinary collaboration. Although we are a unit within the Endocrine Division, our work is truly multidisciplinary and we collaborate with physician scientists in multiple disciplines, including cardiology, radiology, infectious disease, pediatrics, gastroenterology and genomics research at the Broad Institute.
These collaborations have led to the first macrophage-specific imaging agent for inflammation in cardiovascular disease; a new drug to reduce fatty liver disease and prevent fibrosis among people with HIV; and sex-specific mechanisms of cardiovascular disease, among other advances.
Leveraging the knowledge of collaborators at Mass General has allowed us to greatly advance our research objectives.
In addition, we direct the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, a 100+ faculty P30 Center, in which we promote education and research, developing core labs and awarding up to $150,000 each year in pilot grants to young investigators performing obesity and metabolism work across Harvard.
Our goal is to provide funds to enable the careers of these aspiring young investigators and foster collaborative research across the Harvard system, consistent with the theme of the unit.
What is one thing you wish everyone knew about the research you perform?
Scientific investigation, especially translational human research, is hard to perform but critically necessary.
Collaborative efforts to tackle problems can help insure successful research, from the development of the initial hypothesis, through the confirmation of early-stage results in clinical trials.
Young scientists need a home where they feel inspired and motivated to succeed but protected and supported through the inevitable ups and downs of the process. The Metabolism Unit is proud of its track record in this regard and the scientific advances it has made for underserved populations.
About the Mass General Research Institute
Massachusetts General Hospital is home to the largest hospital-based research program in the United States. Our researchers work side-by-side with physicians to develop innovative new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease.
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