Benchmarks: Mass General Research News and Notes for January 26, 2024
Welcome to Benchmarks, your weekly dose of research news and notes from Massachusetts General Hospital.
With over 9,500 researchers working across 30 departments, centers and institutes, there's more research news each week than we can cover. Here are a few highlights:
Research in the News
Mass General Researcher Explains The Mechanics of Cell Therapies and Current and Future Treatments
What is cell therapy and how can it help treat diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders?
That was the question tackled by Aron Gyorgypal, PhD, a research fellow in the Anthony Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, for an explainer piece in Technology Networks.
Gyorgypal explains how cell therapies such as CAR-T cells are made, details key terms such as leukapheresis, and explains new cell therapy treatment strategies that are now being explored for conditions such as ulcerative colitis and type 1 diabetes. Read more.
Elyse Park, PhD, MPH, Named Director of Reserch for Benson-Henry Institute of Mind Body Medicine
Congratulations to Mass General's Elyse R. Park, PhD, MPH, for being named the new director of research for the Benson-Henry Institute of Mind-Body Medicine (BHI)!
Dr. Park is a Professor of Psychiatry and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has been on staff at Mass General since 2001.
A lead author of the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program, Dr. Park is a gifted clinician and researcher with interest in resiliency, cancer prevention and survivorship, and tobacco treatment research.
She is also lead investigator and mentor for many mind-body behavioral trials,
In addition to Dr. Park, noted neuroimaging and meditation researcher Sara Lazar, PhD, a longtime BHI collaborator, and mindfulness expert and researcher Christina Luberto, PhD, will join the institute.
Tweets of the Week
Congratulations to @TinaLubertoPhd chlinical health psychologist @MGH_HPRIR
— MGH Psychiatry (@MGHPsychiatry) January 26, 2024
who will be receiving the Society of Behavioral Medicine,@BehavioralMed, Cardiovascular Disease SIG Early Career Professional (ECP) award. @MGH_RI@MonganInstitute@MGHPsychiatry@MassGeneralNews pic.twitter.com/bvzM458vHc
Join us in congratulating Ragon faculty member Xu Yu, MD, for her promotion to the position of Full Professor at Harvard Medical School!
— Ragon Institute (@ragoninstitute) January 26, 2024
#RagonInstitute #Faculty #Research #HIV #WomenInSTEM pic.twitter.com/iLYm1wTmxf
Now out in @JAMANetworkOpen , @artschuermans and I w/ Alex Reiner @fredhutch examine the role of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) 🩸🧬 in future/incident development of heart failure and its subtypes (HFpEF and HFrEF)https://t.co/fgcEzzDH2A
— Michael Honigberg, MD, MPP (@mchonig) January 25, 2024
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(1/X) pic.twitter.com/zWCZkNm2xE
Today, the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research announced the selection of 17 scientists who have been awarded a combined $6 million in support of their trailblazing cancer research efforts. Congrats to all & thank you to the Krantz family! Learn more: https://t.co/qlT6xfuVM5 pic.twitter.com/FD8wJCSXUu
— Mass General Cancer Center (@MGHCancerCenter) January 24, 2024
This Week in Mass General History
Mass General Expert on Cults Speaks to NY Times About Coercive Recruitment Techniques
Jan. 23, 1979 (The New York Times) – How do cult leaders recruit new participants and change the way they think about themselves and others?
John G. Clark, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Mass General was interviewed by the New York Times as part of a three-part series on cults in America.
Clark examined 60 former and present cult members and talked with hundreds of their relatives over a five-year period. According to Clark, “Coercive persuasion and thought reform techniques are effectively practiced on naïve, uninformed subjects with disastrous health consequences.”
Dr. Clark attributes cult’s recruitment success to their ability to induce trances without the individual’s knowledge or consent. Such traces can be brought about with constant chanting, singing, dancing, preaching, scripture reading and peer pressure in a controlled, isolated setting in which only short periods of sleep—about four hours—are allowed.
“It’s the same process as hypnosis, except that with cults you don’t have to have willing subjects.”
Read the statement of Dr. Clark on the Cult Phenomenon in the United States to the US Congress (From February 1979).
About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital helps to make the care we give our patients tomorrow better than today. Our research spans the spectrum of discovery from fundamental, lab-based science to clinical trials to population-based research dedicated to improving the health of the communities that we serve.
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