George Molina, MD, MPH, has been awarded a $338K grant from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) for the study, “Identifying factors associated with variation in surgical treatment of colorectal liver metastasis.”
The study’s main goal is to identify factors associated with variation in surgical treatment of colorectal liver metastasis, locally and nationally.
George Molina, MD, MPH Associate Surgeon, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Molina graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in cellular and molecular biology. He obtained his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and he completed an MPH in quantitative methods at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his general surgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in complex surgical oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Hospital Cancer Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.
As part of his general surgery training, Dr. Molina also completed a two-year postgraduate research fellowship at Ariadne Labs, where he worked on projects in health systems innovation and research, global surgery modeling, clinical studies in surgical oncology, surgical safety culture in inpatient and ambulatory settings and impact of a surgical safety checklist program.
He is board certified in general surgery, and he is a member of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO).
Dr. Molina’s clinical and research interests include improving the safety, quality and equity of surgical care through health systems innovation. He is also interested in understanding the impact of fragmentation of cancer care on disparities in surgical outcomes in the United States. Dr. Molina will be conducting his research at the Center for Surgery and Public Health and at Ariadne Labs.
Zara Cooper, MD, Msc, has been awarded a $3.3M National Institutes of Health grant for the study, “A layered examination of the patient experience to elucidate the role of palliative care in surgical care for seriously ill older adults.”
Over 1 million older adults with serious illness have major surgery or severe trauma each year, and palliative care delivered alongside surgical care can help relieve patient suffering, improve postoperative outcomes and reduce health care utilization. Although seriously ill surgical patients benefit from palliative care, they are less likely than other patients to receive it. The proposed study will provide an innovative and layered examination of the role of palliative care in surgery in order to directly inform bedside clinical decisions and the implementation of targeted palliative care interventions to improve care for older seriously ill surgical patients.
Zara Cooper, MD, MSc Michele and Howard J. Kessler Distinguished Chair in Surgery and Public Health Kessler Director, Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Chair, Executive Advisory Committee, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Health Director, Center for Geriatric Surgery Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Cooper is an acute care surgeon, trauma surgeon and surgical intensivist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she also serves as Kessler director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH), chair of the Executive Advisory Committee for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Health and director of the Center for Geriatric Surgery. Dr. Cooper is an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and adjunct faculty at the Marcus Institute for Aging Research. A graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Cooper completed her general surgery residency and critical care fellowship at the Brigham; a trauma fellowship at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington; and training in hospice and palliative medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham.
Her research aims to improve palliative and geriatric care for older seriously ill surgical patients. A national leader in surgical palliative care and geriatric trauma, she has authored over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, chapters, and abstracts and lectures nationally about surgical care in complex older patients.
Dr. Cooper is currently funded through the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC), the Department of Defense and is a co-investigator on multiple federally funded grants. She also serves on numerous editorial boards and committees for professional societies, Mass General Brigham and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a member of the Brigham Health Board of Trustees.
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, has been awarded a $748K grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center for the study, “Leveraging digital pathology to identify and cure high risk breast cancer.”
We have reached the limits of how standard pathologic evaluation of breast biopsy or surgical specimens can inform the care of breast cancer patients. While routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained slides, as well as additional staining to assess expression of the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 are used to define the subtype of breast cancer a patient has and dictates their initial therapy, it is unable to predict who is going to respond to that treatment or provide significant prognostic information. Therefore, there is a critical unmet need to develop novel technologies that will enable improved prediction and prognostication in order to inform personalized treatment recommendations for breast cancer patients. Digital pathology has the potential to address that need, revolutionizing the way that breast cancer patients are cared for. Specifically, by employing machine learning to the evaluation of pathologic specimens, we anticipate more rapid, accurate and refined diagnoses that will inform treatment recommendations that are personalized to the individual patient.
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD Rob and Karen Hale Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Vice Chair for Research, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Director of Surgical Research, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) Breast Program Director, Breast Immuno-Oncology Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Co-Director, Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program, Breast Oncology Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Mittendorf is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she also completed a residency in general surgery. After completing her residency, she served on active duty in the United States military before completing a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Mittendorf also holds a PhD in immunology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
Prior to joining Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Mittendorf was a professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Mittendorf is board certified by the America Board of Surgery. She maintains a busy clinical practice and oversees a portfolio of clinical trials, as well as a basic laboratory effort.
She is principal investigator on a number of clinical protocols, including the phase III PRESENT (Prevention of Recurrence in Early-Stage, Node-Positive Breast Cancer with Low to Intermediate HER2 Expression with NeuVax Treatment) study, and a multicenter phase II trial investigating the efficacy of a CD8+ T cell eliciting vaccine in combination with trastuzumab, which is based on preclinical data generated in her laboratory and follows a phase I trial she conducted demonstrating the combination to be safe. This trial is supported by a Breakthrough Award from the Department of Defense (DoD).
Dr. Mittendorf is also the principal investigator on a multi-center trial supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) evaluating the impact of vaccination in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ, a trial evaluating the impact of preoperative radiation therapy on the immune response in breast tumors, as well as two investigator initiated studies evaluating immune checkpoint blockade administered to breast cancer patients in the presurgical setting.
Her laboratory work is focused on identifying novel tumor antigens and investigating aspects of the tumor microenvironment that impact the response to immunotherapy. Specifically, she is investigating mutations in the ESR1 gene as targets for vaccination, as well as the impact of standard therapies on the immune microenvironment with the goal of informing rational clinical trials evaluating the addition of immunotherapy to treatment regimens for breast cancer patients. This work is supported by the Komen for the Cure Foundation and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
