Category: Awards

Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD, has been awarded a $250K American Cancer Society/Pfizer Inc., grant for the study, “Understanding the drivers of unequal receipt of definitive therapy for Black men with prostate cancer.”

Preliminary research has identified significant racial disparities in receipt of definitive therapy for men in Massachusetts who are diagnosed with intermediate and high-risk localized prostate cancer. The overall goal of the study is to use a comparative case study approach to identify factors, processes, programs and practices associated with receipt of definitive therapy and develop interventions to encourage appropriate care for Black men with prostate cancer.

Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD
Associate Surgeon, Division of Urology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director, Ambulatory Clinical Operations, Division of Urology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Co-Director, Prostate Cancer Center, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Trinh is an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, director of Ambulatory Clinical Operations in the Division of Urology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and co-director of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Prostate Cancer Center. He is also a core faculty member at the Center for Surgery and Public Health. Dr. Trinh’s research focuses primarily on inequity and outcomes of cancer care. His publications include over 500 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and videos. His research has been funded by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF), among others. Dr. Trinh received his medical degree from the Université de Montréal in Canada, where he also completed his residency training in urology.  He completed his fellowship in minimally invasive urologic oncology at the Vattikuti Urology Institute.

Eric Sheu, MD, PhD, has been awarded a $3.3M NIH R01 grant for the study, “A microbiome-dependent bile acid metabolite improves type 2 diabetes.”

Dr. Sheu’s group has identified a bile acid metabolite, CA7S, that is generated by bariatric surgery and has anti-diabetic properties. This study’s goals are to evaluate the CA7S metabolite as a novel therapy for type 2 diabetes; uncover how CA7S production is regulated by the gut microbiome; and determine the contribution of CA7S to type 2 diabetes remission, following bariatric surgery. The study is funded by the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), whose mission is to conduct and support medical research and research training and to disseminate science-based information on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutritional disorders, and obesity; and kidney, urologic, and hematologic diseases, to improve people’s health and quality of life.

Eric Sheu, MD, PhD
Associate Surgeon, Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Program Director, Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Sheu is a bariatric and minimally invasive surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and associate program director of the advanced minimally invasive surgery fellowship at the Brigham. Dr. Sheu graduated from Harvard College, obtained his doctorate in immunology as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University and completed medical school at Harvard Medical School. He trained in general surgery at the Brigham, followed by a fellowship in advanced laparoscopy and bariatric surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Dr. Sheu’s clinical practice focuses on bariatric, foregut and hernia surgery.  He directs an NIH R01-funded laboratory that investigates how changes in immunology and metabolism triggered by bariatric surgery lead to resolution of type 2 diabetes. His research has been supported by numerous societies and philanthropic institutions, including the American Surgical Association (ASA), the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, the Quadrangle Fund for Advancing and Seeding Translational Research (Q-FASTR) and Harvard Catalyst.

Raouf A. Khalil, MD, PhD, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for his study “Vascular mechanisms of hypertension-in-pregnancy.”

Normal pregnancy is associated with increased cardiac output and decreased vascular resistance in order to maintain adequate blood supply to the developing fetus. These beneficial hemodynamic changes do not occur in women with preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a complication of pregnancy characterized by hypertension and fetal growth restriction; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Reduction in uterine perfusion pressure and the ensuing placental ischemia/hypoxia trigger the release of placental factors such as TNF-alpha and reactive oxygen species. 

The objectives of Dr. Khalil’s study are to understand how the release of placental factors could lead to endothelial cell dysfunction and reduction in vasodilator substances such as nitric oxide and prostacyclin and to test the hypothesis that an imbalance between vasodilator matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and -9 and vasoconstrictor MMP-1 and -7 triggered by an upstream increase in ADAM-17 activity is a major mechanism of inadequate uteroplacental remodeling and vascular dysfunction in hypertension in pregnancy. Disruption of the vasodilator/vasoconstrictor MMP balance results in inadequate uteroplacental remodeling, decreased vasodilation, increased vasoconstriction and hypertension in pregnancy.

Consequently, correcting MMP imbalance by upregulating vasodilator MMP-2 and -9, or downregulating vasoconstrictor MMP-1 and -7 or reducing the upstream ADAM-17 activity should improve uteroplacental remodeling, promote vasodilation, and reduce vasoconstriction and hypertension in pregnancy, and thereby provide a new approach for the management of preeclampsia.

Raouf A. Khalil, MD, PhD
Lead Investigator, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Vascular Surgery Research Laboratories, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Khalil received his medical degree from Cairo University and a master’s in pharmacology from Assiut University. He then completed his PhD in vascular pharmacology at the University of Miami School of Medicine. After completing his postdoctoral training at Harvard University and Beth Israel Hospital, he joined the faculty in the Department of Physiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Khalil joined the Department of Surgery at the Brigham in 2004 and has since demonstrated excellence in research and teaching programs for the past 15 years.

His achievements have been recognized for his important contributions in the field of vascular surgery research, his scholarly reputation and his involvement in teaching programs. He is a highly productive, nationally recognized investigator in the field of smooth muscle physiology who has made important contributions as a scientist and educator. Dr. Khalil has authored more than 170 peer reviewed publications in several highly respected scientific journals. He has served as editor, editorial board member and reviewer on more than 100 scientific journals. Dr. Khalil has served as a member of numerous National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA) study sections and several international grant review panels. He has also mentored more than 160 postdoctoral fellows and graduate and undergraduate students.  

Dr. Khalil’s major research interests include smooth muscle physiology and pharmacology, pathophysiology of vascular restenosis, coronary artery disease, essential hypertension, and hypertension-in-pregnancy and preeclampsia. He has been interested in understanding the mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle contractility and growth, Ca²⁺ -dependent and Ca²⁺ -independent mechanisms of cell activation, Ca²⁺ homeostasis in living cells, signal transduction, G proteins, protein kinase C and kinase cascades. His laboratory uses state-of-the-art technology for measurement of vascular function and signaling utilizing advanced physiological assays, molecular biology techniques, fluorescent probes, immunofluorescence and immunocytochemistry, digital imaging microscopy and confocal microscopy. His research has been continuously funded since 1991 by grants from the AHA and the NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Dr. Khalil’s research has been centered on several funded projects, including “Mechanisms of gender-specific differences in vascular tone in hypertension,” “Vascular protective role of endothelin B receptors during high salt diet,” “Vascular angiotensin type-2 receptor in normal and hypertensive pregnancy,” “Role of endothelin B receptor in vascular protection in females,” “Mechano-sensitive hypoxia-inducible factor-MMP pathway in venous insufficiency,” “Evaluation of sulodexide in the modulation of matrix metalloproteinases and their effects on venous endothelial and smooth muscle function” and “Vascular mechanisms in pregnancy-induced hypertension.”