Category: News

Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, has been appointed associate chair for research in the Department of Surgery (DoS). In this role, Dr. Mittendorf will chair the DoS Research Committee.

The Research Committee has oversight and advisory responsibility for the Surgical Research Office and research activities of the DoS, including the review and recommendation of funding support for DoS research activities, specifically including bridge funding and utilization of start-up funding. The Research Committee also oversees the General Surgery resident research placement and funding process.

Dr. Mittendorf is an established researcher and well positioned to mentor DoS researchers particularly regarding research funding strategies, as well as to guide enterprise-wide innovations in surgery research.

Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Rob and Karen Hale Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology, 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

Dr. Elizabeth A. Mittendorf is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH 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 in Houston, TX. 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 in Houston, TX. She joined the faculty at MD Anderson in 2008.

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 in the presurgical setting to breast cancer patients.

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.

Raphael Bueno, MD, chief of Thoracic Surgery and co-director of the Lung Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was recently awarded a $2.3M grant to investigate the tumor microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer. Roche/Genentech ImCore Network is funding the three year study, “Deciphering the Immune Desert in Thoracic Malignancies“. The goals of the study are to map the interaction microenvironment of lung cancers and their lymph node channels in treated and naïve patients in order to identify potential targets for therapy.

Raphael Bueno, MD
Fredric G. Levin Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Surgery and Lung Cancer Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Chief of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Co-Director, Lung Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Raphael Bueno, MD, is chief of thoracic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Harvard College and medical training at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He subsequently trained in general surgery at BWH and thoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and joined the BWH thoracic faculty in 1996. Over the past 21 years, Bueno has developed robust clinical and research portfolios at BWH.

His clinical focus is management of thoracic malignancies, including mesothelioma, lung cancer, and esophageal cancer. His main research interests center on the molecular events that lead to malignancy in mesothelioma and lung cancer. Specifically, Bueno focuses on developing biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and predicting therapy in malignant pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. His research also includes tumor sequencing and identification of targetable pathways. He runs a molecular biology lab at the George W. Thorn Medical Research Building and has been funded for almost two decades by the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, foundations and industry grants. He also invented, patented, and licensed several algorithms and medical devices for patient care. Bueno has also invented and continues to develop several novel surgical procedures.

Bueno is a member of numerous prestigious national and international professional societies. He has been an invited lecturer at teaching hospitals and universities around the country and internationally. At BWH, he has built the largest division of thoracic surgery in the US, with 21 faculty members and five affiliated network sites in New England, and co-founded the BWH Lung Center. Bueno continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in patient care.

Louis L. Nguyen, MD, MPH, MBA, has been appointed associate chair for digital health systems in the Department of Surgery (DoS). In this newly created role, Dr. Nguyen will be accountable for the design and implementation of the electronic health record and other information systems across the DoS.

Dr. Nguyen will both lead and enable digital practice innovation with the goals of increasing practice efficiency and safety, enabling practice growth through novel patient management interactions and optimizing the DoS provider-facing presence in eCare.

In addition, Dr. Nguyen will advise the various Brigham Health (BH) IT committees and work with DoS faculty members and leadership to continually evolve our information systems in a progressive manner.

Louis L. Nguyen, MD, MPH, MBA
Associate Chair for Digital Health Systems, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Louis L. Nguyen, MD, MPH, MBA, is a vascular surgeon and the director of vascular surgery clinical and outcomes research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). In addition, he is an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and the clinical lead for surgery at Partners eCare.

Dr. Nguyen received his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and his business degree at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Chicago, IL. He then completed a general surgery residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO followed by a vascular surgery fellowship at BWH and masters of public health at Harvard T.H. Chan School Public Health. He is board certified in vascular surgery.

Dr. Nguyen’s clinical interests include the treatment of venous disease and thoracic outlet syndrome, being recognized for innovations in imaging and treatment algorithms for primary and recurrent TOS. His funded research is in the field of health economics and the study of socioeconomic factors on provider decisions and patient outcomes. He also mentors young researchers on analytical methods for large databases.

A recognized leader in health services research and outcomes implementation, Dr. Nguyen has held several leadership roles, including chair of the Society for Vascular Surgery’s (SVS) comparative effectiveness research committee, member of the SVS Governing Council for the Patient Safety Organization and SVS liaison to the American College of Surgery National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, where he led the creation of the vascular database modules. His informatics work includes design of clinical workflows and EHR systems that promote safe, effective, and high value care across a large healthcare network.