About Josephine Lok, MD

Josephine Lok is an pediatric critical care physician at MassGeneral for Children.  She attended Harvard-Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA where she obtained a B.A. in Biology.  She obtained her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York, and completed residency in Pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children/Tufts-New England Medical Center,  Boston, MA.  After completing residency, she practiced primary care Pediatrics at the Apopka Family Health Center in Florida as part of the National Health Service Corps, then went on to Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. During the fellowship, she became interested in Neuroscience research and trained in the laboratory of Dr. Lee Martin.   After completing training in Pediatric Critical Care, she joined the Pediatric Critical Care faculty at Boston Medical Center for two years, then the Pediatric Critical Care division at  Mass General Hospital for Children, where she continues her clinical practice as well as research into the pathophysiology of brain injury.   She is also involved in resident education, and co-directs the PICU simulation-based team training program with weekly sessions involving the multidisciplinary team of nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and respiratory therapists.

 

 

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Locations

Mass General for Children: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
55 Fruit St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-724-4380

Medical Education

  • MD, Albert Einstein college of medicine
  • Residency, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
  • Residency, Tufts Medical Center
  • Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University

American Board Certifications

  • Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, American Board of Pediatrics

Accepted Insurance Plans

Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.


Research

My  research focuses on the neurovascular responses, in particular as it relates to the pathological processes after brain trauma.  I am also interested in the actions of neuregulin-1, an endogenous growth factor, within the neurovascular unit.  NRG1 is known to be important in the function of neurons and glia, but its activity in endothelial cells is not  well defined.  My goals are to 1) determine the roles played by NRG1/erbB signaling in the biology of brain microvascular endothelial cells; and 2) to investigate the neuroprotective potential of NRG1 in brain injury due to trauma and hemorrhage.  Data from my experiments demonstrated that NRG1 has key functions in brain microvascular cells; in particular, NRG1 prevents endothelial hyper-permeability due to cytokine injury, a significant finding given the many pathological processes that stem from microvascular hyper-permeability during CNS and systemic illness. 

Publications

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