The Massachusetts General Hospital legacy of providing outstanding patient care, medical research and caregiver education relies upon our strong and innovative programs. Philanthropy is indispensable in allowing these programs to exist.
Mass General physicians and scientists are charting exciting new terrain in medical research, harnessing the visionary discoveries of the best minds across a variety of disciplines to better understand, treat and prevent human disease.
Promising Research at Mass General
Only through research can tomorrow’s groundbreaking new treatments and cures be discovered. Mass General is uniquely suited to conduct this promising research.
As a hub of far-reaching medical care, Mass General is able to bring research breakthroughs directly to the bedside. The hospital has a diverse, expansive patient base that reflects the full spectrum of human diseases and disorders. In many cases, Mass General researchers are themselves practicing physicians who personally see the physical and psychological challenges facing their patients, and intimately understand the potential impact of their work.
Learn more about some of the promising research initiatives underway at Mass General and how you can support life-saving work:
Treating Breast Cancer
A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Heart
Developing Targeted Drugs
Women's Health
Rebuilding Tissue in Children
Support Research at Mass General
Paul Goss, MD, PhD, director of Breast Cancer Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the hospital’s Avon Foundation Senior Scholar, leads a team of researchers studying the role of estrogen in breast cancer. Goss’s team of researchers recently demonstrated that the drug letrozole can improve the overall survival rate of women with node-positive breast cancer, while simultaneously reducing the cancer’s chances of metastasizing. “I can honestly say that the caliber of breast cancer research at the Mass General and in the surrounding area is unparalleled anywhere,” Dr. Goss states.
A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Heart
Kenneth Chien, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cardiovascular Research Center, and his team are working closely with the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine to create the leading cardiovascular stem cell program in the world. “We will start with the heart muscle, then move on to cardiovascular disease, then obesity and vascular complications,” Dr. Chien says. “The field is wide open, with so much potential to change patients’ lives.
Developing Targeted Drugs
Tracy Batchelor, MD, executive director of the Stephen E. & Catherine Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology, at Mass General, is proud to highlight his research team’s exploration of “intelligent design” drugs – drugs that target the specific pathways believed to be present in brain tumor growth. “Though brain tumors may have been resistant to treatment in the past,” Dr. Batchelor says, “with the recent combination of chemotherapy, radiation and targeted drugs, we have seen for the first time an impact on survival, even with the deadliest of tumors.” Women's Health
A Mass General research team led by Jonathon Tilly, PhD, of the hospital’s Center for Reproductive Biology at the Vincent Memorial Obstetrics and Gynecology Service, has revealed that blood and bone marrow contain stem cells capable of producing new eggs – a finding that may allow women to someday extend their fertility beyond their prime childbearing years. “This may launch a new era in how to think about female infertility and menopause," Dr. Tilly comments. Rebuilding Tissue in Children
Joseph “Jay” Vacanti, MD, surgeon-in-chief at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, is an expert in the field of tissue engineering - building living tissues with the power to repair and replace those destroyed by diseases, including cancer. Dr. Vacanti has high hopes for tissue engineering’s potential to help children suffering from malignancies, traumatic injuries and other debilitating conditions: “Regenerative medicine is generalizable to the population,” he says. “Children should benefit as well as adults.”
For more information about making a gift to support research at the Mass General, please e-mail Patricia McCabe or give us a call at 617-726-2200.
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