Translational Research Center Staff

Mason W. Freeman, MD
Center Director and Founder
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Dr. Freeman graduated from Harvard College and received his MD at the University of California, San Francisco. He served as an intern, resident, endocrinology fellow, and Chief Resident in Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He trained as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Biology Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he played a central role in cloning the first macrophage scavenger receptor to be molecularly identified.

He became Chief of the Lipid Metabolism Unit at Mass General in 1992 and continues to direct that unit as well as the Translational Medicine programs of both the Mass General Center for Computational and Integrative Biology (CCIB) and the Division of Clinical Research.

From 2005-2007, while on a leave of absence from Harvard, he served as a head of the Novartis Translational Medicine program for Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases, as well as the company’s Global Head of Biomarker Development. Dr. Freeman has served as a consultant to multiple life science startup companies either independently or through his role as a venture partner at 5AM Ventures, an early-stage life science venture firm.

At 5AM, he has contributed to the creation of over 30 companies, serving on the boards of Crinetics and Envoy Therapeutics, a neuroscience company acquired by Takeda in 2012.

Dr. Freeman also played a key medical advisor role at Relypsa, which developed the first chronic oral therapy for hyperkalemia approved by the FDA in over 50 years.

He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and editor of the Adult Primary Care lipid section of UpToDate, one of the world’s most widely read and cited on-line medical textbooks.

Rajesh Ranganathan, PhD
Director of Translational Medicine Initiatives and Clinical Partnerships
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Dr. Rajesh Ranganathan is the Director of Translational Medicine Initiatives and Clinical Partnerships at Massachusetts General Hospital. In this role, Dr. Ranganathan he conducts business development that culminates in clinical studies being conducted at the Translational Research Center. He is also contributing to the translational research training programs that will be offered to a range of trainees.

Additionally, Dr. Ranganathan is builkding partnerships within and external to Mass General, including with industry, to conduct preclinical research to elucidate the causes of serious and perplexing ailments that defy a definitive diagnosis or are refractory to existing treatments.

Previously, he served for one year as the Vice President of Science and Regulatory Advocacy at PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America) in Washington DC.

Prior to his time at PhRMA, for 3+ years, Dr. Ranganathan was the Director of the Office of Translational Research at the National Institutes for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the NIH. He transitioned to this role at NINDS after serving as the Senior Advisor to the NIH Director for Translational Medicine for 15 months.

He joined the NIH in Nov. 2010 after spending 7+ years at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Inc. in Cambridge, MA, where he was a director in the scientific strategy and portfolio management group and also founded and led a Global Office of Scientific Education for the Institutes.

Dr. Ranganathan received his Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Amherst College, performed his doctoral training with Dr. H. Robert Horvitz at MIT in C. elegans neurobiology, and his postdoctoral training with Dr. Linda Buck at Harvard Medical School and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the area of mammalian sensory regulation.

Kathryn E. Hall
Nursing Director
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Kathy Hall is an ANCC Board Certified Adult Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Executive. Her clinical specialty areas include Internal Medicine and Neurology. She has over 25 years of experience as a nurse practitioner, nurse administrator, and nurse educator. She holds faculty appointments at Boston College Connell School of Nursing and the MGH Institute for Health Professions.

Kathy oversees the operations and management of the nursing and support staff at the Translational Research Center as it relates to research participant safety, overall experience, and efficient protocol implementation. She is available for consultation regarding the use of CRC resources, study design, and nursing resource allocation.