The Harvard Catalyst Human Research Center (HRC) program allows investigators to perform cutting-edge human research and facilitates human interdisciplinary research across the broad spectrum of departments and research areas through transformation and extension of the former NIH-funded General Clinical Research Centers.
In/Outpatient Resources: The Harvard Catalyst Human Research Center (HRC)
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The Harvard Catalyst Human Research Center Program (formerly known as the Participant and Clinical Interaction Resources, or PCIR, program) allows investigators to perform cutting edge human research and facilitates human interdisciplinary research across the broad spectrum of departments and research areas through transformation and extension of the prior NIH-funded General Clinical Research Centers. Now referred to as the Harvard-wide Human Research Centers (HRCs), this resource incorporates dedicated in- and outpatient clinical research sites, clinical research personnel, and core laboratory services at the following participating institutions:
Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center
Each provides resources available to assist investigators within as well as across these institutions. Selected resources are available both within space dedicated to the HRCs and in the near future off-site in other areas where patients are located such as the intensive care units and the emergency departments. The available resources include:
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Dedicated inpatient and outpatient facilities to conduct patient oriented research studies
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Specialized research equipment to enable sophisticated physiologic subject monitoring
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Equipment and expertise to enable experimental drug delivery and monitoring
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Controlled environment test areas for specialized studies such as sleep and neurologic testing
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Experienced research nurses, nurse practitioners and technicians to conduct study protocols
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Metabolic Phenotyping Core services, including skilled bionutritionists, metabolic kitchen and body composition assessment
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Specimen processing
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Core laboratory to assay a wide variety of analytes in patient samples
Contact:
| HRC Director Anne Klibanski, MD 617-726-3870 |
HRC Administrative Director Christopher O'Byrne 617-732-7793 |
| Harvard Catalyst Central Laboratory (HCCL) Director Vincent Ricchiuti, PhD 617-732-6692 |
Metabolic Phenotyping Core Director Ellen Anderson, MS, RD 617-724-2830 |
| Nurse Managers Director Lucinda Williams, MSN, RN, PNP 617-355-4479 |
HRC Sites by Institution:
The Harvard-Thorndike Clinical Research Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
The Harvard-Thorndike Clinical Research Center (CRC) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides a wide array of services and facilities to investigators including: bed and board; routine and specialized nursing care; routine and specialized nutrition services; assistance with specimen collection and measurement; and outpatient interview and examination rooms. Research support may be provided within our research unit or by our staff in other units of the hospital.
The Harvard-Thorndike CRC is located on the East Campus of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on the eighth floors of the Gryzmish and Feldberg buildings. The CRC provides space for inpatient, outpatient, and administrative support activities. The inpatient unit consists of eight beds in two double rooms and four single rooms. All have private restrooms, and one has a private shower. The outpatient area consists of 12 rooms. Of these, three are general purpose outpatient rooms and one is designated as an interview room. Other rooms on the outpatient wing are equipped for neurological testing, nasal potential difference testing, dental studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation studies, and a syncope and falls-in-the-elderly laboratory.
In addition to the activities of the patient unit, the BIDMC CRC has an active bionutrition core with expertise in body composition measurement, bioelectrical impedance, and metabolic testing. Located on the outpatient unit is a metabolic kitchen for preparation of nutrient controlled meals. The bionutrition unit also provides state-of-the-art nutrition computing facilities with programs for nutrient analysis, semi-quantitative food frequency analysis, and design and specification of research diets.
Site Contacts:
| Site Program Director Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD 617-667-0203 |
Site Associate Program Director Janet Mullington, PhD 617-667-0434 |
| Site Administrative Director Michelle Beck 617-667-4269 |
Site Nurse Manager Director Linda Godfrey-Bailey, MSN, ACNS, BC 617-667-3354 |
| Site Metabolic Phenotyping Core Joanna Radziejowska, MS, RD, LDN 617-667-3586 |
The Center for Clinical Investigation at Brigham and Women's Hospital
The Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Center for Clinical Investigation's (CCI) 6,000 square foot Inpatient Unit is located on the ninth floor of the main bed tower. The facility is divided into two functional areas. The Intensive Physiologic Monitoring Unit consists of five suites constructed to carry out studies in which nearly all environmental cues can be controlled. Each suite is constructed on an independent "floating" cement floor platform and is self-contained, soundproof, lightproof, and specifically designed with an anteroom for added temporal isolation. This facility also contains a highly sophisticated computer system to control and monitor many environmental factors (light, temperature, humidity, sound) and physiologic functions (blood, saliva, and urine sampling, EEG/sleep recording, neurobehavioral performance testing). The second area is a Standard Bed Unit consisting of six beds in private rooms, two of which are double-size rooms adding sound attenuation (including double entry doors in two rooms) with precise light control, sleep recording and video monitoring equipment to enable environmental isolation studies to be conducted.
The CCI Outpatient Unit consists of two outpatient centers, each primarily serving a unique population and providing an integrated network of outpatient units that meet the changing scientific and geographic needs of investigators at BWH. The Ambulatory Center for Physiologic Research is located at 221 Longwood Avenue. This is a 3,000 square foot center, which includes a waiting room, four examination rooms, one infusion room, conference area, and a small laboratory/specimen processing area. The Ambulatory Center for Therapeutic and Interventional Research is located in 1,800 sq. ft. on the fourth floor of the original Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in space that is shared with the Clinical Trials Center (CTC) and Out-patient Infusion Center. This space includes a waiting room, four examination rooms, and a small laboratory/specimen processing area.
The CCI's Metabolic Phenotyping Core (MPC) consists of two metabolic research kitchens and includes a patient dining area for feeding studies. These two kitchens are designed to enhance resources to support major, multi-center feeding studies. Expertise for the design, implementation, and evaluation of feeding studies has been fine-tuned by BWH Bionutritionists.
Site Contacts:
| Site Program Director Gordon H. Williams, MD 617-525-7490 |
Site Associate Program Director Gail Adler, MD, PhD 617-732-5666 |
| Site Associate Program Director Lindsey Baden, MD 617-732-6801 |
Site Administrative Director Christopher O'Byrne 617-732-7793 |
| Site Nurse Manager Sheila Driscoll, RN, MSN 617-732-7764 |
Site Metabolic Phenotyping Core Director Janis Swain, MS, RD 617-732-7783 |
The Clinical & Translational Study Unit at Children's Hospital Boston
The Inpatient CTSU is an eight-bed unit centrally located within the main building of Children's Hospital Boston, and is organized to support the management of children participating in clinical research. The ambulatory/outpatient CTSU (5,024 sq. ft.) is adjacent to the inpatient CTSU, as well as part of the CAT/CR program located in an adjoining building. The outpatient unit has five private exam rooms, two consult rooms, and one behavioral testing room. The CTSU includes a metabolic kitchen and dining room. CTSU nurses are experienced research RNs, CPR certified, proficient with IV insertion and maintenance, and experienced with timely collection and bedside processing of blood, urine, and other body samples.
The CTSU Metabolic Phenotyping Core has a Dietitian on staff experienced with developing/planning meals for research studies. The CTSU has its own metabolic kitchen for food storage and preparation, staffed with experienced diet technicians. The dietitians also perform anthropometry. Metabolic monitoring via V-max is available.
A Hologic Model A Discovery Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry machine for measurement of bone density and/or body composition is located in the outpatient CTSU on Pavilion 6. The CTSU also houses a BIA for body composition, and a portable ultrasound for measurement of bone density. The CTSU has recently acquired an Orthometrix model XCT 3000 peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) scanner to assess bone density. The pQCT scanner is housed in the outpatient CTSU on Pavilion 6.
In addition to the onsite processing laboratory, the CTSU has both a processing and storage laboratory (200 sq. ft) located next to and above the Children's Hospital Clinical Laboratories and a special testing laboratory located in the Enders Research Facility (300 sq. ft). The CTSU laboratory is experienced in molecular biology procedures, immunological assays, radioimmunoassays, and highly specialized sample processing of clinical samples.
Site Contacts:
| Site Program Director Richard J. Grand, MD 617-355-2962 |
Site Associate Program Director Robert J. Fuhlbrigge, MD, PhD 617-355-2727 |
| Site Associate Program Director David Ludwig, MD, PhD 617-355-4878 |
Site Administrative Director Kristine S. Jordan 617-355-7541 |
| Site Nurse Manager Jeff Cardini, RN 617-355-8063 |
Site Metabolic Phenotyping Core Director Nicolle Quinn, MS, RD, LDN 617-355-6423 |
Massachusetts General Hospital Clinical Research Center
The MGH Clinical Research Center's (CRC) Inpatient Unit occupies ~6,500 sq. ft. on the 13th floor of the White building. Eight inpatient rooms, including rooms equipped for sleep studies and negative pressure rooms appropriate for vaccine studies are available. One room is fully equipped for sleep studies with continuous EEG monitoring and blood drawing. In addition to studies occurring on the unit, nurses are available to assist with off-unit visits, supporting clinical research activity in other areas of the institution.
The CRC Outpatient Unit consists of two dedicated rooms that can accommodate six subjects at one time. Because the outpatient facility is in the same area on White 13 as the Inpatient Unit, it shares nursing staff, a waiting room, a sample processing area, and Bionutrition Support Services. The inpatient rooms are also available for outpatient visits as needed providing increased flexibility for investigator space needs.
The CRC Metabolic Phenotyping Core has a dedicated metabolic assessment room with DEXA and indirect calorimetry for energy expenditure and exercise testing. A dedicated metabolic kitchen is used to prepare specialized meals of known nutrient content for inpatient and outpatient studies. The dedicated equipment and space facilitates research studies that integrate body composition, bone mineral density, energy expenditure, and exercise tolerance. Bionutrition staff has been trained on the operation of high quality DEXA scans and completion of indirect calorimetry studies. A continuous review of data entry has established consistency between different bionutrition staff members.
Site Contacts:
| Site Co-Program Director David Nathan, MD 617-726-2875 |
Site Co-Program Director Anne Klibanski, MD 617-726-3870 |
| Site Associate Program Director Randy Gollub, MD, PhD 617-724-9602 |
Site Associate Program Director Madhusmita Misra, MD 617-726-3870 |
| Site Administrative Director Edwin Andrews 617-726-6885 |
Site Nurse Manager Kathryn Hall, MS, RNCS, ANP-BC 617-726-3295 |
| Site Metabolic Phenotyping Core Director Ellen Anderson, MS, RD 617-724-2830 |
The Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The MIT Clinical Research Center serves as an ambulatory clinical research center by providing facilities and resources (nursing, bionutrition, psycho-educational evaluation, and statistical) for human subject-oriented investigators to carry out high-quality clinical research. It also serves an educational mission for the MIT community by training investigators at every stage of their careers. The MIT center promotes translational research between leading scientists and physicians from MIT and other institutions, and advances patient care by fostering innovative, high-impact ideas or technologies into biomedical treatments. In particular, the MIT center aims to support the rapid translation of outstanding basic science and engineering research at MIT into clinical research aimed at improving health.
The MIT center includes seven subject beds (two infusion rooms), subject lounge, investigator offices and research space, and a research kitchen and dining area. These facilities allow for IV insertion and maintenance, drug administration, measurement of bone density, body composition, resting energy expenditure, bioelectric impedance analysis, and other clinical research procedures. Further, the MIT center, being located outside of a hospital, aims to enhance community outreach for Harvard Catalyst
Site Contacts:
| Site Co-Program Director John Gabrieli, PhD 617-253-8946 |
Site Co-Program Director Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH 617-724-1207 |
| Site Administrative Director Dana Bresee Keeth 617-253-3091 |
Site Nurse Manager Catherine Ricciardi, RN 617-253-6332 |
| Site Metabolic Phenotyping Core Director Rita Tsay, MS, RD, LD, CDT 617-253-6337 |