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"There are about 15,000 deaths a year from C. diff.," says Georg Gerber, MD, PhD, MPH, co-director of the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center. In our latest podcast, Gerber discusses his research on predicting recurring C. difficile infections in patients by utilizing precision medicine, microbiome data, and machine learning.

What are the factors driving antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea? Yonatan Grad, MD, PhD, Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discusses his lab's work exploring antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea and the methods employed to tackle this problem.

“Large wounds have the same risk of infection as small wounds," explains Victor Neel, PhD, director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Dermatologic Surgery Unit. In this podcast, Neel discusses his research examining the interplay between skin bacteria and infection post-surgery.

"Our experience as physicians and patients is kind of getting lost in this web of the healthcare system," says Michael Barnett, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital. In this podcast, Barnett discusses his research analyzing patient sharing networks and their associated cost of care, as well as his work evaluating policies aimed at reducing opioid use disorder.

Jeff Karp, PhD, Brigham and Women's hospital, discusses the concept of radical simplicity, which he describes as “breaking down the problem into simple terms that you can test.” Karp explains how he used this approach in stem cell therapy research to inform the translational and commercialization process.

"I think some of the most exciting areas have been where there are no guideposts,” says Martha Shenton of Brigham and Women's Hospital. In this podcast, Shenton reflects on her career in neuroimaging, discusses her research looking at schizophrenia, and gives advice to aspiring researchers.

"Sexual orientation and gender identity demographics are not routinely and uniformly collected in electronic health records," says Harry Reyes, MAS, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University. In the fourth episode of this series, Reyes and Li Zhou, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discuss their research using machine learning and natural language processing to improve data collection of LGBTQ patients.

"In South Africa, about 40% of the population living with HIV are not in care," says Ingrid Katz, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Katz discusses her research on HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa, the importance of feedback from target populations, and the future of HIV research.

S. Bryn Austin of Boston Children's Hospital, Rahsaan Hall of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and Janson Wu of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAAD), will share insights about the health and economic impacts of state laws on gender minorities and the development of a policy database.

“Keep on reminding yourself that research is delayed gratification. You're going to do things that are not going to work out, but that doesn't mean that it might not necessarily work in the future,” says David Sanchez, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital. In this podcast, Sanchez discusses his participation in the Harvard Catalyst Visiting Research Internship program, and offers advice for those who may be interested in embarking on a career in c/t research.

"There are approximately five billion people who don't have access to surgery because of barriers of affordability, timeliness, safety, and availability," says Mark Shrime, MD, MPH, PhD, FACS, director of the Center for Global Surgery Evaluation at Mass Eye & Ear. In this podcast, Shrime discusses the impact and ramifications of a lack of access to surgical care.

It’s estimated that at least 500,000 people in the U.S. are living with pulmonary fibrosis,” says David Lagares, PhD, director of the matrix and mechanobiology program at MGH Fibrosis Research Center. His lab is investigating tissue regeneration and fibrosis after lung injury and developing therapeutic strategies to promote the regeneration of chronically damaged organs.

Ana Progovac, PhD, Cambridge Health Alliance, and Mason Dunn, who leads strategic efforts for Keshet, an organization dedicated to LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, discuss their research using data sets to identify suicide outcomes in transgender populations, the importance of partnering with community groups, and how findings can inform better policy and care.

Peter Steinberg, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses his research analyzing factors that can determine how likely it is a patient will show up for an appointment and strategies he recommends to reduce no-show rates in hospitals.

"82% of the folks in our study reported being bullied." Sari Reisner, ScD, Boston Children's Hospital, and members of his research team discuss the tool they’ve developed, with funding support from Harvard Catalyst, to help combat LGBTQ bullying in schools. Tune into episode one of our new series “Community Engaged,” highlighting Harvard Catalyst’s Community Engagement program via our ThinkResearch podcast.

"It's a little bit like doing CSI, but for infectious diseases." Bill Hanage, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is developing a new method of sequence typing DNA. Learn more about how it’s achieving quicker results. Transcript: https://bit.ly/2U93whk

Ben Sommers, MD, PhD, professor of health policy and economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses his research which examines Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion models and their associated impacts on healthcare. Click here to read the transcript: https://bit.ly/3hjpfLj

What's the value of healthcare? Ankur Pandya, PhD, assistant professor of health decision science in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses his work using cost-effectiveness analysis to define value in healthcare services and the implications of this method on developing health policy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3hkPTDK

Corrie Painter, PhD, associate director of operations and scientific outreach in the Cancer Program of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, discusses how her diagnosis with a rare cancer, angiosarcoma, led her to develop patient-driven cancer research initiatives, including the nonprofit Count Me In. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3625P8v

Stroke occurs in about 800,000 U.S. patients each year. Taylor Kimberly, MD, PhD, MGH, discusses his work running a phase 3 clinical trial investigating brain swelling in stroke patients and the challenges associated with running a multisite clinical trial. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3qBPD7n