Research

Drug Discovery, Delivery, Development, and Nanomedicine Bouvé researchers and students are exploring the complex world of medication, from concept to development to delivery. At the Bouvé Center for Drug Discovery, more than 60 scientists and students work at the cellular, molecular, genetic and epigenetic level to pioneer new ways to fight cancer, degenerative disease, addiction, and more.
Health Across the Lifespan Bouvé researchers and students are combining clinical expertise with emerging technologies to study and address health challenges across the spectrum of human development. An interdisciplinary approach permits our researchers to innovate and achieve improvements across physical, psychological, and cognitive domains.
Occupational and Environmental Health At Bouvé, researchers and students are using biomonitoring, social epidemiology, product design, and community research to create healthier environments in homes, workplaces, and communities around the world.
Public Health and Health Equity Equal access to healthcare is undoubtedly one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. Interdisciplinary teams of Bouvé faculty, students, and community partners have joined forces to improve racial, socioeconomic, and environmental justice in communities around the world.
Technology and Health In the new age of "precision medicine," Bouvé researchers and students are harnessing the power of big data, mobile applications, virtual reality, robotics, and advanced biosensing to improve health outcomes.
Systems Science and Health To meet the health challenges of the modern world, Bouvé researchers and students study how the complex systems in which we live overlap and affect one another. At Bouvé, teams of interdisciplinary researchers are pioneering big-picture approaches to how politics, culture, and technology interact in the health care realm.
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Research from Cells to Society

Research lies at the heart of the Bouvé educational experience. The breadth of Bouvé research is extensive, encompassing study at the cellular level to the global systems that impact health across communities. Its position as the hub of renowned Northeastern engineering, business, law, and science institutions facilitates interdisciplinary research from discovery to implementation. Its extensive strategic partnerships and co-op network with the world’s leading health care systems and research centers in Boston and beyond advancing innovation and ground-breaking outcomes.

Students, as early as their first year, actively participate in the field, labs, and other clinical settings learning front row as discovery happens. Graduate students broaden and deepen their interests and experiences, preparing them for the professional rigors of their respective fields.

Meet the three Northeastern students awarded Goldwater Scholarships this year

From left to right: Ethan Wong, Gillian McClennen, and Siddharth Simon. Photos by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University and Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University Goldwater scholarship recipients READ MORE

Pharmacist, veteran, entrepreneur, philanthropist: George D. Behrakis personifies the Northeastern success story

The Behrakis Health Science Center has served as a leading facility in its discipline. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University George D. Behrakis READ MORE

Why are there fewer serial killers now than there used to be?

Northeastern University professors weigh in on the reasons why. Graphic by Zach Christensen/Northeastern University Images of serial killers READ MORE

How a professor found her calling in Ghana by bringing hundreds of Northeastern students to West Africa

Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University Northeastern Professor Vanessa Johnson explains the infamous history of Elmina Castle to members of the 2023 Global Leadership Summit, which included alumni, incoming students, faculty and staff of Northeastern University. READ MORE

Climate change is making seasonal allergies worse—can your nose handle it?

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University man sneezing into a tissue READ MORE

Pandemic pounds are real. NU study calls on public health officials to address the fitness quandary

Lauren Raine researches how covid pandemic has impacted body mass index of pre-teens and older adults. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University woman exercising on treadmill READ MORE

Ozempic will give way to another quick-fix diet drug, then another and another, Northeastern expert predicts

Photo by Jason Bergman/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images An Ozempic pen READ MORE

Three Northeastern professors honored by American Association for the Advancement of Science

Courtesy photo and photos by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University. New AAAS Fellows READ MORE

Meet the Research Administration Team

Pre-award Research Administration Team

Susanne Feret

Susanne Feret

Executive Director of Research Administration

617-373-6815

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

Susanne Feret first joined BCORe in February 2020 as Interim Association Director in connection with Huron consulting Group’s effort to evaluate and strengthen research support within the College. She started her permanent role as Executive Director of BCORe in July 2020. She has been instrumental in supporting a dramatic growth in the amount of proposals being submitted and has brought a deep knowledge and understanding of the research priorities for a health sciences college.

Susanne is an energetic, data-oriented, customer-focused and hands-on research administrator and team leader. She has experience in the development, operations, and growth of multi-disciplinary grants, sponsored research initiatives, and clinical trials from inception to implementation and management. Her experience includes working in higher education, academic medical centers, integrated healthcare systems, centralized sponsored programs office, departments, research centers of excellence, pharmaceutical industry, and non-profit association. She is also a Certified Research Administrator with experience working on Federal (e.g., NIH, NSF, DOD, VA, AHRQ, HRSA), State, Industry, Foundation, Corporate, Community, Pilot and Seed Grants.

Tessa Dinnie

Tessa Dinnie

Grants Administrator

617-373-6892

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

Tessa Dinnie joined BCORe in March 2021 is a Grants Administrator specializing in Pre-Award grant applications at Bouve College of Health Sciences. Prior to joining the Bouve community, Tessa worked as a Research Administrator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center managing pre and post award tasks. She enjoys collaborating with Principal Investigators to solve problems and put together robust applications for external sponsors like National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, and foundations. She also enjoys working with Early Stage Investigators to secure funding for novel research ideas. Outside of work Tessa enjoys travelling, cooking, and watching bad reality TV.

Andrea Konetzny — Northeastern University

Andrea Konetzny

Grants Administrator

617-373-2588

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

Michelle Rose

Michelle Rose

Associate Director

617-373-6804

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

Michelle Rose joined BCORe in July 2021 as a Senior Grant Administrator specializing in Pre-Award grant submissions. Her previous position with Stony Brook University’s Office of Sponsored Programs encompassed both pre- and post-award grant administration. As a grant administrator Michelle has handled federal prime and subaward applications (incl. NIH, NSF, DOD, NASA, DOJ, DOE), as well as foundational grant proposals. Prior to grant administration, Michelle held a position under the Director of Biomedical Anthropology at Binghamton University, managing several grant submissions and negotiations. She comes to Northeastern with 4 years of professional Grant Administration, and eight years working with and through the grant process. She feels her years working as a graduate research assistant at the departmental level through the grant writing process provides a researcher perspective which has helped her to manage how best to serve the academic community while facilitating grant funded research. Michelle has a BA in Anthropology, MS in Biomedical Anthropology and an MA in Biological Anthropology.

Post-award Research Administration Team

Scott Breiding

Scott Breiding

Associate Director

617-373-4183

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

Scott Breiding joins BCORe as a Senior Grants Administrator, after having worked for over a decade in research administration. Scott began his career in research administration at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard having jumped head first into the busy period of applications and reporting related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He worked in that capacity for five years, supporting a myriad of scientific projects ranging from viral genomics to mammalian genetic sequencing. In 2013, Scott became a project manager for the Office of Academic Affairs at the Broad Institute. There he led efforts to provide support for the community of faculty, academic trainees, and staff scientists, planning career development programming and shepherding new initiatives. Following that, Scott returned to the Office of Sponsored Research to serve as an internal consultant where he developed a new process for subaward monitoring. He joined BCORe in July 2020 first as a Grants administrator (pre-award) and in March transferred to his current role as a Senior Grants Administrator (post-award and data management)

Scott is no stranger to the Northeastern community, having received a BA in History, a graduate certificate in project management, and Masters of Public Administration all from Northeastern University. He is very excited to now work at the institution where he’s spent his entire educational career. He currently lives in Somerville, MA where he is learning new ways to exercise indoors and writing a sci-fi novel.

George Balaconis

George Balaconis

Grants Manager

617-373-2047

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

George Balaconis joined BCORe as a Grants Manager and has worked on the post-award side of the BCORe since joining the team full time back in August of 2018. Prior to his arrival he had held part-time positions in the Pharmaceutical Sciences department, School of Pharmacy, Biology department and in Research Finance (NU RES). These positions, which began in late 2012, gave him a full knowledge of the grants management systems at NU and the relationships forged have been invaluable.

A life-long Husky, George has a BS in Business administration from NU, focused in Finance and Accounting. His co-op job led to a long stint at Gordon & Co., a stock brokerage firm specializing in stock and options trading. His position as COO managed the trading, compliance, sales and research departments of the firm. He coaches high school softball on a volunteer basis in the springtime. Loves sports with special fondness for golf and competitive sailing.

Jessica Parente

Jessica Parente

Sr. Grants Administrator

617-373-5151

Email

Biography

Jessica Parente is responsible for the awards portfolio of the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research (IHESJR).   She comes to us from Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts, having served since 2008 as a Grants Manager and formerly Grants Coordinator in their Sponsored Programs Administration Office.  She holds a BS  in Business Administration and Management, and a Master of Public Health degree from Bay Path University.  Jessica is a grants management professional experienced in Pre-Award and Post Award grants administration. Experienced in providing direct professional support and guidance in the administration of grants, contracts and related funds to faculty and research team. She has always had a very strong interest and commitment in public health. Working closely with research professionals has allowed me the opportunity to deepen my knowledge in this field along with gaining a deeper appreciation and respect for professionals working hard every day to improve the lives of others. Her key strengths include – skilled problem-solver, customer service-oriented, critical thinker and conflict resolution, and is bilingual in Spanish.

Rosemary Roe

Rosemary Roe

Sr. Grants Administrator

617-373-6871

327 Behrakis Health Sciences Center

Email

Biography

Rosemary Roe joined BCORe in August 2021 as a Grants Administrator specializing in Post-Award Grants management. She recently served as a Grants Specialist overseeing pre and post award processes at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she managed a blended portfolio of federal and foundation funded projects (NIH/DoD/NASA). Rosemary also worked in the Office of Research Administration as a Sponsored Program Officer during her time at Ohio State. She enjoys assisting Principal Investigators in solving financial issues as well as collaborating with peers in order to successfully manage sponsor funds, while maintaining sponsor compliance. Rosemary earned a BS from Ohio University, and a Non-Profit Management Certificate from Columbus State Community College.

Bouvé Research and Innovation

Gene Tunik

Gene Tunik

Associate Dean, Research and Innovation

617-373-2924

301 Robinson Hall

Email

Biography

Gene Tunik has a BS in Physical Therapy (Northeastern University) and PhD in Neuroscience (Rutgers University). He is a tenured Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences and Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. He directs the  Laboratory for Movement Neuroscience, where research focuses on studying cognitive-motor interactions in health and disease, as well as improving human-robot interactions. Approaches in the lab include virtual reality, non-invasive brain stimulation, physiological recording, and measurement of movement.

Neha Singh

Biostatistician

617-373-5803

Email

Biography

Neha Singh received her BA in Psychology from Hunter College, City University of New sYork, and Master of Science in Applied Statistics with a concentration in Biostatistics from DePaul University in Chicago. She previously served as a Biostatistician at Northwell Health, where she worked as a Statistician on various emergency medicine, Pathology and Pharmacy research projects. Neha served as a statistician on various clinical research projects to assist in sample size calculation, research study protocol submissions for IRB and data analysis. She is familiar with statistical software tools such as SAS, R, Python, G*Power, and GraphPad Prism, and is able to provide assistance with clinical trial designs, data management, data analysis, data visualization, power/sample size calculations, and related needs. She is excited to meet our faculty to learn about the various research programs at Bouvé, establish a biostatistics core at Bouvé, and liaising with the Tufts CTSI biostatistics network and global network at NU, to serve the biostatistical needs of the Bouvé research community.

Linda Tvrdy

Associate Director, Health Science Entrepreneurs Program

Biography

Linda Tvrdy received her law degree from the George Washington University National Law Center and her PhD in U.S. History from Columbia University.  Linda is a lawyer, historian, founder and President of DaisyDebt.org, a social impact startup that utilizes tech for good by helping low-income consumers access their rights against third-party collectors. She has deep knowledge of the startup ecosystem as both an entrepreneur and an advisor to startup teams. She was a fellow with the Blue Ridge Labs Social Impact Tech Incubator, an entrepreneur in residence with the AARP Foundation, and a participant in the Aspen’s Institutes Refinery on Technology and the Legal Rights of Debtors. She has advised startup teams for the Dean’s Challenge Grant program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and for Princeton University’s Tiger Challenge. Linda deploys lean startup methodology that incorporates user/stakeholder research and design sprints to quickly develop an MVP that can be a process, policy, tool or product to improve people’s lives. She is passionate about supporting creative solutions that improve the quality of healthcare, and that increase the equitable distribution of healthcare services.

Melinda Laroco Boehm

Melinda Laroco Boehm

Director of Research Development

Biography

Melinda Laroco Boehm comes to us from the University of California, Merced where she led a centralized RD team to support faculty research strategy and grant-getting in 3 schools (Engineering, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts) and 2 organized research units (Health Sciences Research Institute and Sierra Nevada Research Institute). As an RD professional, Melinda has partnered with faculty on single-investigator and complex, multi-PI/multi-institution proposals from federal granting agencies (including NIH, NSF, NASA, USDA, DOD, and AFOSR) as well as numerous state agencies. She enjoys driving institutional growth through strategic grant-getting and assessing research landscape trends to distill actionable steps to meet collective goals. Melinda currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) (2021-2024). She received her PhD in Medical Sociology (Case Western Reserve University ’14) where she received a nationally competitive Fellowship from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to focus on understanding senior public housing residents’ foodscape navigation and catechize issues surrounding elusive longer-term behavior changes of health interventions in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Health Science Entrepreneur Program

Philippe Sommer - Entrepreneur in Residence, Bouvé College of Health Sciences Northeastern University

Prior to coming to Northeastern, Philippe Sommer acted as a Mentor and Angel investor to startups in the Charlottesville and Boston areas. Previously, he had been Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School, where he oversaw entrepreneurship programs, and managed broader educational efforts around innovation and entrepreneurship, including the Incubator and i.Lab. He was a founding partner of WestMed Venture Funds, publicly registered life-sciences venture-capital funds affiliated with CIBC/Oppenheimer, Inc…

MORE ABOUT PHILIPPE

Laurie Bishop — Health Science Entrepreneurship

Laurie graduated from Northeastern University with a Mechanical Engineering degree and then earned an MBA from Babson College, focusing on Economics and Entrepreneurship. Laurie worked in Engineering, Project Management and Enterprise Sales at Verizon Communications. After leaving Verizon, she had key roles in startups, small businesses, and non-profits. Laurie comes to us from UMass Lowell, where she worked in New Venture Development on both workforce development projects and the NSF funded I-Corps program as a coordinator and a Mentor.

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