Posts by Mason Wright Freeman, MD
-
Why Pursuing Multiple Vaccines May Be the Best Way to End the COVID-19 Pandemic
The race to test and approve a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is moving quickly, with over 100 vaccines now in development. The goal is to identify and accelerate multiple promising candidates into production. Here, Mass General investigators highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and what the next key steps needed are to develop and distribute a new vaccine quickly.
-
Medical Grand Rounds: Vaccine Development for COVID-19: A Status Update on the Challenges and Prospects for Success
On June 4, 2020, the 14th lecture in the Medical Grand Rounds’ COVID-19 series featured an update on efforts to develop a safe, scalable vaccine for COVID-19.
-
Developing a Gene-based Vaccine Candidate for COVID-19
Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital are working together to expedite the development of a unique, gene-based vaccine candidate against COVID-19.
Biography
Dr. Freeman graduated from Harvard College and received his MD at the University of California, San Francisco in 1979. He served as an intern, resident and endocrinology fellow in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and was Chief Resident in Medicine at Mass General in 1985. Following clinical training, he worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Biology Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before returning to Mass General to head the Cardiovascular Health Center. He became Chief of the Lipid Metabolism Unit at Mass General in 1992. Dr. Freeman's research work has centered on the role of macrophages in atherosclerosis with particular interest in the trafficking of lipids through these cells. While at MIT, he and his colleagues cloned the first macrophage scavenger receptor. Over the years, his lab has studied the mechanisms of atherosclerotic foam cell formation and the impact of lipids on activation of vascular inflammatory responses. The lab has also made fundamental contributions to our understanding of reverse cholesterol transport via its work on the topology and biochemistry of the ABCA1 transporter, mutations in which cause Tangier disease. In the last two years, the lab has expanded its interest to the other ABCA transporters, all of which appear to play a role in cellular lipid trafficking. Mason remains clinically active, teaching medical students, residents, and endocrine fellows rotating through Mass General clinical services and he continues to direct the Mass General Lipid Clinic that he founded in 1986.
