HEALTHCARE RESEARCH
Leverage our world-class research expertise
Expand your organization’s R&D capabilities in health and life sciences by partnering with Northeastern’s faculty researchers.
BENEFITS
Northeastern research partnerships amplify your impact
RESEARCH AREAS
Tap our wide-ranging expertise in emerging health fields
Social and environmental determinants of health
Our researchers work with partners to analyze the full set of social and physical conditions in which people live and work, including socioeconomic, demographic, environmental, and cultural factors. Then they use tools like biomonitoring, social epidemiology, and community research to create healthier environments in homes, workplaces, and communities around the world.
Digital health
Tech innovations—such as telehealth, wearable devices, and personalized medicine—drive healthcare today. Northeastern researchers work with partners to harness the power of Big Data, mobile applications, virtual reality, robotics, and advanced biosensing to improve health outcomes.
Public health
Equal access to healthcare is one of society’s most pressing challenges. Teams of Northeastern faculty, students, and community partners have joined forces to improve racial, socioeconomic, and environmental justice in communities worldwide. Research is crosscutting and interdisciplinary, and analyzes population samples including biological factors, biostatistics, epidemiology, and genetics.
Brain and body health
Our researchers and partner organizations combine clinical expertise with emerging technologies to study and address health challenges across the spectrum of human development. Their research interests include the role of brain receptors in Alzheimer’s Disease, robotic technologies to help rehabilitate stroke patients, how behaviors influence infant development, and the mechanics of human movement.
Drug discovery and development
Our experts collaborate with companies and organizations to develop solutions at every stage of drug development, from concept to delivery. More than 60 Northeastern scientists and doctoral students work at the cellular, molecular, genetic, and epigenetic level to pioneer new ways to fight cancer, degenerative illnesses, addiction, and other diseases.
CASE STUDIES
How Northeastern works with our partners
partnership spotlight
Improving patient outcomes
Maine Medical Center (run by MaineHealth) and Northeastern’s Roux Institute in Portland are working together to improve survival of patients recovering from heart, lung, and other chest surgeries.
MaineHealth has teamed with Rai Winslow, Roux’s director of life science and medicine research, and an expert in computational medicine, to analyze data (such as vital signs and oxygen levels) and outcomes from cardiothoracic ICU patients. Maine Medical Center’s goal is to predict and prevent complications—with wearable monitoring technologies and other tools—during patient recovery periods.
PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Expanding cancer drug options
Many light-activated cancer drugs can only be used in areas of the body that light reaches, such as the skin or esophagus. Steven Lopez, a materials chemistry expert and an assistant professor at Northeastern’s Boston campus, is working to expand this approach (called photodynamic therapy) to a wider range of cancers. He’s collaborating with Kebotix, a company that uses AI and other tools to speed the discovery of new molecules. Together, Lopez and Kebotix are training algorithms to identify the molecular patterns of potentially suitable photodynamic therapy drugs; a few promising possibilities have already emerged.
PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Mitigating hospital drug shortages
U.S. hospitals increasingly face shortages of therapeutic drugs because of supply chain problems, a lack of raw materials, and other factors. To understand how to better manage inventories and dispense drugs, Massachusetts General Hospital has teamed with Northeastern Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jacqueline Griffin and OrbitalRx, a startup with software for tracking and managing pharmaceutical inventories. The partners will collect and analyze data about the hospital’s pharmacy supplies, then develop policies and protocols to prevent future drug shortages—and help keep patients healthy.
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