PORTAL is committed to expanding the field of bright young faculty interested in empirical research in regulatory science, public health law, bioethics, and policy related to therapeutics.
Since 2013, we have offered two fellowship programs: (1) a general medicine fellowship intended for physicians after their internal medicine residency training planning to pursue a career in health services or health policy research, and (2) a post-doctoral fellowship intended for law/social science scholars interested in the PORTAL areas of focus.
Fellows work closely with other faculty and advanced trainees in the Division, who include internists, epidemiologists, health policy experts, and statisticians. In the past, some fellows have also pursued Masters degrees at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Application details can be found here.
Since 2013, we have offered two fellowship programs: (1) a general medicine fellowship intended for physicians after their internal medicine residency training planning to pursue a career in health services or health policy research, and (2) a post-doctoral fellowship intended for law/social science scholars interested in the PORTAL areas of focus.
Fellows work closely with other faculty and advanced trainees in the Division, who include internists, epidemiologists, health policy experts, and statisticians. In the past, some fellows have also pursued Masters degrees at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Application details can be found here.
CURRENT TRAINEES
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CURRENT RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
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CURRENT STUDENTS AND COLLABORATORS
Liam Bendicksen (B.A. candidate, Brown University): Liam is currently an undergraduate at Brown University majoring in Public Policy and Public Health. His research interests include Medicaid prescription drug policy, health technology appraisal, and drug development incentives. At PORTAL, Liam's research has focused on evaluating the effects of state-level public policies on prescription drug costs and access. Liam also writes about health policy for The Incidental Economist, a health services research blog.
Alex Benoit: Alex is in a gap year after having recently graduated from high school while simultaneously studying at the University of Georgia, majoring in mathematics and microbiology. Previously a member of the Research Science Institute and a fellow of the Governor’s Honors Program, Alex is interested in infectious diseases and healthcare infrastructure. At PORTAL, his current work revolves around the cost-effectiveness and value of priority review vouchers.
Louise C. Druedahl, Pharm.D., M.Sc. (Ph.D. candidate, University of Copenhagen, Denmark): In her current research, Louise is focusing on stakeholder perspectives on opportunities and hurdles for biosimilar development and for the regulation of biosimilars. Louise’s work with PORTAL includes examining the challenges with establishing biosimilarity and a manufacturing process for biosimilars.
Daniel Feldman, M.P.H. (D.O. candidate, Rowan University): Upon obtaining his undergraduate degree at The George Washington University, Daniel went on to earn a M.P.H. from Boston University focusing in epidemiology, biostatistics, and pharmaceutical policy. Currently, he attends medical school at Rowan University, where his pharmaceutical research interests include affordability, access, and comparative effectiveness.
Vrushab Gowda (J.D./M.D. candidate, Harvard Law School / UNC School of Medicine): Vrushab is a second-year law student jointly enrolled in medical and law school. Prior to joining PORTAL, Vrushab pursued regulatory policy projects at the Parliament of the United Kingdom, MGH - Institute for Technology Assessment, a venture-backed fertility preservation startup, and through independent field studies in the Netherlands.
Phebe Hong (J.D. candidate, Harvard Law School): Phebe is a third-year law student, who graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology. She is interested in FDA regulation of therapeutics and pharmaceutical patent law. Phebe worked in in healthcare consulting between college and law school.
ChangWon (Charlie) Lee (M.D. candidate, Harvard Medical School): Charlie is a first-year medical student, who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a concentration in Integrative Biology. Prior to medical school, he was a research assistant with PORTAL, where his work with faculty focused on brand-name combination drug pricing and its effects on Medicare D and state Medicaid expenditures. Prior to PORTAL, he has previously worked at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital studying asthma control and psychosocial symptoms in underserved pediatric populations. His other research interests include drug pricing, drug safety and effectiveness, and strategies to improve physician prescribing behavior. He now attends Harvard Medical School.
Michael Liu (MPhil candidate, Oxford University): Michael graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and is an incoming medical student at Harvard Medical School. His past research has focused on improving the health and healthcare of people experiencing homelessness. At PORTAL, he is interested in value-driven drug development and international approaches to drug pricing and regulation.
Carolyn Lye (M.D./J.D. candidate, Yale University): Carolyn is a second-year law student and fifth-year medical student in the joint M.D./J.D. student program at Yale University. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. in Biology, concentrating in Neurobiology, and Linguistics. Prior to PORTAL, her work has focused on transparency in patient care and the regulatory policies of health privacy and information. At PORTAL, Carolyn’s research interests include evaluating regulatory policies of orphan drugs, cancer drug development, and regulatory decision-making in times of crisis.
John Messinger (M.D. candidate, Harvard Medical School): John is a second-year medical student in the M.D. program at Harvard Medical School. He earned his B.S. in Neural Science from New York University, where his undergraduate research focused on using neuroeconomic principles to investigate decision-making in individuals receiving treatment for opioid use disorder. He current interests are bioethical analysis of policies related to treatment of opioid use disorder, as well as the evaluation of regulatory mechanisms for opioid pharmaceuticals.
Osman Moneer (M.D. candidate, Yale School of Medicine): Osman is a second-year medical student, who graduated from Columbia University with degrees in Chemical Physics and Biology. His research interests include the regulation of emerging healthcare technologies and computational cancer genomics. At PORTAL, he is working on vaccine policy.
Sarosh Nagar (B.A. Candidate, Harvard College): Sarosh is an undergraduate at Harvard College intending to study Government on a Data Science track and Molecular and Cellular Biology. After graduation, he plans to go to medical school to pursue his interests related to drug pricing and regulatory reform. Sarosh’s current work for PORTAL investigates the topics related to unbranded pharmaceutical advertising and its effects on consumers.
Rahul Nayak, M.D.: Rahul graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2019 and from Duke University with a B.S.E. in biomedical engineering and economics. He is currently an internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. At PORTAL, Rahul's research interests include examining the role of academic and public-sector contributions to pharmaceutical development and studying healthcare reforms.
Leigh Sharpless (B.A. candidate, Harvard College): Leigh is a current undergraduate at Harvard College studying History and Science, as well as Molecular and Cellular Biology. After graduation, she intends to go to medical school to pursue her interests in healthcare policy and hospital administration. Leigh's current work for PORTAL involves identifying inconsistencies between approved migraine drug pivotal trial endpoints.
Frazer Tessema (M.D. candidate, Pritzker School of Medicine at the Univeristy of Chicago): Frazer is a first-year medical student, who graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in History. Prior to medical school, he was a research assistant at PORTAL, where he supported the program in its many projects, especially those focused on drug pricing, intellectual property law, post-marketing studies of prescription drugs, and pharmaceutical innovation. During his time at Yale, Frazer did research at both the Yale Decision Neuroscience Lab and Yale Cardiovascular Research Center. His first-author work at PORTAL has appeared in Hastings Law Journal and The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, and he has 9 publications with PORTAL faculty.
Victor Van de Wiele, LL.B., LL.M.: Victor is a law graduate with an LL.B. from Queen Mary, University of London (UK) and an LL.M. in Global Health Law (Food & Drug Law Certificate) from Georgetown University Law Center. As a Research Coordinator at PORTAL, his research focused on generic drug and biosimilar competition, barriers to market access for FDA-approved therapeutics, BPCIA & Hatch Waxman litigation and regulatory exclusivities. He is currently a Pharmaceutical Policy Researcher at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Law, Medicine & Life Sciences.
Rick Vreman, Pharm.D., M.Sc. (Ph.D. candidate, University of Utrecht, Netherlands): Rick is a collaborator at PORTAL. His project focuses on the (mis)alignment of regulation and health technology assessment for innovative drugs, related to benefit-risk and comparative benefit evaluations. He is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, The Netherlands and is trained as a pharmacist and health economist. He promotes the optimization of health technology assessment throughout the drug lifecycle by investigating pharmaceutical policies and by developing methodologies for cost-effectiveness analyses and value-based healthcare.
Mike Zhai (M.D./M.B.A. candidate, Harvard University): Mike is a third-year medical student in the joint M.D./M.B.A. program at Harvard University. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.A. in Economics and Biology concentrating in Neurobiology. He is interested in evaluating regulatory policies of biologics and biosimilars as well as comparative and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.
Alex Benoit: Alex is in a gap year after having recently graduated from high school while simultaneously studying at the University of Georgia, majoring in mathematics and microbiology. Previously a member of the Research Science Institute and a fellow of the Governor’s Honors Program, Alex is interested in infectious diseases and healthcare infrastructure. At PORTAL, his current work revolves around the cost-effectiveness and value of priority review vouchers.
Louise C. Druedahl, Pharm.D., M.Sc. (Ph.D. candidate, University of Copenhagen, Denmark): In her current research, Louise is focusing on stakeholder perspectives on opportunities and hurdles for biosimilar development and for the regulation of biosimilars. Louise’s work with PORTAL includes examining the challenges with establishing biosimilarity and a manufacturing process for biosimilars.
Daniel Feldman, M.P.H. (D.O. candidate, Rowan University): Upon obtaining his undergraduate degree at The George Washington University, Daniel went on to earn a M.P.H. from Boston University focusing in epidemiology, biostatistics, and pharmaceutical policy. Currently, he attends medical school at Rowan University, where his pharmaceutical research interests include affordability, access, and comparative effectiveness.
Vrushab Gowda (J.D./M.D. candidate, Harvard Law School / UNC School of Medicine): Vrushab is a second-year law student jointly enrolled in medical and law school. Prior to joining PORTAL, Vrushab pursued regulatory policy projects at the Parliament of the United Kingdom, MGH - Institute for Technology Assessment, a venture-backed fertility preservation startup, and through independent field studies in the Netherlands.
Phebe Hong (J.D. candidate, Harvard Law School): Phebe is a third-year law student, who graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology. She is interested in FDA regulation of therapeutics and pharmaceutical patent law. Phebe worked in in healthcare consulting between college and law school.
ChangWon (Charlie) Lee (M.D. candidate, Harvard Medical School): Charlie is a first-year medical student, who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a concentration in Integrative Biology. Prior to medical school, he was a research assistant with PORTAL, where his work with faculty focused on brand-name combination drug pricing and its effects on Medicare D and state Medicaid expenditures. Prior to PORTAL, he has previously worked at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital studying asthma control and psychosocial symptoms in underserved pediatric populations. His other research interests include drug pricing, drug safety and effectiveness, and strategies to improve physician prescribing behavior. He now attends Harvard Medical School.
Michael Liu (MPhil candidate, Oxford University): Michael graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and is an incoming medical student at Harvard Medical School. His past research has focused on improving the health and healthcare of people experiencing homelessness. At PORTAL, he is interested in value-driven drug development and international approaches to drug pricing and regulation.
Carolyn Lye (M.D./J.D. candidate, Yale University): Carolyn is a second-year law student and fifth-year medical student in the joint M.D./J.D. student program at Yale University. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. in Biology, concentrating in Neurobiology, and Linguistics. Prior to PORTAL, her work has focused on transparency in patient care and the regulatory policies of health privacy and information. At PORTAL, Carolyn’s research interests include evaluating regulatory policies of orphan drugs, cancer drug development, and regulatory decision-making in times of crisis.
John Messinger (M.D. candidate, Harvard Medical School): John is a second-year medical student in the M.D. program at Harvard Medical School. He earned his B.S. in Neural Science from New York University, where his undergraduate research focused on using neuroeconomic principles to investigate decision-making in individuals receiving treatment for opioid use disorder. He current interests are bioethical analysis of policies related to treatment of opioid use disorder, as well as the evaluation of regulatory mechanisms for opioid pharmaceuticals.
Osman Moneer (M.D. candidate, Yale School of Medicine): Osman is a second-year medical student, who graduated from Columbia University with degrees in Chemical Physics and Biology. His research interests include the regulation of emerging healthcare technologies and computational cancer genomics. At PORTAL, he is working on vaccine policy.
Sarosh Nagar (B.A. Candidate, Harvard College): Sarosh is an undergraduate at Harvard College intending to study Government on a Data Science track and Molecular and Cellular Biology. After graduation, he plans to go to medical school to pursue his interests related to drug pricing and regulatory reform. Sarosh’s current work for PORTAL investigates the topics related to unbranded pharmaceutical advertising and its effects on consumers.
Rahul Nayak, M.D.: Rahul graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2019 and from Duke University with a B.S.E. in biomedical engineering and economics. He is currently an internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. At PORTAL, Rahul's research interests include examining the role of academic and public-sector contributions to pharmaceutical development and studying healthcare reforms.
Leigh Sharpless (B.A. candidate, Harvard College): Leigh is a current undergraduate at Harvard College studying History and Science, as well as Molecular and Cellular Biology. After graduation, she intends to go to medical school to pursue her interests in healthcare policy and hospital administration. Leigh's current work for PORTAL involves identifying inconsistencies between approved migraine drug pivotal trial endpoints.
Frazer Tessema (M.D. candidate, Pritzker School of Medicine at the Univeristy of Chicago): Frazer is a first-year medical student, who graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in History. Prior to medical school, he was a research assistant at PORTAL, where he supported the program in its many projects, especially those focused on drug pricing, intellectual property law, post-marketing studies of prescription drugs, and pharmaceutical innovation. During his time at Yale, Frazer did research at both the Yale Decision Neuroscience Lab and Yale Cardiovascular Research Center. His first-author work at PORTAL has appeared in Hastings Law Journal and The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, and he has 9 publications with PORTAL faculty.
Victor Van de Wiele, LL.B., LL.M.: Victor is a law graduate with an LL.B. from Queen Mary, University of London (UK) and an LL.M. in Global Health Law (Food & Drug Law Certificate) from Georgetown University Law Center. As a Research Coordinator at PORTAL, his research focused on generic drug and biosimilar competition, barriers to market access for FDA-approved therapeutics, BPCIA & Hatch Waxman litigation and regulatory exclusivities. He is currently a Pharmaceutical Policy Researcher at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Law, Medicine & Life Sciences.
Rick Vreman, Pharm.D., M.Sc. (Ph.D. candidate, University of Utrecht, Netherlands): Rick is a collaborator at PORTAL. His project focuses on the (mis)alignment of regulation and health technology assessment for innovative drugs, related to benefit-risk and comparative benefit evaluations. He is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, The Netherlands and is trained as a pharmacist and health economist. He promotes the optimization of health technology assessment throughout the drug lifecycle by investigating pharmaceutical policies and by developing methodologies for cost-effectiveness analyses and value-based healthcare.
Mike Zhai (M.D./M.B.A. candidate, Harvard University): Mike is a third-year medical student in the joint M.D./M.B.A. program at Harvard University. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.A. in Economics and Biology concentrating in Neurobiology. He is interested in evaluating regulatory policies of biologics and biosimilars as well as comparative and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.
PAST TRAINEES
Kirsten E. Austad, M.D.: Kirsten's work with PORTAL as an HMS student addressed the role of pharmaceutical marketing in medical school education, and other ethical issues relating to financial relationships in medical education. Most notably, she helped lead a national survey of medical students and residents to determine the extent of their interactions with pharmaceutical marketing representatives. Kirsten published several articles with PORTAL faculty, including in JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and PLoS One, on these topics.
Rachel E. Barenie, Pharm.D., J.D., M.P.H.: Dr. Rachel Barenie is an Assistant Professor, Assistant Director of Continuing Professional Development at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, College of Pharmacy in Memphis, Tennessee. Prior to joining faculty at UT, Dr. Barenie completed her postdoctoral fellowship with PORTAL from 2018-2020, focusing her research on cost and access issues related to care for substance use disorders and chronic pain, public funding for drug development, and others. She also served as a clinical consultant to Alosa Health, a non-for-profit academic detailing organization, for opioid use disorder-related content during her fellowship.
Reed F. Beall, Ph.D., M.A.: Dr. Beall was a postdoctoral fellow at PORTAL from 2017-2018 and is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary Cummings School of Medicine and the O'Brien Institute for Public Health. Reed is a population health researcher who works largely with medicine patent and regulatory data to investigate the long-term impacts of national and international policy decisions which aim to balance incentives between equitable drug innovation and equitable drug access.Dr. Beall’s work has been published in Nature Biotechnology, Health Affairs, PLoS Medicine, and Social Science and Medicine, among others.
Laura E. Bothwell, Ph.D., M.A.: Laura has researched the history, ethics, and international regulatory uses of adaptive design clinical trials. Her projects related to the political and economic history of novel drug discovery and comparative national and international drug pricing systems. She also worked on a book on historical, ethical, and policy dimensions of randomized controlled trials. Laura earned a Ph.D. in 2014 in the History and Ethics of Public Health and Medicine at Columbia University. Laura published two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine on randomized controlled trials.
Evan S. Caplan, M.D., M.B.A.: Evan studied the principles underlying successful drug development with PORTAL as a Harvard M.D./M.B.A. student. He collaborated with PORTAL faculty on a qualitative analysis of the development of VEGF-inhibitors used for ophthalmologic disease, one of the most transformative drugs in that field in the past 25 years.
Vincent C. Capati, J.D., Pharm.D, M.S.: During law school at the University of New Hampshire, Vincent systematically categorized a range of product life cycle management strategies and evaluated their compliance with antitrust law, leading to a paper on drug product life-cycle management and anticompetitive behavior.
Kyle Checchi, M.D.: As a medical student at HMS, Kyle conducted a systematic review of studies evaluating medical devices used to improve patient adherence to prescription drugs. He focused on the features of these devices most associated with successful interventions, as well as the applicability of the technology to resource-poor settings without substantial health information technology infrastructure. Kyle published a paper in JAMA with PORTAL faculty.
Dave Chokshi, M.D., M.Sc.: As an internal medicine resident at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Dave focused on equitable access to therapeutics and evidence-based medicine, and evaluated both vaccine policy and the emerging place of comparative effectiveness research. Dave published two papers with PORTAL faculty.
Devan Darby, M.D., M.P.H.: With PORTAL, Devan investigated how major legal events during the DOJ investigation into fraudulent off-label promotion of the antiepileptic drug gabapentin (Neurontin) affected trends in prescribing and spending for approved and off-label indications, which was published in Health Affairs.
Chintan V. Dave, Pharm.D., Ph.D.: As a postdoctoral fellow from 2017-2019, Chintan studied post-marketing drug safety, generic drug pricing, and prediction modeling. He published articles with PORTAL faculty in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. He is now an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy at Rutgers University.
Dalia Deak, J.D. M.P.H.: As a student at Harvard Law School, Dalia studied a range of topics related to drug and device policy, including drug rediscovery and repurposing, the state of antibiotic development, the ethics of FDA approval pathways, and the history of biotechnology innovation. She published with PORTAL faculty in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Nina Jain, M.D., M.B.A., M.Sc.: Nina is an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital, interested in policies motivating drug and vaccine development for neglected tropical diseases. She holds an M.Sc. in evidence-based social intervention from Oxford.
Emily Jung, A.B.: As an undergraduate at Harvard College (A.B. 2018), Emily published with PORTAL faculty in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. After graduating with a concentration in History of Science, she spent a year as a PORTAL Research Assistant supporting PORTAL projects focused on expanded access policies and drug pricing. She now attends Emory School of Medicine.
Nicole Levidow, J.D., M.S.P.H.: As a PORTAL postdoctoral fellow from 2015-2016, Nicole studied informed consent issues as they relate to antipsychotic medications. She also studied the clinical trials and prescribing patterns of accelerated approval drugs, drug compounding, and the growth of limited distribution pharmacy networks. She published an article in Drug Safety with PORTAL faculty.
Lois S. Liu, J.D., M.Sc.: Lois holds a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law, an M.Sc. in Global Health from Duke University, and a B.S. in Pharmacy from China Pharmaceutical University. Her interests include intellectual property, off-label use, and clinical trial regulations. While at PORTAL, Lois focused her work on expedited regulatory policies and the Bayh-Dole Act.
Jing Luo, M.D., M.P.H.: As a PORTAL faculty member from 2016-2019, Jing researched prescription drug pricing, access to medicines like insulin, and generic competition. Jing's work has appeared in JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology and the Harvard Health Policy Review. He is now an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing.
Lara Maggs, M.Bioethics: As a research associate with PORTAL, Lara studied orphan drug trials, access to drugs and devices with limited supporting data, and FDA law. Her research resulted in a JAMA Viewpoint article and two Health Affairs Blog posts.
Alex Misono, M.D., M.B.A.: With PORTAL, Alex focused on the intersection between generic and brand-name drugs, including a systematic review of brand-name and generic drug effectiveness and a study of how color and shape differences among brand-name and generic drugs may affect patient adherence to essential medicines. He published three papers with PORTAL faculty.
Sana Mostaghim, Dr.P.H.: Sana is interested in the role that the life sciences industry plays to improve global public health. In his role as director of the Tuberculosis Access team for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Sana oversaw teams providing technical support to Ministries of Health in 8 countries across Africa and Asia, and managed relationships with global stakeholders (e.g. WHO, donors, and generic drug suppliers). He holds a BA with Distinction from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Sana's work with the PORTAL team focuses on assessing special regulatory pathways and incentives designed to encourage pro-public health drug development and safety related label changes for new drugs after approval.
Mallika Mundkur, M.D.: Dr. Mundkur is general medicine fellow who recently completed an informatics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and trained in internal medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She recently published a paper on electronic health records and racial disparities.
Prashant V. Rajan, M.D.: Prashant graduated summa cum laude from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 2013 and holds a B.S. in zoology and a B.A. in biochemistry. Prashant was a 2012 Goldwater Scholar and a 2013 Astronaut Scholar. Prashant studied current and future prospects for FDA post-market regulation of medical devices and the FDA regulation of medical device approval, and has published two articles with PORTAL faculty.
Rahul Rajkumar, M.D., J.D.: Rahul focused his research during his residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital on legal issues related to pharmaceutical patents and the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Bayh-Dole Act. He has published with PORTAL faculty in JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and Health Affairs.
Colin Schwartz, M.P.P.: Colin worked with PORTAL as a student at Harvard Kennedy School. He reviewed the origins of AZT and protease inhibitors for use in the treatment of HIV infection, focusing on the collaborations between academia and industry scientists and the role of patents and intellectual property in properly assigning credit for the key innovative steps.
Nathan Shiu, J.D., M.P.H.: As a law student at UCLA, Nathan worked with PORTAL to evaluate legal approaches to truth and determinations of scientific evidence as “false and misleading.” He published on issues involved with the FDA v. Actavis Supreme Court case and a paper on biomarker patents in personalized medicine.
Y. Tina Tan, M.D., M.B.A.: Tina is interested in innovation at the intersection of medicine, business and technology. Her current research focuses on medical innovation within drug and medical device development. She is also an aspiring healthcare entrepreneur eager to learn about new startups and everything related to health care and biotech entrepreneurship. With PORTAL, Tina conducted a cross-national comparison of medical device regulation in the US and China, and supplemented her review of the literature with a qualitative research process involving interviews with key experts from regulatory, academic, and industry sectors in China. She has published with PORTAL faculty in Health Affairs, Food & Drug Law Journal, and PLoS Medicine.
Carolyn L. Treasure, M.D.: Carolyn's work focused on the Bayh-Dole Act, which underlies technology transfer policies from the government and universities to the private sector. She studied past petitions for NIH use of “march-in” rights and outcomes of those cases. She has also studied patent policy and the Orphan Drug Act. She has published with PORTAL faculty in JAMA, Milbank Quarterly, and JAMA Internal Medicine.
Kerstin N. Vokinger, M.D., J.D., Ph.D., LL.M.: Dr. Vokinger studied law and medicine at the University of Zurich (J.D. 2012, M.D. 2015), and was a fast track candidate in the Ph.D.-program Biomedical Ethics and Law at the University of Zurich (Ph.D. 2015). She obtained her Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Harvard Law School in 2016 and worked from 2015 to 2016 as a Researcher at Harvard Law School studying global access to medicines.
Bo Wang, M.D., Pharm.D.: Bo spent 5 years with PORTAL before and during medical school at HMS studying the epidemiology of drug recalls, and analyzed conflict of interest disclosures in whistleblower complaints relating to improper off-label marketing of drugs. He has also focused on the effects of supplemental FDA approvals on drug prescribing, and drug market exclusivity periods. He is first author on several papers with PORTAL faculty, including articles in JAMA, PLoS One, JAMA Internal Medicine, and BMJ.
Shuai (Steve) Xu, M.D., M.Sc.: As a medical student at HMS, Steve worked with PORTAL faculty to conduct a case study investigating the sources of innovation for bare metal stents used in treating coronary artery disease. In doing so, he employed combined methodologies of qualitative interviews and a systematic review of comprehensive patent databases. He published five articles with PORTAL faculty, including papers in the New England Journal Medicine, PLoS One, and the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
James S. Yeh, M.D.: As a fellow in the HMS general medicine and primary care faculty development program, James worked on understanding the association between physician financial relationships and prescribing decisions. James has also served as a 2015-2016 Editorial Fellow at the New England Journal of Medicine. James published six articles with PORTAL faculty, including first author papers in JAMA Internal Medicine, Drug Safety, and PLoS Medicine.
Audrey D. Zhang, M.D.: As an undergraduate at Harvard (A.B. 2015), Audrey studied the use of biomarkers in FDA decision-making about investigational drugs, and tracing their conceptual evolution as shaped by academia, industry, and regulatory agencies.
Rachel E. Barenie, Pharm.D., J.D., M.P.H.: Dr. Rachel Barenie is an Assistant Professor, Assistant Director of Continuing Professional Development at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, College of Pharmacy in Memphis, Tennessee. Prior to joining faculty at UT, Dr. Barenie completed her postdoctoral fellowship with PORTAL from 2018-2020, focusing her research on cost and access issues related to care for substance use disorders and chronic pain, public funding for drug development, and others. She also served as a clinical consultant to Alosa Health, a non-for-profit academic detailing organization, for opioid use disorder-related content during her fellowship.
Reed F. Beall, Ph.D., M.A.: Dr. Beall was a postdoctoral fellow at PORTAL from 2017-2018 and is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary Cummings School of Medicine and the O'Brien Institute for Public Health. Reed is a population health researcher who works largely with medicine patent and regulatory data to investigate the long-term impacts of national and international policy decisions which aim to balance incentives between equitable drug innovation and equitable drug access.Dr. Beall’s work has been published in Nature Biotechnology, Health Affairs, PLoS Medicine, and Social Science and Medicine, among others.
Laura E. Bothwell, Ph.D., M.A.: Laura has researched the history, ethics, and international regulatory uses of adaptive design clinical trials. Her projects related to the political and economic history of novel drug discovery and comparative national and international drug pricing systems. She also worked on a book on historical, ethical, and policy dimensions of randomized controlled trials. Laura earned a Ph.D. in 2014 in the History and Ethics of Public Health and Medicine at Columbia University. Laura published two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine on randomized controlled trials.
Evan S. Caplan, M.D., M.B.A.: Evan studied the principles underlying successful drug development with PORTAL as a Harvard M.D./M.B.A. student. He collaborated with PORTAL faculty on a qualitative analysis of the development of VEGF-inhibitors used for ophthalmologic disease, one of the most transformative drugs in that field in the past 25 years.
Vincent C. Capati, J.D., Pharm.D, M.S.: During law school at the University of New Hampshire, Vincent systematically categorized a range of product life cycle management strategies and evaluated their compliance with antitrust law, leading to a paper on drug product life-cycle management and anticompetitive behavior.
Kyle Checchi, M.D.: As a medical student at HMS, Kyle conducted a systematic review of studies evaluating medical devices used to improve patient adherence to prescription drugs. He focused on the features of these devices most associated with successful interventions, as well as the applicability of the technology to resource-poor settings without substantial health information technology infrastructure. Kyle published a paper in JAMA with PORTAL faculty.
Dave Chokshi, M.D., M.Sc.: As an internal medicine resident at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Dave focused on equitable access to therapeutics and evidence-based medicine, and evaluated both vaccine policy and the emerging place of comparative effectiveness research. Dave published two papers with PORTAL faculty.
Devan Darby, M.D., M.P.H.: With PORTAL, Devan investigated how major legal events during the DOJ investigation into fraudulent off-label promotion of the antiepileptic drug gabapentin (Neurontin) affected trends in prescribing and spending for approved and off-label indications, which was published in Health Affairs.
Chintan V. Dave, Pharm.D., Ph.D.: As a postdoctoral fellow from 2017-2019, Chintan studied post-marketing drug safety, generic drug pricing, and prediction modeling. He published articles with PORTAL faculty in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. He is now an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy at Rutgers University.
Dalia Deak, J.D. M.P.H.: As a student at Harvard Law School, Dalia studied a range of topics related to drug and device policy, including drug rediscovery and repurposing, the state of antibiotic development, the ethics of FDA approval pathways, and the history of biotechnology innovation. She published with PORTAL faculty in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Nina Jain, M.D., M.B.A., M.Sc.: Nina is an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital, interested in policies motivating drug and vaccine development for neglected tropical diseases. She holds an M.Sc. in evidence-based social intervention from Oxford.
Emily Jung, A.B.: As an undergraduate at Harvard College (A.B. 2018), Emily published with PORTAL faculty in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. After graduating with a concentration in History of Science, she spent a year as a PORTAL Research Assistant supporting PORTAL projects focused on expanded access policies and drug pricing. She now attends Emory School of Medicine.
Nicole Levidow, J.D., M.S.P.H.: As a PORTAL postdoctoral fellow from 2015-2016, Nicole studied informed consent issues as they relate to antipsychotic medications. She also studied the clinical trials and prescribing patterns of accelerated approval drugs, drug compounding, and the growth of limited distribution pharmacy networks. She published an article in Drug Safety with PORTAL faculty.
Lois S. Liu, J.D., M.Sc.: Lois holds a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law, an M.Sc. in Global Health from Duke University, and a B.S. in Pharmacy from China Pharmaceutical University. Her interests include intellectual property, off-label use, and clinical trial regulations. While at PORTAL, Lois focused her work on expedited regulatory policies and the Bayh-Dole Act.
Jing Luo, M.D., M.P.H.: As a PORTAL faculty member from 2016-2019, Jing researched prescription drug pricing, access to medicines like insulin, and generic competition. Jing's work has appeared in JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology and the Harvard Health Policy Review. He is now an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing.
Lara Maggs, M.Bioethics: As a research associate with PORTAL, Lara studied orphan drug trials, access to drugs and devices with limited supporting data, and FDA law. Her research resulted in a JAMA Viewpoint article and two Health Affairs Blog posts.
Alex Misono, M.D., M.B.A.: With PORTAL, Alex focused on the intersection between generic and brand-name drugs, including a systematic review of brand-name and generic drug effectiveness and a study of how color and shape differences among brand-name and generic drugs may affect patient adherence to essential medicines. He published three papers with PORTAL faculty.
Sana Mostaghim, Dr.P.H.: Sana is interested in the role that the life sciences industry plays to improve global public health. In his role as director of the Tuberculosis Access team for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Sana oversaw teams providing technical support to Ministries of Health in 8 countries across Africa and Asia, and managed relationships with global stakeholders (e.g. WHO, donors, and generic drug suppliers). He holds a BA with Distinction from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Sana's work with the PORTAL team focuses on assessing special regulatory pathways and incentives designed to encourage pro-public health drug development and safety related label changes for new drugs after approval.
Mallika Mundkur, M.D.: Dr. Mundkur is general medicine fellow who recently completed an informatics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and trained in internal medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She recently published a paper on electronic health records and racial disparities.
Prashant V. Rajan, M.D.: Prashant graduated summa cum laude from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 2013 and holds a B.S. in zoology and a B.A. in biochemistry. Prashant was a 2012 Goldwater Scholar and a 2013 Astronaut Scholar. Prashant studied current and future prospects for FDA post-market regulation of medical devices and the FDA regulation of medical device approval, and has published two articles with PORTAL faculty.
Rahul Rajkumar, M.D., J.D.: Rahul focused his research during his residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital on legal issues related to pharmaceutical patents and the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Bayh-Dole Act. He has published with PORTAL faculty in JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and Health Affairs.
Colin Schwartz, M.P.P.: Colin worked with PORTAL as a student at Harvard Kennedy School. He reviewed the origins of AZT and protease inhibitors for use in the treatment of HIV infection, focusing on the collaborations between academia and industry scientists and the role of patents and intellectual property in properly assigning credit for the key innovative steps.
Nathan Shiu, J.D., M.P.H.: As a law student at UCLA, Nathan worked with PORTAL to evaluate legal approaches to truth and determinations of scientific evidence as “false and misleading.” He published on issues involved with the FDA v. Actavis Supreme Court case and a paper on biomarker patents in personalized medicine.
Y. Tina Tan, M.D., M.B.A.: Tina is interested in innovation at the intersection of medicine, business and technology. Her current research focuses on medical innovation within drug and medical device development. She is also an aspiring healthcare entrepreneur eager to learn about new startups and everything related to health care and biotech entrepreneurship. With PORTAL, Tina conducted a cross-national comparison of medical device regulation in the US and China, and supplemented her review of the literature with a qualitative research process involving interviews with key experts from regulatory, academic, and industry sectors in China. She has published with PORTAL faculty in Health Affairs, Food & Drug Law Journal, and PLoS Medicine.
Carolyn L. Treasure, M.D.: Carolyn's work focused on the Bayh-Dole Act, which underlies technology transfer policies from the government and universities to the private sector. She studied past petitions for NIH use of “march-in” rights and outcomes of those cases. She has also studied patent policy and the Orphan Drug Act. She has published with PORTAL faculty in JAMA, Milbank Quarterly, and JAMA Internal Medicine.
Kerstin N. Vokinger, M.D., J.D., Ph.D., LL.M.: Dr. Vokinger studied law and medicine at the University of Zurich (J.D. 2012, M.D. 2015), and was a fast track candidate in the Ph.D.-program Biomedical Ethics and Law at the University of Zurich (Ph.D. 2015). She obtained her Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Harvard Law School in 2016 and worked from 2015 to 2016 as a Researcher at Harvard Law School studying global access to medicines.
Bo Wang, M.D., Pharm.D.: Bo spent 5 years with PORTAL before and during medical school at HMS studying the epidemiology of drug recalls, and analyzed conflict of interest disclosures in whistleblower complaints relating to improper off-label marketing of drugs. He has also focused on the effects of supplemental FDA approvals on drug prescribing, and drug market exclusivity periods. He is first author on several papers with PORTAL faculty, including articles in JAMA, PLoS One, JAMA Internal Medicine, and BMJ.
Shuai (Steve) Xu, M.D., M.Sc.: As a medical student at HMS, Steve worked with PORTAL faculty to conduct a case study investigating the sources of innovation for bare metal stents used in treating coronary artery disease. In doing so, he employed combined methodologies of qualitative interviews and a systematic review of comprehensive patent databases. He published five articles with PORTAL faculty, including papers in the New England Journal Medicine, PLoS One, and the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
James S. Yeh, M.D.: As a fellow in the HMS general medicine and primary care faculty development program, James worked on understanding the association between physician financial relationships and prescribing decisions. James has also served as a 2015-2016 Editorial Fellow at the New England Journal of Medicine. James published six articles with PORTAL faculty, including first author papers in JAMA Internal Medicine, Drug Safety, and PLoS Medicine.
Audrey D. Zhang, M.D.: As an undergraduate at Harvard (A.B. 2015), Audrey studied the use of biomarkers in FDA decision-making about investigational drugs, and tracing their conceptual evolution as shaped by academia, industry, and regulatory agencies.
