HST and Harvard Medical School are pleased to announce that HST alumnus and faculty member David E. Cohen, MD ('87), PhD, will become the new co-director of HST effective July 1, 2007.

David is also the Director of Hepatology in the Gastroenterology Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). At HMS, he is a faculty member of HST and the graduate program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and affiliate faculty of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. 

David will replace Joseph Bonventre, who has been co-director since 1998. He will share responsibility for directing HST with HST alumna Martha Gray, Professor Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at MIT and HST. "I look forward to working closely with David to continue to build the future of HST," states Martha. "This is a time when there is great momentum in HST and around the world in multidisciplinary education and research in the biomedical arena."

Of the new position, David states, "After a long association with HST, it is a privilege to assume this leadership role. I look forward to working together with the HST faculty and students on educational and research programs at the rapidly developing interface between medicine and technology."

In 1987, David received an MD from HST and a PhD in physiology and biophysics from Harvard University. He then completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at BWH. David was appointed to the faculty at HMS in 1995. In 1997, he moved to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he held joint appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry as a member of the Marion Bessin Liver Research Center. David returned to BWH, HMS and HST in 2004. A wonderful example of the type of physician-scientist HST attracts and educates, David is widely known for his work on cholesterol homeostasis.

"I am personally grateful to David for his willingness to assume this important leadership position at a time when interdisciplinary research and education are in the spotlight," wrote Nancy Andrews, HMS Dean for Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies in an announcement. "He brings great vision and energy to HST."