Professor, Department of Medicine
Director, The Pancreas Center; Chief, Division of Translational Research, Boston Children's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Steven D. Freedman M.D., Ph.D. is Director of the Pancreas Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief of the Division of Translational Research, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. He has played a leadership role in clinical/translational research both at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and at Harvard Medical School through his prior role as the Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research and Co-director of the Harvard CTSA (Harvard Catalyst). He is Director of the Grant Review and Support Program (GRASP) of the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, which is a unique longitudinal program that provides project management support and grant writing tools to enhance the transition for junior faculty at Harvard from NIH K grant funding to successful independent funding as an NIH R01 grant. Finally, he helped establish the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation funded DIGEST program to train pediatric and adult gastroenterologists in the GI aspects of CF. He also plays a leadership role for the CF Foundation to develop and carry out GI related CF research. Dr. Freedman received his Ph.D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1981 followed by the M.D. degree at the University of Connecticut in 1986. He completed his residency and fellowship in Gastroenterology at Beth Israel Hospital and has remained on faculty since 1991. Dr. Freedman’s expertise is in exocrine pancreatic disease with a particular focus on pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis. He is an internationally recognized leader in these areas with an extensive research program that encompasses both basic science discovery as well as clinical trials. More recently, he has expanded these research discoveries to the pathogenesis and treatment of Neonatal morbidities. He has also been a leader in identifying the site in the brain where pancreatic visceral pain is represented, has developed molecular signatures of pain using MR Spectroscopy, and has successfully developed pain therapies using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.