Ramratnam named medical director of Lifespan’s Clinical Research Center

PROVIDENCE – Dr. Bharat Ramratnam has been named medical director of Lifespan’s Clinical Research Center, which, in the last six months, has managed or facilitated the launch of 15 clinical trials.

Ramratnam, who has already started in his new role, will continue to lead the Laboratory of Retrovirology for the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research and Rhode Island Hospital’s COBRE Center for Cancer Research Development.

“Since its launch last summer, the Lifespan Clinical Research Center has played a critical role in helping researchers manage important clinical trials in the departments of medicine, neurology, pediatrics and emergency medicine. I’m pleased to have Dr. Ramratnam join our team and lead this important research resource,” Peter Snyder, Lifespan senior vice president and chief research officer, said in a statement.

Ramratnam replaces the center’s first medical director, Dr. Catherine Gordon, who is leaving to focus on her ongoing role as director of Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s division of adolescent medicine.

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The Clinical Research Center, a 270,000-square-foot complex, offers support services to researchers, including study design and analysis, research nursing support, specimen processing and storage, medical oversight, project management and regulatory affairs support. The center complements Lifespan’s research efforts, which attracted nearly $83 million in external funding in fiscal 2014. It has 370 faculty and more than 550 employees.

Ramratnam, who received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Brown University, completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, an academic medical centers within the Lifespan health system. He was a clinical scholar at Rockefeller University in New York and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in virology at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York.

Ramratnam’s current research focuses on host factors that impact HIV-1 replication, including histone metabolism and noncoding RNA.
In addition to his Lifespan roles, Ramratnam also is an associate professor of medicine at the Alpert Medical School.

Joining Ramratnam at the Clinical Research Center will be Christine Getter as its new manager. Getter, who will continue in her role as a senior clinical research associate for the center, will lead the business development, daily operations and staffing.

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