Skip to content

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

Extensive resources

Gain access to an R1 university—one of only about 150 universities nationwide with the highest levels of research activity and funding—within a global university system with advanced technology, facilities, and incubation support.  

Flexibility

Our research collaborations are flexible in scope and scale—tailored to the needs of our partner companies and organizations and bolstered by flexible IP policies.

Amplified innovation

Our faculty have a collaborative ethos and a proven ability to turn ideas into market-ready solutions. They can integrate with and amplify your teams to speed discovery.


RESEARCH AREAS

Tap our wide-ranging expertise in emerging health fields

Social + Environmental Determinants of Health

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

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

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

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

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.

GET STARTED

Collaborate with us

We use cookies to improve your experience on our sites. By continuing to use our sites, you agree to our Privacy Statement.