Health Advances history

1994 PR-39 molecule In studies of wound repair, HMS researchers at Boston Children’s find a key molecule, known as PR-39, that binds growth factors and proteins necessary for the mending process.

1996 Dolly the sheep becomes the first clone

1997 p73 gene; asprin An HMS Cell Biology team discovers a novel gene, p73, which resembles the powerful tumor-suppressor gene p53, but unlike its counterpart, p73 is found on only one chromosome and acts in ways quite different from its famous relative.

1998 Adult live-donor liver transplant Surgeons at Beth Israel Deaconess perform the first adult live-donor liver transplant in New England.

1999 Fluorescent molecular probes Ushering in a powerful new way to detect nascent cancers, Ralph Weissleder and colleagues at Mass General develop fluorescent molecular probes that fluoresce upon contact with tumor enzymes, allowing the detection of minute clusters of tumor cells.

2001 Circadian clock Studying a tiny cluster of nerve cells behind the eye, HMS Neurobiology researchers discover a pathway involved in how the brain’s circadian clock sends signals that control the body’s daily rhythms.

2005 Prenatal nutrition; herpes vaccine candidate Mary-Elizabeth Patti and colleagues at Joslin show that poor prenatal nutrition permanently damages the function of insulin-producing cells in the embryo’s pancreas, raising the risk that the child will later develop type 2 diabetes.

2006 First vaccine to target a cause of cancer

In 2008, Health Advances established an office in San Francisco in order to better serve the innovative biotech, medical device, and diagnostic companies on the West Coast.

Nearly 300,000 women died while giving birth in 2013 and millions more contracted illness and infections.

In 2014, the firm promoted Sheela Hegde, Vivek Mittal, and Susan Posner, long-time employees and industry thought leaders, to Partner.

2015 Bioartificial replacement limb; PD-1 pathway; The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery; pseudogene; damaged protein disposal; multiple sclerosis; somatic mutations; deafness gene therapies

In early 2016, Health Advances was acquired by Parexel International Corporation (www.parexel.com), a professional services organization providing complementary services to its clients.