Lifespan Clinical Research Center
Leadership and Staff
Bharat Ramratnam, MD is chief science officer at Lifespan, medical director of the Lifespan Clinical Research Center, and vice chair of research for the department of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, with appointments in the divisions of infectious diseases and hematology/oncology. He also leads the laboratory of retrovirology for the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research and Rhode Island Hospital’s NIH-funded COBRE Center for Cancer Research Development.
In his role as chief science officer, Dr. Ramratnam provides scientific guidance to the vice president for research administration and to senior Lifespan management on matters of biomedical and translational science. In addition, he serves as co-chair of Lifespan's Research Advisory Committee, helps determine the goals and status of institutional core labs, and advises on the ongoing laboratory space management and new construction.
Dr. Ramratnam received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Brown University; and completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at The Miriam Hospital. 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 at Rockefeller University in New York.
Dr. Ramratnam has received numerous awards including the NIH Career Development Award, the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Award, the Daland Fellowship in Clinical Investigation from the American Philosophical Society, and the Culpepper Award from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Locally, he received the Lifespan Bruce Selya award for Research Excellence and the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He serves as a permanent member of the NIH AIDS Immunology and Pathogenesis Study Section.
Dr. Ramratnam’s current research focuses on host factors that impact HIV-1 replication, including histone metabolism and noncoding RNA. His laboratory has made important contributions in multiple fields including virology, basic RNA biology, extra-cellular communication and translational.
Jason Machan, PhD is the director of the Lifespan Biostatistics Core, and is an assistant professor of orthopaedics and surgery at The Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. He is also adjunct assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island, through which he directs a biostatistics externship. He has extensive training and experience in experimental methodology and statistics. As director of the Biostatistics Core, he has collaborated with researchers on a broad array of basic, clinical and translational projects, ranging from large-scale clinical trials to retrospective chart reviews and basic science; from quality of life metrics to gene expression. He assists in study design and methodology, instrument selection, statistical analysis planning, sample size selection and power analysis, grantsmanship, data visualization, results write-up, and contextualized interpretation.
Karen Tashima, MD, is the director of clinical trials at the Immunology Center, and is the clinical research site leader for The Miriam Hospital, a research site of the Harvard/Boston/Providence AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Unit. She also oversees the Lifespan Clinical Research Center collaboration with the specimen processing laboratory at The Miriam Hospital.
Dr. Tashima is a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
Andrew Schumacher, MSCHE, is the director of clinical trials for the Lifespan oncology clinical research office and the Lifespan Clinical Research Center. He received his master of science in health care ethics from Creighton University in Omaha. His research has been included in several scientific publications and he has presented at the local and national levels. He is a member of the Society of Clinical Research Associates, the Alliance for Oncology Clinical Trials and Brown University Oncology Research Group.
Tejashree Kulkarni, MS-RA, Pharmacy; MS, Regulatory Affairs, is a clinical trials regulatory coordinator at the Lifespan Clinical Research Center. She has experience in cardiovascular clinical trials and has also worked with a software medical device company that helps in managing diabetes.
Lifespan Clinical Research Center Staff
Our staff includes experienced registered nurses and research assistants ready to support your clinical trial needs. They are experienced in pediatric and adult medicine as well as both inpatient and outpatient care.
Along with a full complement of administrative responsibilities, our staff is qualified to perform the following procedures: These professionals are committed to providing the highest quality services and continue to add to their certified abilities on a regular basis.
- Study coordination, management, and monitoring
- Data collection and entry
- Point of care testing
- Hazardous substance handling and shipment
- Blood draws
- IV therapy
- CPR
- Genetic sample collection
If your particular needs are not listed above, please contact Evelyn Hipolito at 401-793-8788 to discuss.