Molecular Mechanisms of the Placebo Response

Dr. Kathryn T. Hall received her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard before spending 10 years in the biotech industry tackling problems in drug development, first at Wyeth and then Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where she became an Associate Director of Drug Development. Dr. Hall returned to HMS in 2010, joining the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 2012, and receiving a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard in 2014. In collaboration with Professor Ted Kaptchuk and other members of the Program in Placebo Studies at HMS, Dr. Hall’s recent research focuses on catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme that metabolizes catecholamines with pleiotropic effects in a broad set of diseases and treatments. Her recent publication in PLOS ONE identified COMT as one of the first genetic markers of placebo response. Her work has led to the coining of the term "placebome", which was added to Jargonwatch by WIRED magazine in 2015. Her research has been the focus of numerous articles including features in Science, The Atlantic, The Economist and Discover magazines.