Joel Henderson

Biography

Laboratory Director, Framingham Heart Study
Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine

73 Mt. Wayte Avenue, Room 250
Framingham, MA 01702
Phone: 508-935-3476
Email: jmhender@bu.edu

Joel M. Henderson, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, and is the Laboratory Director, Framingham Heart Study. He joined FHS as Laboratory Director in 2016. Dr. Henderson is also the Director of the Kidney Pathology and Electron Microscopy Laboratories at Boston University Medical Center, and is a co-investigator for the Biospecimen Archive Research Core at BUMC. He is a graduate of The University of Cincinnati (Engineering Mechanics) and The Ohio State University (Medicine and Biomedical Engineering). His PhD work examined changes in endothelial junctional structure and macromolecular permeability in vivo in response to local alterations in hemodynamic stress. He completed his residency in anatomic pathology and fellowship in kidney pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and is certified by the American Board of Pathology.

Dr. Henderson conducted post-doctoral research training in the laboratory of Martin Pollak, MD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he studied the kidney pathology and pathogenesis of familial focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), focusing on mechanobiologic mechanisms of glomerular cell injury. Currently, he directs an NIH-supported research program at Boston University Medical Center that is focused on understanding mechanisms of glomerular injury in the kidney. Studies from his laboratory have shed new light on the role of disease-associated cytoskeletal proteins such as alpha-actinin-4 and non-muscle myosin IIA in maintaining the cytoskeletal structure and mechanobiologic behavior of the glomerular podocyte, and in protecting the glomerulus from hypertension-associated injury.

Dr. Henderson has presented his research at national and international meetings and published research in a number of prestigious journals. He is an active member of the American Society of Nephrology, the Renal Pathology Society, and the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology. He currently serves as the kidney pathologist at Boston Medical Center.