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Christopher Hemond, MD,

Christopher Hemond, MD, Assistant Professor of neurology

Christopher Hemond, MD
Associate Research Director
Neuroimmunology, and MS Center
Principal Investigator of Hemond Lab
Christopher.Hemond@umassmemorial.org

Academic Appointment:
Christopher Hemond, MD, joined the UMass Chan Medical School faculty team in July, 2018. Hemond, MD, has received several NMMS pilot research awards as both PI (2019) and co-PI (2020). He is a recipient of a K23 NIH award as well. 

Hemond, MD, completed his medical school and residency at Stanford University Medical School in Palo Alto, CA, in 2012, which included an internship year at the University of Hawaii. Hemond went on to complete a clinical research fellowship at the Partners MS Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston specializing in MRI analysis, prior to joining UMass Chan.  

HemondLab Research: 
 -
Development and translation of MRI-based biomarkers of MS 
 - Qualitative MRI analysis of the brain and spinal cord using state of the art high resolution anatomic sequences
 - MS disease severity and progression, such as, “iron rim lesion”
 - New MS therapies
 - Qualitative Susceptibility Mapping, diffusing imaging, MR spectroscopy and fMRI.
 - Assessing the effects of mindfulness based stress reduction on structural brain remodeling and potentially reducing neuroinflammation and cortisol levels in MS.
 - The exploration of immunological and metabolic factors which determine pathological rates of brain atrophy and neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis.
 - Development of biomarkers related to brain atrophy and neurodegeration in MS. 

 Hemond, MD, Clinical Experience: 
 -
Board-certified neurologist
 - Clinical subspecialty training in neuroimmunology and MS
 - Running the mindfulness outreah component of the MS Clinic to bridge treatment and research by connecting individuals who benefit from education.experiental initiatives with grant funding clinical trials.
 - Studying how the brain influences the inflammatory state of the immune system 

Hemond, MD, Educational Experience: 
 - Maintaining active grant funding from the NIH, the Worcester Foundation, the National MS Society, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers. 

Active/Current Clinical Trials - Conquering Diseases - Search

Christopher Hemond, MD publications

Total: 15 results
  • Multiple sclerosis can be diagnosed solely with dissemination in space: No

    Monday, April 15, 2024
    Author(s): Christopher C Hemond,Andrew J Solomon
    Source: Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England)
    No abstract
  • Evaluating the Clinical Utility of Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies as Biomarkers in Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review

    Saturday, February 24, 2024
    Author(s): Abigail Bose,Farnaz Khalighinejad,David C Hoaglin,Christopher C Hemond
    Source: Multiple sclerosis and related disorders
    CONCLUSION: Heterogeneous methodology limited generalization and meta-analysis. EBV antibody levels are unlikely to represent prognostic biomarkers in MS. The areas of highest ongoing promise relate to diagnostic exclusion and pharmacodynamic/disease response. Use of EBV antibodies as biomarkers in clinical practice remains additionally limited by lack of methodological precision, reliability, and validation.
  • Imaging chronic active lesions in multiple sclerosis: a consensus statement

    Tuesday, January 16, 2024
    Author(s): Francesca Bagnato,Pascal Sati,Christopher C Hemond,Colm Elliott,Susan A Gauthier,Daniel M Harrison,Caterina Mainero,Jiwon Oh,David Pitt,Russell T Shinohara,Seth A Smith,Bruce Trapp,Christina J Azevedo,Peter A Calabresi,Roland G Henry,Cornelia Laule,Daniel Ontaneda,William D Rooney,Nancy L Sicotte,Daniel S Reich,Martina Absinta
    Source: Brain : a journal of neurology
    Chronic active lesions (CAL) are an important manifestation of chronic inflammation in multiple sclerosis (MS) and have implications for non-relapsing biological progression. In recent years, the discovery of innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PET derived biomarkers has made it possible to detect CAL, and to some extent quantify them, in the brain of persons with MS, in vivo. Paramagnetic rim lesions on susceptibility-sensitive MRI sequences, MRI-defined slowly expanding lesions on...
  • Paramagnetic rim lesions are associated with pathogenic CSF profiles and worse clinical status in multiple sclerosis: A retrospective cross-sectional study

    Friday, June 24, 2022
    Author(s): Christopher C Hemond,Jonggyu Baek,Carolina Ionete,Daniel S Reich
    Source: Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England)
    CONCLUSION: PRLs, an emerging noninvasive biomarker of chronic neuroinflammation, are confirmed to be associated with greater disease severity and newly shown to be preliminarily associated with blood-brain barrier disruption.
  • The impact of socioeconomic status on mental health and health-seeking behavior across race and ethnicity in a large multiple sclerosis cohort

    Saturday, December 25, 2021
    Author(s): Daniela A Pimentel Maldonado,Justin R Eusebio,Lilyana Amezcua,Eleni S Vasileiou,Ellen M Mowry,Christopher C Hemond,Raffaella Umeton Pizzolato,Idanis Berrios Morales,Irina Radu,Carolina Ionete,Kathryn C Fitzgerald
    Source: Multiple sclerosis and related disorders
    CONCLUSION: Higher SES was associated with a lower burden of psychiatric symptoms and with a higher likelihood of self-reported symptom recovery after receiving mental health treatment. Attitudes regarding mental health care delivery in MS varied according to racial and ethnic background. Future longitudinal studies in more diverse populations should assess whether co-location of mental health services with MS care helps to reduce the gap between access and need of mental health care in MS.
  • Paramagnetic Rim Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis: Comparison of Visualization at 1.5-T and 3-T MRI

    Wednesday, December 01, 2021
    Author(s): Christopher C Hemond,Daniel S Reich,Sathish K Dundamadappa
    Source: AJR. American journal of roentgenology
    BACKGROUND. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by both acute and chronic intrathecal inflammation. A subset of MS lesions show paramagnetic rims on susceptibility-weighted MRI sequences, reflecting iron accumulation in microglia. These para-magnetic rim lesions have been proposed as a marker of compartmentalized smoldering disease. Paramagnetic rim lesions have been shown at 7 T and, more recently, at 3 T. As susceptibility effects are weaker at lower field strength, it remains unclear if...
  • Serum Albumin Modifies the Effect of Peripheral Blood Monocytes on Severity of Diabetic Nephropathy in an Adult Population

    Monday, August 02, 2021
    Author(s): Cagney Cristancho,Christopher C Hemond
    Source: Canadian journal of diabetes
    CONCLUSIONS: Circulating monocytes and serum albumin are significantly associated with albuminuria, but not eGFR in DKD. These results support the potential role of the innate immune system in diabetic microvascular end-organ damage and urinary protein loss, and may be readily translatable clinical markers to incorporate into risk-assessment models for prognostication in diabetes.
  • Exacerbation of Multiple Sclerosis by BRAF/MEK Treatment for Malignant Melanoma: The Central Vein Sign to Distinguish Demyelinating Lesions From Metastases

    Monday, July 26, 2021
    Author(s): Christopher C Hemond,Rohit Bakshi,Shahamat Tauhid,Rosila Sarrosa,Madison Ryan,Vineetha Kamath,James Thomas,Keith R Edwards
    Source: Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports
    The emergence of immunomodulators as effective cancer treatments has been an important advance in cancer therapy. The combination therapy of BRAF/MEK inhibition with or without anti-CTLA-4 treatment causes an immunostimulatory effect that has greatly reduced death from melanoma. In this article, we present the case of a patient with prior multiple sclerosis (MS) and who later developed metastatic malignant melanoma, had a marked increase of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings after...
  • A real-world cohort analysis of alemtuzumab outcomes in relapsing multiple sclerosis

    Saturday, November 14, 2020
    Author(s): Jorge Acevedo Herman,Farnaz Khalighinejad,Katherine York,Irina Radu,Idanis Berrios Morales,Carolina Ionete,Christopher C Hemond
    Source: Multiple sclerosis and related disorders
    Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive neurological disease characterized by recurrent episodes of inflammatory demyelination of the brain and spinal cord. Alemtuzumab has been previously shown in large phase III trials to be an effective therapy in reducing MS clinical flares as well as new radiological activity and atrophy rates. The purpose of this study was to examine real-world effectiveness and safety data from a large cohort of people treated with alemtuzumab at an academic...
  • Cervical spondylosis is a risk factor for localized spinal cord lesions in multiple sclerosis

    Thursday, October 22, 2020
    Author(s): Roberto Bomprezzi,Andrew P Chen,Christopher C Hemond
    Source: Clinical neurology and neurosurgery
    CONCLUSIONS: The data from our cohort of MS patients suggest an indirect contribution of cervical spondylosis to disability by increasing the risk of developing localized cord lesions. While further studies are needed to confirm the findings and clarify disease mechanisms, closer attention should be paid to worsening spondylosis in patients with MS.
  • A paradox of social distancing for SARS-CoV-2: loneliness and heightened immunological risk

    Wednesday, August 12, 2020
    Author(s): Liron Rozenkrantz,Michael H Bernstein,Christopher C Hemond
    Source: Molecular psychiatry
    No abstract
  • Placebos in chronic pain: evidence, theory, ethics, and use in clinical practice

    Wednesday, July 22, 2020
    Author(s): Ted J Kaptchuk,Christopher C Hemond,Franklin G Miller
    Source: BMJ (Clinical research ed.)
    Despite their ubiquitous presence, placebos and placebo effects retain an ambiguous and unsettling presence in biomedicine. Specifically focused on chronic pain, this review examines the effect of placebo treatment under three distinct frameworks: double blind, deception, and open label honestly prescribed. These specific conditions do not necessarily differentially modify placebo outcomes. Psychological, clinical, and neurological theories of placebo effects are scrutinized. In chronic pain,...
  • HHV-6-Associated Neurological Disease in Children: Epidemiologic, Clinical, Diagnostic, and Treatment Considerations

    Wednesday, January 15, 2020
    Author(s): Eva Eliassen,Christopher C Hemond,Jonathan D Santoro
    Source: Pediatric neurology
    Human herpesviruses 6A and 6B, often referred to collectively as human herpesvirus 6, are a pair of beta-herpesviruses known to cause a variety of clinical syndromes in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals. Most humans are infected with human herpesvirus 6B, and many with human herpesvirus 6A. Primary infection typically occurs in early childhood, although large-scale reviews on the topic are limited. Herein, the authors explore the clinical manifestations of human herpesvirus...
  • MRI phenotypes in MS: Longitudinal changes and miRNA signatures

    Tuesday, February 26, 2019
    Author(s): Christopher C Hemond,Brian C Healy,Shahamat Tauhid,Maria A Mazzola,Francisco J Quintana,Roopali Gandhi,Howard L Weiner,Rohit Bakshi
    Source: Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation
    CONCLUSIONS: MRI-defined MS phenotypes show high conversion rates characterized by the continuation of either predominant neurodegeneration or inflammation and support the partial independence of these 2 measures. MicroRNA signatures of these phenotypes suggest a role for blood-brain barrier integrity.
  • The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratios are independently associated with neurological disability and brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis

    Thursday, February 14, 2019
    Author(s): Christopher C Hemond,Bonnie I Glanz,Rohit Bakshi,Tanuja Chitnis,Brian C Healy
    Source: BMC neurology
    CONCLUSIONS: Elevated NLR and MLR may represent hematopoetic bias toward increased production and pro-inflammatory priming of the myeloid innate immune system (numerator) in conjunction with dysregulated adaptive immune processes (denominator), and consequently reflect a complementary and independent marker for severity of MS-related neurological disability and MRI outcomes.