Kathryn T. Hall

Kathryn T. Hall (born 1964 in Oxford) is a leader in placebo research, Assistant professor of medicine part-time and molecular biologist Director of Basic and Translational Research at Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). Director of Placebo Genetics in the Program in Placebo Studies, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Assistant Professor of Medicine Part-time at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Associate Molecular Biologist in the Brigham and Women's Hospital: Division of Preventive Medicine.

She has published many papers and one book about the biological basis of the placebo effect. Hall's placebo research has been the subject of featured articles in The Atlantic, Science Magazine, The Economist, The New York Times and Discover magazine.

Biography Hall got her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University in 1996. She asserts that, "The placebo effect is a real neurological response involving multiple parts of the brain." Noting that researchers have been using neuroimaging to see how the brain responds to placebos and that there are correlations between response and brain anatomy, This led the researchers to the idea of using genetic screening to identify placebo responders which in turn could improve patient care.

Hall has summarized her research in the 2022 book, Placebos.

Selected papers Tori L. Cowger, Eleanor J. Murray, Jaylen Clarke, Mary T. Bassett, Bisola O. Ojikutu, Sarimer M. Sánchez, Natalia Linos, and Kathryn T. Hall. 'Lifting Universal Masking in Schools — Covid-19 Incidence among Students and Staff'. The New England Journal of Medicine, November 2022 Hall KT, Loscalzo J, Kaptchuk TJ., 'Genetics and the Placebo effect: the placebome', Trends Mol Med., May 2015 Hall KT, Lembo AJ, Kirsch I, et al., 'Catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met: Polymorphism Predicts Placebo Effect in Irritable Bowel Syndrome'. PLoS One, 2012 Hall KT, Boumsell L, Schultze JL, et al., 'A Novel Leukocyte Semaphorin that Promotes B-cell Aggregation and Differentiation', Natl Acad Sci U S A., October 1996