About the Director

As NCCIH director, Dr. Langevin oversees the Federal Government’s lead agency for research on the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. With an annual budget of approximately $170 million, NCCIH funds and conducts research to help answer important scientific and public health questions within the context of whole person health. The Center also coordinates and collaborates with other research institutes and Federal programs on research into complementary and integrative health. Dr. Langevin is currently the chair of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee.

Prior to coming to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Langevin was the director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and professor-in-residence of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012 to 2018. She also previously served as professor of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont.

Over her career, Dr. Langevin’s research interests have centered around the role of connective tissue in chronic musculoskeletal pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture and manual and movement-based therapies. Her more recent work has focused on the effects of stretching on inflammation resolution mechanisms within connective tissue. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Langevin received an M.D. degree from McGill University, Montreal. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, and a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. Langevin’s Research Interests

Dr. Langevin serves as an adjunct investigator at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Connective Tissue Section.

Dr. Langevin is interested in exploring how to keep connective tissue flexible and free from pain, slow aging, and increase the health of the whole body. One limitation of conventional medicine is its fragmentation of the body into separate systems and body parts. Connective tissue is a body-wide network that connects all its systems and parts, making it important for the integrated functioning of the whole body. Dr. Langevin’s previous work has focused on the role of connective tissue in chronic pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture, manual, and movement-based therapies. Her goal at NIDCR is to understand how mechanical forces may help connective tissue stay strong and flexible, allow for successful healing after injury, reduce inflammation, and prevent cancer.