Andrea E. Dunaif, MD
Andrea E. Dunaif, MD, a renowned physician-scientist in diabetes and women’s health, has joined the Mount Sinai Health System as Chief of the Hilda and J. Lester Gabrilove Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease. In her role, Dr. Dunaif seeks to build on Mount Sinai’s strengths in research on diabetes, metabolism, and endocrine disorders.
Dr. Dunaif is a leader in research into polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which affects about 7 percent of reproductive-age women. PCOS is an inherited disorder where the ovaries, and frequently the adrenal glands, make a slight increase in the male hormone testosterone, leading to irregular periods, excessive hair growth, and acne. Research led by Dr. Dunaif has shown that PCOS is associated with insulin resistance and is a leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes in young women. She has also shown that the male and female relatives of affected women are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes and reproductive problems. “I am transferring my research program here,” Dr. Dunaif says, “so Mount Sinai will become a major center for the genetics of PCOS.”
In a continuation of her work, funded by a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, Dr. Dunaif is mapping chromosomal regions that have a high likelihood of containing genes causing PCOS. The ultimate goal is to identify therapeutic targets and genetic markers that could be used to predict and prevent PCOS.
Dr. Dunaif, the Lillian and Henry M. Stratt on Professor of Molecular Medicine, began her career at The Mount Sinai Hospital in the early 1980s. She most recently served at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago as Chief of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine; Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine; and Director of the Specialized Center of Research on Sex Differences, supported by the NIH.
She plans to take advantage of the “phenomenal expertise in genetics at Mount Sinai” by working closely with the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She also seeks to expand her Division’s strengths across the Health System, including the study of diabetes, metabolism, and population health at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s; the Thyroid Center at Mount Sinai Union Square; and the groundbreaking research on postmenopausal metabolism, artificial pancreas systems, and pancreatic beta cells at the Icahn School of Medicine.
“Returning to Mount Sinai is very much like coming home,” Dr. Dunaif says. “And it is exciting to see the extraordinary growth of the Icahn School of Medicine and the Health System. It was always excellent, but now it is one of the premier academic health centers in the country.”