Ayman Mohammad
Ayman Mohammad is a scholarly-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in between his third and fourth years of medical school pursuing a Master of Science in Clinical Research.
Mr. Mohammad recently received an ASH Medical Student Physician-Scientist Award, which provides an opportunity for medical students to gain experience in hematology research under the mentorship of a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and to learn more about the specialty. Awardees agree to spend more than 80 percent of their time during the immersive, yearlong project conducting laboratory, translational, or clinical hematology research. The award provides $42,000 of funding for a one-year period.
At Icahn Mount Sinai, he works in the lab of Bridget Marcellino, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology), investigating the mechanisms behind the pathogenesis of myeloid malignancies. Outside the lab, he co-led Mount Sinai’s Health Policy Program and is now spearheading quality improvement and community-based participatory research efforts at the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership, Mount Sinai’s student-run free clinic.
In this Q&A, he talks about how the award will support his research, why he chose Icahn Mount Sinai, and his plans for the future.
What research are you conducting related to this award?
My project focuses on understanding the drivers of leukemic transformation and how targeted therapy can halt the progression of hematologic malignancy. Specifically, I will be investigating two negative regulators of the TP53 tumor suppressor pathway, proteins MDM2 and PPM1D. Through targeted protein degradation, we can identify the impact of shutting off these negative regulators on the progression of myeloproliferative neoplasms to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This project can show the mechanisms underlying blood cancer pathogenesis and potentially offer a therapeutic solution through protein degrader treatment.
What does the ASH Award mean to you?
I was extremely honored and deeply humbled when I found out that I had received the ASH award. I admire ASH’s commitment to mentorship and supporting the next generation of physician-innovators. Both of my mentors, Dr. Marcellino and Dr. Ronald Hoffman have been recognized by ASH for their work in the hematologic space, so I am grateful to be able to share this opportunity with them and work together on an exciting, novel project this year.
How will this award help your research?
This award will allow me to take time to explore my own research interests during my scholarly year. As a leading organization in hematology-oncology patient care, research, advocacy, and education, ASH represents a future of possibility to me. Their financial support and mentorship offers me a springboard to pursue different career interests. I hope to immerse myself in the world of hematology-oncology and hone my skills as a researcher so that one day I can lead my own investigations with the goal of benefiting patients.
Why did you choose Icahn Mount Sinai and how has the medical school experience been so far?
Growing up in New York, I was always aware of Mount Sinai and its dedication to patients. I was thrilled at the opportunity to train in a community that I had been intimately familiar with growing up and to give back through medicine. Icahn Mount Sinai has been an incredible experience, and every day I am amazed by the work that our faculty, providers, and my fellow classmates are doing. I am excited to produce my own work and help advance our excellent research efforts in understanding heme-malignancy.
What do you hope your impact will be on patients and medical practice?
In my career, I hope to push the boundaries of how we treat heme-malignancies and make medical innovation a central part of my practice. I love translational research because of its potential to transform a scientific discovery in a lab into a disease-modifying therapy for a patient. However, having worked in the sickle cell space before, I understand that sometimes innovation does not reach all patients who need it. I believe that research does not simply end after a publication but rather continues through its impact on patients and practice. As a future physician-innovator, I want to ensure that all patients have equitable access to the fruits of clinical research.