Updated on Jun 8, 2023 | Community
Some of the plenary presenters at the 25th Annual Child Health Research Day along with members of the 2023 Steering Committee. They are shown with the 2023 Honoree, Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, front and center, Professor of Pediatrics, Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, and Scientific Director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, Vanderbilt University, who is standing beside Lisa M Satlin, MD, in the white coat, Chair, Department of Pediatrics.
Eighteen Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers gave oral presentations on a range of topics, including child psychiatry, environmental medicine, and maternal health, at the 25th Annual Child Health Research Day, held on Thursday, April 13, in Hatch Auditorium.
Sponsored by the Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics, The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, and the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, the two-day event highlighted outstanding research in child health by medical students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff.
The event also allowed young investigators to share their research with colleagues and network with potential collaborators.
Six poster presenters were additionally selected for special recognition. A total of 89 research projects were submitted this year.
Updated on May 26, 2023 | Community, Featured
“Tonight, we celebrate Mount Sinai’s ability to provide the highest-quality health care, educate the next generation of great clinicians and researchers, and generate scientific breakthroughs that advance the capabilities of modern medicine,” Dennis S. Charney, MD, said in his opening remarks.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mount Sinai Health System Crystal Party tent was up and abuzz in Central Park’s Conservatory Garden. Beneath its rainbow big top, nearly 800 physicians, faculty, staff, trustees, supporters, and friends of the Mount Sinai Health System collected to celebrate the past year’s research and health care advances, achieved under extraordinary conditions. The event, held Thursday, May 4, raised $3 million in support of the Health System.
The 38th annual celebration kicked off with remarks from Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Tonight, we celebrate Mount Sinai’s ability to provide the highest-quality health care, educate the next generation of great clinicians and researchers, and generate scientific breakthroughs that advance the capabilities of modern medicine,” he said.
Dr. Charney made a special effort to highlight some of Mount Sinai’s proudest, current research achievements.
“Our scientists have begun human clinical trials of a diabetes drug they discovered that has the potential to be transformative,” he said. “A drug that can regenerate the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. This could be nothing less than a cure for type 2 diabetes. In recent months, Mount Sinai researchers have also identified an immune cell that helps kill bladder cancer tumors, identified genes strongly linked to autism, and conducted an unprecedented analysis of immune cells in the brain that appear to play a key role in the genetic risk and development of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Turning his attention to the leading patient care enabled by the generosity of Mount Sinai’s donors, Dr. Charney said, “Today, Mount Sinai is serving more patients, with more advanced services than ever before, as we’ve significantly expanded our ambulatory footprint across the five boroughs and Long Island. After performing the world’s first human tracheal transplant, Mount Sinai established the Institute for Airway Sciences to advance new therapies for patients with diseases of the trachea, lung, and sinuses.”
Looking to the future, he shared news of a number of capital improvement projects under consideration, to further enhance patient care.
“The next phase of the expansion and modernization of the Saul Family Emergency Department at The Mount Sinai Hospital will be finished in July. It will include a new acute care zone, an observation unit, and a separate Geriatrics Emergency Department to complement our new Children’s Emergency Department,” he said. “Early next year, we will open new offices at Mount Sinai West for the Bonnie and Tom Strauss Movement Disorders Center and the Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics. And our next great project—the Tisch Cancer Hospital—will begin construction next month.”
Dr. Charney thanked the donors in the audience for their partnership and closed by saying, “It is no exaggeration to say that the return on your investment can be measured in diseases cured and lives saved.”
The event included three moving patient stories during a video tribute.
As these moving stories of patient successes came to a close, Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chair of Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, came to the podium.
“Mount Sinai’s work over the past three years in our hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and labs has burnished their reputation as one of the truly great academic medical centers, not only in this country but in the world,” Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chair of Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, said in his concluding remarks.
“Three years ago,” he observed, “you would not have found a single soul in this beautiful garden in this area. New York City was in lockdown and the only tents in Central Park were those of Samaritans First, where our doctors were caring for COVID-19 patients for whom there were no hospital beds. That was a moment of crisis when Mount Sinai was busy saving thousands of lives. Tonight, years later, it’s finally time to toast all that the Mount Sinai Health System does for our community and for humanity through the advancement of biomedicine.”
As he concluded, reminding everyone in attendance of the importance of their philanthropy to saving lives, Mr. Friedman stated, “Mount Sinai’s work over the past three years in our hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and labs has burnished their reputation as one of the truly great academic medical centers, not only in this country but in the world. So, my tribute is to all the doctors, the faculty, the researchers, and everyone at Mount Sinai.”
Updated on May 25, 2023 | Community, Featured
At the Awards Ceremony Dinner, from left: Back Row: Dennis Charney, MD; Leo Keegan, MD; Christopher Bellaire, MD; Hashem Emad Zikry, MD; Daniel J. Weiss, MD, PhD; Basil Hanss, PhD; David R. Friedland, MD, PhD; Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, MD, PhD; Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH; Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD; Alexis Colvin, MD. Seated: Silvia Chavez, MSN; Leif Holgersen, MD; Meg A. Rosenblatt, MD; Bret P. Nelson, MD; James C. Tsai, MD, MBA; Carl W. Braun, MD; Katherine A. Hawkins, MD, JD; and Vesna Najfeld, PhD
More than 225 alumni, faculty, and honored guests gathered for the 2023 Alumni Reunion Awards Ceremony Dinner held at the New York Academy of Medicine. This was the first time in four years that the event was held in person to celebrate the recipients of the Mount Sinai Alumni Awards and the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Alumni Awards, as well as milestone graduation years: the classes of 1978, 1983, and 1998.
This year’s event, held Wednesday, May 10, was particularly special for another reason: It was the first reunion to honor the first four graduating classes from the original Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The classes of 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973 jointly celebrated their 50th anniversaries, which is a signifier of the extraordinary trajectory taken since the School of Medicine’s founding.
Guests were welcomed with opening remarks from Alexis Colvin, MD, Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs, Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Chief Executive Office of the Mount Sinai Health System, who is also an alumnus of the class of 1973. Leo Keegan, MD, Vice President of the Mount Sinai Alumni Association, and Carl Braun, MD, President of the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Alumni Association, presented the awards. A special welcome video with Talia Swartz, MD, PhD, President of the Mount Sinai Alumni Association, was also shown.
The Alumni Award recipients are:
The Mount Sinai Alumni Leadership Award: Christopher Bellaire, MD Candidate ’23, Hashem Emad Zikry, MD, ISMMS ’18
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Distinguished Young Physician of the Year: Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, MD, PhD, SLR ’11
The Jeffrey T. Laitman, PhD Award for Achievement in Medical Education: Bret P. Nelson, MD
The Mount Sinai Graduate School Alumni Award: Basil Hanss, PhD, Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD, MSSM ’15, MSH ’10
The Mount Sinai Master Clinician Award: Meg A. Rosenblatt, MD, MSH ’89
The Mount Sinai Alumni Special Recognition Award: Silvia Chavez, MSN, ANP-BC, Vesna Najfeld, PhD
The Terry Ann Krulwich Physician-Scientist Alumni Award: Daniel J. Weiss, MD, PhD, MSSM ’88
The Dr. Sidney Grossman Distinguished Humanitarian Award: James C. Tsai, MD, MBA
The J. Lester Gabrilove Award: Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Distinguished Alumni Award: Katherine A. Hawkins, MD, JD, SLR ’77, Leif Holgersen, MD, FACS, SLR ’70
The Saul Horowitz, Jr. Memorial Award: David R. Friedland, MD, PhD, MSSM ’95, MSH ’00
The Alumni Association also held a series of events from Wednesday, May 10, to Friday, May 12. The event series included a symposium with two panel conversations and a discussion with Dr. Charney, and an Open House for the new Alumni Office and Wisch Physician Lounge. Members of the 50th anniversary classes participated in the 2023 Commencement Ceremony.
To view the digital Reunion Dinner Program Book, see event photos, watch the welcome video, and listen to the Alumni Podcast from the graduating class of 1972, click here.
At the 2023 Commencement Ceremony, from left: Ernst Schaefer, MD; Jacob Rispler, MD; Steven C. Port, MD; Naomi LC Luban, MD; Katherine Teets Grimm, MD; Arthur L. Frank, MD; Kenneth L. Edelson, MD; and Michael S. Balkin, MD.
