Research | Mount Sinai Today

Neanderthal Teeth Yield Insights Into Past and Present

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research

Manish Arora, PhD, MPH; and Christine Austin, PhD

Neanderthals became extinct more than 20,000 years ago, but an innovative study of teeth by an international team, including researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has uncovered details about their lives that may lead to new insights into human evolution and into chemical exposures that affect health outcomes now.

The study is the first to use teeth to explore in weekly increments the relationship between ancient climate change and the development of hominins—humans and their immediate ancestors. Researchers examined remains recovered from Payre, an archaeological site in the Rhone Valley of Southeastern France, analyzing one tooth each from two Neanderthal children who lived 250,000 years ago, and another tooth from a “modern” human child who lived 5,000 years ago.

“Much like trees, teeth have growth rings that enable us to look at what happened in the life of an individual on a weekly basis,” says co-author Christine Austin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine. “For these teeth, we cut a sample approximately 100 microns thick, or the width of a human hair, removed a small amount of material from the surface of the growth rings using a laser, analyzed the elements in that material using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and then constructed a timeline of exposure to the elements for each individual.”

Analyzing a slice of a Neanderthal child’s tooth, 100 microns thick, provided a timeline of development and chemical exposures. For example, a “stress line” around day 707 of the child’s life indicated a period of severe illness or hunger.

This technology was developed by Manish Arora, PhD, MPH, the Edith J. Baerwald Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine, and senior author of the study, which was published in Science Advances in October 2018. “Dr. Austin’s work is a game changer for the way we analyze archaeological samples and for our understanding of how environmental stressors have impacted the evolution of modern humans and how they continue to impact our health,” Dr. Arora says. “Her work on the evolution of breastfeeding has direct relevance to understanding the benefits of breast milk in modern medical practice.”

Dr. Austin and her colleagues at institutions in France and Australia noted developmental deformations in the Neanderthal teeth that reflected the stresses of life during harshly cold winters. In addition, both Neanderthals were exposed to lead at least twice during late winter or early spring. Dr. Austin says two mines are located within foraging distance of the recovery site, indicating that food and water from the area may have been contaminated with lead. There were also signs of high, acute exposure, which could have resulted from an event such as inhalation of a cave fire.

“Previously, we thought that lead exposure mainly happened post-industrialization,” Dr. Austin says. “Now we see that is not the case, and that raises questions about the impact of this neurotoxin on their neurodevelopment and ultimately their behavior. That is something we want to explore further.”

Equally of interest were the findings related to breastfeeding. One of the Neanderthals was weaned at about two and a half years of age, which is similar to the norm for early humans. “Compared to other primates, humans wean early, which enables higher reproductive rates and is likely one of the reasons for our species’ success,” Dr. Austin says. “Seeing a human-like weaning pattern in Neanderthals is very interesting and raises questions about when this nursing behavior evolved.”

Dr. Austin says the study could also lead to insights into chemical exposures from breast milk that could impact lifelong health. “There is a growing body of data on the importance of breast milk in the development of an infant’s microbiome,” she says. “By better understanding how the composition of breast milk has evolved, in addition to breastfeeding practices, we can start to propose interventions at critical developmental windows that mitigate exposure to environmental stresses and toxins and thus improve health outcomes.”

$3 Million Gift to Advance Study of Crohn’s Disease

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research, Your Health

From left: Noam Harpaz, MD, Professor of Pathology, and Medicine (Gastroenterology); Sanford J. Grossman, PhD; Judy H. Cho, MD; and Asher A. Kornbluth, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology).

The Sanford J. Grossman Charitable Trust has committed $3 million to a center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai that is focused on advancing the understanding of Crohn’s disease and creating personalized medicine for its treatment.

The trust donated $1 million to establish the Dr. Sanford J. Grossman Center for Integrative Studies in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in 2015. Now it will donate an additional $2 million—$400,000 a year for the next five years.

“Mount Sinai has a large and unique data set on patients: clinical symptoms, pathology reports, genomics, family history, and radiology,” says the founder of the trust, the economist Sanford J. Grossman. “My hope is that the integration and analysis of this data will enable a better understanding of Crohn’s disease, and with that knowledge, therapies will be developed to alter the natural course of the disease.”

Crohn’s is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects nearly 700,000 people in the United States. Over time it can damage the bowel and create complications such as strictures, a narrowing section of the intestine that can lead to loss of function and reduce the quality of a patient’s life.

“Our main goal is to develop treatments that specifically deal with stricture in Crohn’s disease, and that aren’t the usual anti-inflammatory treatments,” says Judy H. Cho, MD, Director of the Center, and the Ward-Coleman Chair in Translational Genetics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

One new effort is a small clinical trial led by Robert Hirten, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology) at the Icahn School of Medicine, that is exploring whether steroids are beneficial for Crohn’s patients hospitalized with a bowel obstruction caused by stricturing. Dr. Cho is conducting genetic and molecular projects involving pluripotent stem cells that might someday be engineered to repair the defects that cause Crohn’s disease. She says, “We are very grateful for Dr. Grossman’s donation, which will fund our unique, integrative team and catalyze new research.”

Mount Sinai Researchers Show That Early Intervention in Preschool Is a Unique Opportunity for Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured, Research

Natalia Leal and her son Gabriel are participants in FAMILIA, which instructs preschoolers and their families on cardiovascular health.

Children may have a better chance of avoiding unhealthy habits linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease later in life if they are taught properly about healthy behaviors in preschool, Mount Sinai researchers have shown in a first-of-its-kind study.

The researchers focused on children living in a socioeconomically disadvantaged community, a situation that is commonly linked to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and other health issues. Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, created and led the trial, called the FAMILIA Project at Mount Sinai Heart. The results were published in the April 22 online issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Read the press release

Advancing International Food Allergy Research

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Research

Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, center; and from left, Scott H. Sicherer, MD, Director of the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Mount Sinai Health System; Prasert Auewarakul, MD, PhD, Deputy Dean of Research, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University; Hugh A. Sampson, MD, Director Emeritus of the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute; and Pakit Vichyanond, MD, Director, Samitivej Allergy Institute.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently agreed to collaborate on food allergy research with the Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, and the Samitivej Allergy Institute, prominent medical institutions in Bangkok, Thailand. Initial studies will center on wheat allergies—one of the most common—that appear to be increasing in Thailand. In 2018, researchers from the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine published the results of a rigorous clinical trial showing that more than half of children in the study were successfully desensitized to wheat after a year of oral immunotherapy.

A Novel Approach to Making Organ Transplants Successful

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research, Your Health

Study co-authors, from left: Zahi Fayad, PhD, Director of the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute; and Willem J.M. Mulder, PhD, Professor of Radiology, and Oncological Sciences.

The nearly 35,000 individuals who receive organ transplants each year in the United States face a harsh reality: the immunosuppressive drugs they must take to maintain organ survival also weaken the immune system, breaking down the body’s critical defenses against cancer, infection, and more. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently developed an innovative type of immunotherapy based on nanotechnology that they hope will address this conundrum. Their findings, published in the November 6, 2018, issue of Immunity, have demonstrated the technology’s feasibility of long-term organ acceptance in mice.

“This is a whole new approach to programming the immune system, not just another small molecule drug that’s going to help with organ transplantation,” says Zahi Fayad, PhD, Director of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, which conducted the work. Dr. Fayad is also Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular, and Interventional Radiology, and Medicine (Cardiology). “Because of the many problems this approach addresses—the risk of rejection, the shortage of organs for transplant, the cost of these procedures—we believe it can be transformative for the organ transplant field.”

Jordi Ochando, PhD

The immunotherapy works by regulating innate immune memory, or trained immunity, which the investigators found to play a central role in organ rejection. In trained immunity, immune cells known as myeloid cells initiate the body’s immune system response by activating T cells, which then attack the transplanted organ.

“By inhibiting trained immunity, we prevent activation of the myeloid cells and their subsequent activation of T cells,” says Jordi Ochando, PhD, the study’s co-senior author, who is Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), Oncological Sciences, and Pathology at the Icahn School of Medicine. “This novel technology preserves the normal function of the T cells, which is to protect the body against cancer and infections.”

Identifying trained immunity as a target enabled the Mount Sinai scientists to focus on a signaling pathway known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which regulates immune cell metabolism. The team developed an injectable nanoimmunotherapy based on high-density lipoprotein (HDL) nanomaterials and the existing mTOR inhibitor rapamycin.

“These nanomaterials essentially deliver the rapamycin to the myeloid cells, and that changes the metabolic state of the cells and prevents their activation,” says co-senior author Willem J.M. Mulder, PhD, Professor of Radiology, and Oncological Sciences at Icahn School of Medicine, and Director of the Nanomedicine Program. The absence of myeloid cell and T cell activation, Dr. Mulder points out, could drastically reduce the need for transplant patients to take lifelong immunosuppressive medicines to prevent graft rejection.

Inaugural Symposium Explores Women’s Health

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | BFWHRI, Engagement, Featured, Research, Women's Health

From left: Lynn Roberts, PhD, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Alumni Relations, City College of New York; Andrea Dunaif, MD; Veerle Bergink, MD, PhD; Laura E. Riley, MD; Elizabeth A. Howell, MD, MPP; Vivian Pinn, MD; Michael Brodman, MD, the Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Lynne Richardson, MD, Vice Chair for Academic, Research, and Community Programs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Susan Domchek, MD, Executive Director, Basser Center for BRCA, Penn Medicine; and Stephanie V. Blank, MD, Director of Gynecologic Oncology, Mount Sinai Health System.

Why are more women than men hospitalized for schizophrenia after age 50? How should a bipolar pregnant woman be medicated? What should the study of women’s health encompass?

These were some of the questions posed recently by leading physician-scientists at the inaugural symposium of The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—“Cutting-Edge Topics in Women’s Health.”

The keynote speaker of the symposium, held in Davis Auditorium, was Vivian Pinn, MD, the first Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She delivered a lesson on the not-so-distant past, saying, “Until the 1990s, most women’s health research was related to the reproductive system or the breasts—what is known as ‘bikini medicine’—and most studies of conditions that affect both men and women were conducted only in men.”

The symposium focused on issues such as equity in research, and health conditions that end women’s lives prematurely or significantly reduce their quality of life.

“These topics are a reflection of the broad research portfolio of The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute and our strong commitment to health equity,” said its founding Director, Elizabeth A. Howell, MD, MPP, Vice Chair of Research and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, and Professor of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine. The Blavatnik Family Foundation in 2018 provided a $10 million gift to establish the Institute and its clinical counterpart, The Blavatnik Family – Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai. Dr. Howell said she is grateful to the family for their generous gift and support of the Institute.

Mental health is one area in which sex differences are clear, said Veerle Bergink, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, Icahn School of Medicine. Dr. Bergink said women are particularly vulnerable during pregnancy, which she and other panelists called a “stress test” that can trigger underlying autoimmune or mental health disorders. Her evidence-based treatment strategy, published in the December 2016 American Journal of Psychiatry, concluded that women who have bipolar disease or previous postpartum psychosis could avoid a relapse if they are treated with lithium soon after delivery.

An important area for further study is schizophrenia in post-menopausal women, Dr. Bergink said. Until age 50, the disorder is more prevalent in men, but there is a sudden turning point after 50 when more women are hospitalized for schizophrenia than men. An “estrogen hypothesis” proposes that the hormone has a protective effect that declines after menopause. “But we know very little about this,” Dr. Bergink said. ”Most of the schizophrenia research over the last 30 years has investigated men, and very little has focused on women.”

Another area for further study is the influence of pregnancy complications on women’s health in later life, said Laura E. Riley, MD, Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Riley said that 7 to 10 percent of pregnant women in the United States are diagnosed with gestational diabetes and up to 9 percent contract preeclampsia, characterized by dangerously high blood pressure. Studies have shown that such complications are associated with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes later in the lives of these women, Dr. Riley said, and there are many medical and behavioral interventions to be explored.

“For those of you looking for research projects, these might be good ones,” she said, “because I don’t think this story is over.”

Attendees received expert grant-writing advice from Andrea Dunaif, MD, Chief of the Hilda and J. Lester Gabrilove Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease, and the Lillian and Henry M. Stratton Professor of Molecular Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine, whose groundbreaking research into diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1985. Dr. Dunaif also addressed more complex challenges, such as adhering to the “sex as a biological variable” policy, which since 2016 has required researchers to factor sex into the design, analysis, and reporting of any study that involves humans or vertebrate animals.

“A little-known fact is that only the males get diabetes in almost all animal models of diabetes. Studies have found that the protection of female sex—both hormonal and chromosomal sex—is powerful,” Dr. Dunaif said. “But that begs the question of why? This is very important scientific question. I’m sure there are many more disease models in which there are major sex differences, and those should be studied.”

Inclusive research is a key legacy of Dr. Pinn, who retired in 2011. The office she led was established in 1990, after four congresswomen called for action on women’s health research. Since then, studies have documented sex differences in the prevalence, age of onset, and severity of autoimmune diseases, depressive disorders, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. “And there is still much to learn,” she said, “about the process of moving from discovery to treatment.”

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