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Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Included in List of Most Influential in 2018

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research

Two publications from researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been included in an annual listing of the most influential research publications.

The two publications were included in the annual Altmetric Top 100, which highlights research published in 2018 that has generated significant international online attention and discussion in forums including post-publication peer-review sites, public policy documents, the media, blogs, and social media platforms.

The two publications included in the list are:

“Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues,” which was published in March in Scientific Reports. It was ranked number 14 on the list.
“Multiscale Analysis of Independent Alzheimer’s Cohorts Finds Disruption of Molecular, Genetic, and Clinical Networks by Human Herpesvirus,” which was published in June in Neuron. It was ranked number 74 on the list.

Altmetric, which is based in London, tracks and analyzes the online activity around scholarly literature. The firm collates what people are saying about published research outputs in scholarly and non-scholarly forums like the mainstream media, policy documents, social networks, and blogs to provide a more robust picture of the influence and reach of scholarly work.

Altmetric works with some of the biggest publishers, funders, and institutions around the world to deliver this data in an accessible and reliable format.

$43 Million Grant for Study of Environmental Effects on Children’s Health

Nov 5, 2018 | Featured, Research

Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH, and Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been awarded a $43 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their work in a sweeping five-year research program called Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). The national ECHO study aims to evaluate how a range of environmental factors, also known as the exposome, affect health during childhood, adolescence, and the transition into adulthood. At Mount Sinai, this work builds on the expertise and resources of the Institute for Exposomic Research, which is co-directed by two international leaders in the field, Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH, Horace W. Goldsmith Professor of Pediatrics, and Dean for Translational Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine; and Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH, Professor and Ethel H. Wise Chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health.

“Exposomic research is changing the way medicine is practiced by finally addressing the largely unstudied role that our environment plays in our health—and doing so on the grandest possible scale,” says Dr. Robert Wright. In the ECHO program, institutions across the nation will study up to 50,000 families, investigating the influence of environmental exposures on four key areas: perinatal outcomes such as preterm birth; child growth and obesity; respiratory disorders; and neurobehavioral and cognitive difficulties that may affect social and academic functioning in the longer term. The Wrights are principal investigators of a regional ECHO consortium, including sites in New York City, Boston, and Virginia, that will study 5,000 women and children, measuring the exposome across their diverse ethnic backgrounds.

“Synergistic programs”

Mount Sinai has also received two related NIH grants, for a total of $19.4 million, that fund its participation in the Children’s Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR) program, which is designed to support ECHO. One CHEAR grant funds a Laboratory Hub, led by Dr. Robert Wright, which analyzes environmental chemicals, metabolites, hormones, and other factors. The other supports the Data Repository, Analysis, and Science Center, led by Susan Teitelbaum, PhD, Professor, Environmental Medicine and Public Health, which conducts big data analysis. Across the nation, there are six CHEAR laboratory hubs, and one data center, at Mount Sinai. “ECHO and CHEAR are naturally synergistic programs,” says Dr. Robert Wright. “CHEAR will run exposomic assays on samples collected by ECHO that can identify thousands of chemicals to which children are exposed, and can systematically study which are toxic, which are harmless, and which are beneficial.”

In 2016, Mount Sinai won a large NIH grant during the development phase of ECHO, and since then Dr. Robert Wright and Dr. Rosalind Wright have been part of a select national committee that has shaped the program. Now they are helping set protocols for the researchers who will follow up with mothers and children at multiple stages of life—collecting samples of blood, urine, hair, saliva, and placental tissue, and gathering data on birth weight, preterm birth, growth, cognitive development, and lung development.

Informing better health

One overarching goal of the ECHO study is “solution-oriented research,” Dr. Rosalind Wright says. “We are not just looking for risk factors, we are also measuring factors that might be protective and build resilience. For example, there is evidence that higher intake of antioxidants such as vitamin C and anti-inflammatory fatty acids, like omega-3 fish oils, can buffer the effects of stress and other toxins. We are now looking at the effect of diet on exposure to air pollution and chemical toxicities,” she says. “People in the ECHO program are really excited—we are all in this because we want our research to inform better health.”

National Cancer Institute Leader Visits Mount Sinai

Nov 5, 2018 | Cancer, Community, Featured, Research

From left: Luis M. Isola, MD, Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology), and Pediatrics; Ramon Parsons, MD, PhD, Director, The Tisch Cancer Institute; Norman E. Sharpless, MD, Director, National Cancer Institute; and William Oh, MD, Deputy Director, The Tisch Cancer Institute, and Associate Director of Clinical & Translational Research for the Institute.

Aging is one of the greatest risk factors for developing cancer, which is most frequently diagnosed among people aged 65-74. But there are no simple explanations for the “multifaceted” science behind this connection, according to Norman E. Sharpless, MD, Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

On Thursday, September 13, Dr. Sharpless addressed the topic in a seminar titled “The Dynamic Interplay between Cancer and Aging,” which he presented before a standing-room-only crowd in Davis Auditorium on The Mount Sinai Hospital campus. Dr. Sharpless has devoted much of his career to studying the connection between cancer and aging. Developing a better understanding of this relationship is particularly important, he said, because people over the age of 65 make up the fastest growing segment of the nation’s population.

Dr. Sharpless was invited to speak about his own research by The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he spent the earlier part of the day meeting with leaders of the Institute and medical school. He had lunch with postdoctoral fellows and students who work in Mount Sinai’s cancer-focused laboratories, and met with faculty and staff who oversee Mount Sinai’s Cancer Center Support Grant. The grant provides Mount Sinai with its NCI designation as one of an elite group of U.S. institutions committed to the research and treatment of cancer.

During the day’s meetings, Dr. Sharpless shared his vision for NCI programs and discussed trends in funding and cancer research. The Tisch Cancer Institute received its NCI designation for the fi rst time in 2015 and is preparing to renew the competitive grant in 2019. Since his appointment to the NCI in 2017, Dr. Sharpless has spent time visiting NCI-designated cancer centers around the country. On his recent trip to New York City, he also visited the Albert Einstein Cancer Center.

“New Heights” of Achievement Marked at Convocation

Oct 22, 2018 | Community, Featured, Research

Dennis S. Charney, MD, delivered the State of the School Address.

A sense of accomplishment pervaded the 2018 Convocation Ceremony, which honored 13 renowned faculty members and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The event, held on Thursday, October 4, marked the beginning of the academic year and featured the annual State of the School Address by 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.

“We are reaching new heights,” Dr. Charney said as he welcomed the honorees, their families and friends, faculty, staff , and Mount Sinai benefactors who filled Goldwurm Auditorium. “We have never had more endowed chairs than we are awarding tonight, which I think speaks for the health of our medical school and our Health System.” The honorees received named professorships in fields including computational biology, genetics and genomic sciences, personalized medicine, palliative care, geriatrics, therapeutics discovery, ophthalmology, and neuroscience.

Among its many accomplishments, Dr. Charney said, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai received $348.5 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in fiscal year 2018—a 9.4 percent increase over the prior year—ranking the school No. 12 in the nation. “We also rank No. 4 in research dollars per investigator, which means our individual faculty are among the best in the country,” Dr. Charney said, citing figures from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The School of Medicine has the largest Graduate Medical Education program in the nation, with more than 2,500 residents and fellows. Its master’s and PhD programs are growing in size and quality, and Mount Sinai is launching a biomedical data science program, “which is consistent with our overall commitment to be one of the best places in the country, if not the world, in genomic and data science,” Dr. Charney said. The matriculating class of medical students has a median grade point average of 3.84 (out of 4.0), and the Flex Med admissions program helped make it a well-rounded group. “We are always looking to recruit students who represent the spectrum of talents in America,” he said, “whether they major in humanities or hard science or have experience in the military.”

Among other high points:

Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, which translates research findings into health care products and services, generated 211 patents, 144 inventions, and 53 new licenses and options for the use of research. In addition, the new i3 Asset Accelerator funded four start-up projects based on Mount Sinai research, with seven proposals now under review.

The Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice—the largest in the nation—had 7.8 percent higher revenues compared with 2017, and the number of calls to its Access Center rose to 3.48 million in 2018 from 2.67 million in 2017.

Mount Sinai, for the second consecutive year, was ranked No. 1 by DiversityInc magazine among hospitals and health care systems in the nation for excellence in diversity management and best practices. In addition, the Patricia S. Levinson Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs marked its 20th anniversary.

The Office of Well-Being and Resilience, led by Jonathan A. Ripp, MD, MPH, Senior Associate Dean, was created to support the well-being of students, staff, and faculty.

Mount Sinai launched an online series of articles in partnership with Scientific American Custom Media that marks the 50th anniversary of the Icahn School of Medicine and takes a sweeping look at research and innovation fueling the next generation of treatments.

Looking ahead, Dr. Charney said, “Our guiding principles are to take advantage of the size and excellence of our Health System, to have unrivaled excellence in our medical and graduate education, and to anticipate new areas of research. We developed a strategic plan in 2017, and we are now implementing that plan in 2018.” The latest initiatives include renovation at 3 East 101st Street that will create a 45,000-square-foot facility for data science and technology. In a comprehensive capital campaign, the Mount Sinai Health System is seeking to raise $1.5 billion or more to fund projects, including a Life Science Center at 102nd Street and Madison Avenue.

Among its research priorities, the School of Medicine is advancing immunology by exploring therapies that target cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and brain disorders. It also is making a major investment in precision medicine. “This is a big initiative of the NIH,” Dr. Charney said, “and Mount Sinai will lead the way” with the advantages of a large and diverse patient population and expertise in genomics, big data, supercomputing, and bioinformatics.

Marta Filizola, PhD, left, the Sharon and Frederick Klingenstein/ Nathan Kase, MD Professor, and Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, with Terry A. Krulwich, PhD, a pioneering predecessor in both roles.

Dr. Charney took a moment to recognize a “legendary leader,” Terry A. Krulwich, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacological Sciences, and Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences from 1981 to 2002—one of the first women in the nation to fill this role. Dr. Krulwich, who recently retired, was a mentor and role model, and a groundbreaking bacteriologist who was continuously funded by the NIH for 40 years. Dr. Charney thanked her for decades of service to Mount Sinai, and she was acknowledged with lasting applause.

“I think we can be very proud of what the School of Medicine has become in just 50 years,” said Peter W. May, Chairman, Boards of Trustees, Mount Sinai Health System. “It is one of the nation’s top medical schools, in which we are training bright, creative, and innovative doctors. But we are also engaged in great medical research that generates new insights, diagnostics, and treatments.”

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, noted these achievements and also urged the honorees to keep in sight the school’s core values, such as putting patients first, serving everyone who needs care regardless of their ability to pay, collaborating in the lab, and making discoveries that improve the lives of patients. “Fifty years ago, when I came to Mount Sinai as a medical student, I came to be a physician-scientist,” Dr. Davis said. “But the longer I have been here, the more I realized that my job was not just writing papers. It was not just getting millions of dollars in grants. It was about what would be left behind, what was lasting. My job was to be a steward of this institution—of its legacy and its heritage. That was my responsibility, and now it is yours.”

The Convocation Honorees

Front row, from left: Amy S. Kelley, MD, MSHS; Jian Jin, PhD; Ethylin Wang Jabs, MD; Marta Filizola, PhD; Kenneth S. Boockvar, MD, MS; Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD; and Dennis S. Charney, MD. Back row, from left: Paul A. Slesinger, PhD; Eric Schadt, PhD; Rachel Saunders-Pullman, MD, MPH, MS; Richard B. Rosen, MD; Adam A. Margolin, PhD; Ruth Loos, PhD; Andrew B. Leibowitz, MD; and Peter W. May.

Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD, Mount Sinai Professor in Psychiatric Epigenomics

Kenneth S. Boockvar, MD, MS, Anna A. Greenwall Professor of Geriatrics and Adult Development

Marta Filizola, PhD, Sharon and Frederick Klingenstein/Nathan Kase, MD Professorship

Ethylin Wang Jabs, MD, Mount Sinai Professor in Developmental Genetics

Jian Jin, PhD, Mount Sinai Professor in Therapeutics Discovery

Amy S. Kelley, MD, MSHS, Hermann Merkin Professor in Palliative Care

Andrew B. Leibowitz, MD, Mount Sinai Professor in Perioperative Care

Ruth Loos, PhD, Charles Bronfman Professor in Personalized Medicine

Adam A. Margolin, PhD, Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences

Richard B. Rosen, MD, Belinda Bingham Pierce and Gerald G. Pierce, MD Distinguished Chair of Ophthalmology

Rachel Saunders-Pullman, MD, MPH, MS, Bachmann-Strauss Professor

Eric Schadt, PhD, Mount Sinai Professor in Predictive Health and Computational Biology

Paul A. Slesinger, PhD, Lillian and Henry M. Stratton Professor of Neuroscience

Advancing Research for Alzheimer’s Disease

Oct 22, 2018 | Community, Research

Ana C. Pereira, MD, with Christopher Smith, Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Association, New York City Chapter, left, and Keith Fargo, PhD, Director of Scientific Programs and Outreach, Alzheimer’s Association.

Two physician-scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have each received a 2019 Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant of approximately $150,000 over the next three years for their respective research projects.

Ana C. Pereira, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, and Neuroscience, is studying the molecular profiling of glutamate and tau-mediated toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease. Andrew Varga, MD, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine). He is investigating the effect of chronic sleep disruption on brain tau phosphorylation spread.

The Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant program, which funds early-career researchers who have received their doctoral degrees or completed their residency within the past 10 years, aims to nurture a robust pipeline of fresh ideas while laying the groundwork for future grant applications.

Reprogramming Retina Cells to Restore Vision

Updated on Oct 8, 2018 | Featured, Research

From left: Postdoctoral Fellows Xinzheng Guo, PhD, and Ye Xie, PhD, with Bo Chen, PhD.

A team of researchers, led by Bo Chen, PhD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has reversed congenital blindness in mice by changing the supportive Müller glia cells in the retina into functional rod photoreceptors—light-sensitive cells in the retina that signal the brain when activated.

The breakthrough research, published online in the August 15, 2018, issue of Nature, is expected to advance efforts toward retinal regeneration for diseases of the eye, such as age-related macular degeneration, degenerative glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa.

Funded in part by the National Eye Institute (NEI), an arm of the National Institutes of Health, the study drew praise from NEI Program Director Thomas N. Greenwell, PhD. “This is the first report of scientists reprogramming Müller glia to become functional rod photoreceptors in the mammalian retina,” says Dr. Greenwell. “Rods allow us to see in low light, but they may also help preserve cone photoreceptors, which are important for color vision and high visual acuity. Cones tend to die in later-stage eye diseases. If rods can be regenerated from inside the eye, this might be a strategy for treating diseases of the eye that affect photoreceptors.”

Macro view of retinal stem cells in the process of division.

Scientists have long studied the regenerative potential of Müller glia cells because in species such as zebrafish, they divide in response to injury and can turn into photoreceptors and other retinal neurons. In the lab, scientists have coaxed mammalian Müller glia to behave as they do in the fish, but not without injuring the tissue. Since injured tissue is counterproductive to restoring vision, Dr. Chen’s lab was able to achieve an effective method of achieving both goals, something others could not.

In pursuing this novel gene-transfer therapy, Dr. Chen, who is also Director of the Ocular Stem Cell Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and his investigators followed a two-stage process. First, they demonstrated that Müller glia cells could be spurred to divide in mice by injecting their eyes with a gene to turn on a protein called beta-catenin. Then, weeks later, the mice were injected with transcription factors Otx2, Crx, and Nrl that encouraged the newly divided cells to develop into rod photoreceptors.

The investigators were encouraged to find that the newly formed cells looked structurally no different from real photoreceptors, and that synaptic structures that allow the rods to communicate with other types of neurons within the retina had also formed.

When the researchers took another step forward by testing the treatment in congenitally blind mice that were born without functional rod photoreceptors, the results were positive once again. The light responses recorded from retinal ganglion cells—neurons that carry signals from photoreceptors to the brain—and measurements of brain activity confirmed that the newly formed rods were integrating into the visual pathway circuitry, from the retina to the primary visual cortex in the brain.

“Our findings underscore that we are closer than ever to developing new therapies for people with severe degenerative eye disease,” says Dr. Chen. “Mice that were blind from birth were now able to see light for the first time following treatment.”

Dr. Chen says his next step will be determining whether the technique works on cultured human retinal tissue. In addition to receiving NIH funding, Dr. Chen’s research was supported by a $2 million grant from the McGraw Family Foundation.