Barbara Murphy, MD, Chair of the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was a featured speaker at the May 2018 graduation ceremony of her alma mater, the School of Medicine of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
During the event, Dr. Murphy—a pioneering nephrologist and immunology researcher, the Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine, and Dean for Clinical Integration and Population Health, at the Icahn School of Medicine—received a prestigious Honorary Doctorate Degree from RCSI, an award she found particularly gratifying. RCSI is based in Dublin, her hometown. Dr. Murphy was one of three siblings who graduated from RCSI with a medical degree, and her parents were again in the audience cheering her on.
“It was a chance to look back and see what pieces of advice I would have given myself as a graduate 29 years ago,” she said. Her advice was straightforward. “Do not be afraid to stand up and take risks for the good of your patients,” Dr. Murphy told the 283 graduates, who came from 29 countries. “You cannot have an impact if you live in the shadows afraid to fail or afraid of upsetting others. Success is not about abstracts, papers, awards, or titles. It is about having a positive impact on the lives of others, about meaningful change.”
Dr. Murphy discussed a highlight of her career, her work as a young physician at Mount Sinai in 1997, where she helped establish the feasibility of performing kidney transplants on patients with HIV, which is the standard of care today.
“We were still in the midst of the AIDS crisis, patients had staggering mortality rates and were socially ostracized,” she said. “I had met precisely two people affected by HIV prior to arriving in New York, and was now faced with many otherwise ‘healthy’ HIV patients who had no hope of getting off dialysis.” She and a small group of other researchers from eight U.S. medical centers—with support from the National Institutes of Health—found a clear scientific rationale for moving forward with transplants.
“We faced resistance,” she said, “and were even verbally abused and insulted by people who did not look at patient suffering, the science, or the data, but rather felt it was their right to pass moral judgment on people with HIV, and that there was a moral hierarchy when it came to allocation of donor kidneys.” Interestingly, she added, “Two weeks ago we received an email from one of our patients who was in that trial thanking us on his 15th renal transplant birthday!”
During medical school, Dr. Murphy said she planned on becoming a full-time clinician, not a researcher, and that the field of genomics research did not exist. “You cannot predict the circumstances, opportunities, discoveries that will occur that will change your lives,” she told the audience. “The question is, will you step forward and run with it when opportunity comes your way, or will you choose the status quo?”
Recently, Dr. Murphy took on an additional leadership role as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of RenalytixAI, Plc. RenalytixAI has partnered with the Mount Sinai Health System to create a novel artificial intelligence-based platform, KidneyTrack™, that predicts a patient’s risk for progressive chronic kidney disease.
Girish N. Nadkarni, MD, left, and Steven G. Coca, DO
Steven G. Coca, DO, and Girish N. Nadkarni, MD, nephrologists in the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Health System, have invented an artificial intelligence-based prognostic scoring system that is designed to identify patients at high risk for developing progressive kidney disease.
The pioneering product, KidneyTrack™, will enable medical professionals to intervene early in a patient’s disease cycle when treatment is most effective, before kidney disease advances to kidney failure, which requires dialysis. KidneyTrack combines data from the electronic medical record, with genetic information and novel blood biomarkers, and is paired with suggestions for optimized preventive treatment and management options for patients, particularly those at early stages of kidney disease.
To commercialize KidneyTrack, Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, in collaboration with Drs. Coca and Nadkarni, entered into a partnership agreement with RenalytixAI, Plc. The partnership will leverage Mount Sinai’s data warehouse, which contains more than 3 million patient health records and 43,000 patient records in its BioMe™ Biobank repository. KidneyTrack, which will enable clinicians to continuously monitor and identify patients in the Mount Sinai Health System who are at risk for progressive kidney disease and dialysis, will be tested for its clinical utility in a multicenter study beginning in mid-2019.
Barbara Murphy, MD, Chair of the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will serve as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of RenalytixAI. Along with Drs. Coca and Nadkarni, Judy H. Cho, MD, Director of the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, and John Cijiang He, MD, PhD, Chief, Division of Nephrology, also will serve on the Scientific Advisory Board.
Diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of kidney failure. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that the United States spends approximately $34 billion to treat kidney failure. The National Kidney Foundation reports more than 500,000 patients are being treated with dialysis for the disease.
“There is a general lack of awareness on the part of patients and health care providers regarding chronic kidney disease and there hasn’t been enough focus on and resources in preventing it,” says Dr. Coca, Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Both the providers and the patients themselves will receive updates on their risk score generated by KidneyTrack, which will serve to increase awareness and motivation for behavioral change and management strategies.”
Adds Dr. Nadkarni, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Clinical Director of the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, “Using comprehensive data from so many patients will make a difference in people’s lives. Now we can look at associations and relationships that were not possible before at this scale and change the paradigm.”
Initially, KidneyTrack will focus on patients with type 2 diabetes and those of African ancestry. Data generated from this will potentially be useful in analyzing other groups of patients at risk for progressive kidney disease.
“This new technology has the potential to help patients with renal disease on a global basis and may support the development of additional applications for monitoring individuals with other chronic diseases,” says Erik Lium, PhD, Executive Vice President of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners.
The third episode of Mount Sinai Future You features a 22-year-old man from Idaho with a rare facial tumor called a lymphangioma. Following two dozen unsuccessful surgeries, he sought treatment from Gregory Levitin, MD, Director of Vascular Birthmarks and Malformations at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, and one of the only surgeons in the country with expertise resecting these types of tumors.
Mount Sinai Future You, which highlights innovation at Mount Sinai, is being broadcast on CUNY TV, the non-commercial educational-access cable channel run by The City University of New York.
Mount Sinai Future You takes viewers behind the scenes as doctors at Mount Sinai Health System leverage innovative science to change patients’ lives every day. The series highlights preventative care and treatment models that will lead to better health and longer lives.
Mount Sinai Future You, Episode Three, also features:
An interview with Paula Klein, MD, Medical Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Trials and Charles Shapiro, MD, Director of Translational Breast Cancer Research, on new technologies allowing breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to keep their hair during treatment and the latest research allowing many early-stage breast cancer patients to avoid using chemotherapy.
David Stark, MD, Director of Lab 100, discusses the hybrid clinic-research lab that is leveraging data from physical fitness and cognitive tests to help doctors obtain a more comprehensive health assessment of their patients.
Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, Associate Director of Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and Joel Dudley, PhD, Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare, discover a link between strains of the herpes virus and Alzheimer’s disease.
Kevin Costa, PhD, Director of Cardiovascular Cell and Tissue Engineering, shares the latest research on stem cells that are engineered to create new heart cells.
New episodes of Mount Sinai Future You will run monthly, in the first week of each month, on Wednesdays at 9:30 pm, Thursdays at 6:30 am and 5 pm, and Saturdays at 11 am. They will cover newsworthy topics in medicine, as well as highlight new treatments, innovations, and preventive care for patients. The series is produced by Mount Sinai.
Here is where you can find this series:
Cable System
CUNY TV Channel
Spectrum
75
Cablevision
75
Optimum Brooklyn
75
RCN Cable
77
Verizon FiOS
30
*Some RCN digital cable and MMDS systems carry CUNY TV and/or NYC TV on different channel numbers. For example, some RCN systems in Manhattan and Queens carry CUNY TV on channel 24, 106 or 108. Please consult your cable provider directly to be sure.
Speaker Trisha Meili discussed coming to terms with brain injury.
The Friedman Brain Institute (FBI) in May cosponsored a program with the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine that focused attention on the little-known and -discussed incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in women. CTE is a neurotrauma-associated neurodegenerative condition that is most often found in males who are professional athletes and soldiers.
The program, held in Goldwurm Auditorium and hosted in conjunction with the nonprofit organization Pink Concussions, addressed the lack of research on CTE in women and highlighted its prevalence among females who sustain head trauma each year as a result of sports injuries, accidents, domestic violence, or military duty.
In his opening remarks, Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said, “We know that lack of knowledge and an inability to treat brain injury in women and girls is a major gap in the medical profession.”
Pink Concussions founder Katherine Price Snedaker, LCSW, said she began researching the subject of brain injury when one of her sons sustained five concussions from playing sports. After hearing from the mothers of daughters who were also repeatedly experiencing them, she created a support group, which ultimately led to the establishment of Pink Concussions in 2013.
Dara Dickstein, PhD, an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine and a co-organizer of the event, presented research she is conducting that involves neuroimaging and the use of biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis of CTE during life. Currently, the only way CTE can be definitely diagnosed is through postmortem brain analysis at autopsy. Dr. Dickstein is studying the potential efficacy of an experimental radioactive tracer that binds to tau (proteins that build up in the brains of CTE sufferers) and shows up on PET scans, to help diagnose the condition during life.
At the Mount Sinai event, Yelena Goldin, PhD, Staff Neuropsychologist at Hackensack Meridian Health in Edison, N.J., explained that after reviewing thousands of studies on outcomes of traumatic brain injury, her team could find only 54 that factored sex and gender into their analyses. Additionally, Dr. Goldin said, there was no follow-up medical literature on female athletes in high school and college six months after they had recovered and were medically cleared to return to their sports.
One of the program’s speakers, a woman who experienced injuries to her head as a result of domestic violence, said the lack of medical or scientific research left her confused about her subsequent health problems, including menstrual issues, forgetfulness, depression, and anxiety. “At the time,” she said, “the only advice I got was that I would probably get some migraines.”
Kristen Dams-O’Connor, PhD, Director of the Brain Injury Research Center at the Mount Sinai Health System and a co-organizer of the event, said recent studies from her group have not revealed any connection between traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease, although they did find damage to small blood vessels and the presence of Lewy bodies—abnormal deposits of protein, which are implicated in Parkinson’s disease.
Plenary speaker Trisha Meili said the lack of a definitive link between TBI and Alzheimer’s was welcome news to her. In April 1989, Ms. Meili, a young investment banker, survived a brutal attack while jogging in Central Park. The attack—which included a life-threatening blow to her head—made headlines around the world.
During the program, Ms. Meili discussed her recovery and her life today. “Mentally, I will never be the same as I was before the brain injury,” she said. “Acknowledging this to myself, needless to say, is not a great feeling. But in another way, it gives me peace. I can live with it. I accept it. It’s a giant step in my healing.”
Erik Lium, PhD, center, with Yiannis Ioannou, PhD, left, and Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH.
More than 100 researchers, venture capital firms, and entrepreneurs attended the launch event at Davis Auditorium on Thursday, April 12, for the Mount Sinai Innovation Partners accelerator fund that will provide commercial and business-development support to advance research discoveries that have great potential to help patients on a global scale.
The i3 Asset Accelerator (“innovation,” “inflection,” and “impact”) was established with an initial investment of $10 million over four years and additional philanthropic support, and is already funding two initial projects that aim to develop promising drug candidates for cancer and therapies for influenza B viral infections.
“Mount Sinai is making a major commitment to this initiative to ensure that we are bringing Mount Sinai discoveries to life,” 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, told the audience.
“The i3 Asset Accelerator is very important to us. It’s what we’re all about, translating great science and helping our patients.” With an advisory team of more than 40 scientists, business professionals, and commercialization experts, i3 provides funding and mentorship to advance nascent Mount Sinai technologies that will create partnerships and rapidly develop data that will reach the patient population. “i3 is the next step in engaging with the members of our life sciences innovation community, building upon our translational competencies, and evolving our commercial ecosystem to create major breakthroughs in health care,” said Erik Lium, PhD, Executive Vice President, Mount Sinai Innovation Partners.
The event also included a discussion on health care technology and the importance of i3, which was moderated by Dr. Lium and included Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai panelists Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, Professor of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai; and Yiannis Ioannou, PhD, Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences.
The second episode of Mount Sinai Future You features a patient who suffered an intracerebral hemorrhage, one of the most devastating forms of stroke, and who shares his miraculous recovery after neurosurgeons saved his life using a new surgical technique called “SCUBA.” J Mocco, MD, MS, Director of the Cerebrovascular Center, and Christopher Kellner, MD, Director of the Intracerebral Hemorrhage Program, discuss the procedure.
Mount Sinai Future You, which highlights innovation at Mount Sinai, is being broadcast on CUNY TV, the non-commercial educational-access cable channel run by The City University of New York.
Mount Sinai Future You takes viewers behind the scenes as doctors at Mount Sinai Health System leverage innovative science to change patients’ lives every day. The series highlights preventative care and treatment models that will lead to better health and longer lives.
Mount Sinai Future You, Episode II, also features:
An interview with Roger Hajjar, MD, Arthur and Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, about how gene therapy could one day treat heart disease.
Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart, and Samin Sharma, MD, Director of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology, give an elderly patient a second chance at life with a minimally invasive heart procedure.
Researchers from the Departments of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Medicine discuss the most updated science and the importance of raising awareness of and knowledge about traumatic brain injuries and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in women.
Rachel Yehuda, PhD, Director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division, shares the latest research and clinical trials to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Janine Flory, PhD, Director of the PTSD Clinic at the Bronx VA Medical Center, provides insight on the link between traumatic brain injury and PTSD.
Hyunsuk Suh, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, is offering patients a scarless robotic surgery for thyroidectomies.
The parents of a toddler share their emotional journey after their son’s challenging start in life due to a heart defect.
New episodes of Mount Sinai Future You will run monthly, in the first week of each month, on Wednesdays at 9:30 pm, Thursdays at 6:30 am and 5 pm, and Saturdays at 11 am. They will cover newsworthy topics in medicine, as well as highlight new treatments, innovations, and preventive care for patients. The series is produced by Mount Sinai.
Here is where you can find this series:
Cable System
CUNY TV Channel
Spectrum
75
Cablevision
75
Optimum Brooklyn
75
RCN Cable
77
Verizon FiOS
30
*Some RCN digital cable and MMDS systems carry CUNY TV and/or NYC TV on different channel numbers. For example, some RCN systems in Manhattan and Queens carry CUNY TV on channel 24, 106 or 108. Please consult your cable provider directly to be sure.
