Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a four-year research program, the NYCKidSeq study, that aims to evaluate how genome sequencing can improve health care management by studying the ability to diagnose and treat three areas of childhood disease: inherited neurologic disorders, primary immune deficiencies, and cardiovascular disorders. It is the first clinical study of genome sequencing in children to be supported by a federal grant awarded to Mount Sinai.
“We hope to level the playing field in genomic medicine so that people in Harlem, the Bronx, elsewhere in New York City, and anywhere in the globe can benefit from genomic medicine,” said Eimear Kenny, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at The Charles Bronfman Institute of Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who is the study’s Principal Investigator.
Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, left, led the audience through a complex robotic surgery in 3D that was streamed live at the AUA Annual Meeting.
Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, and Ketan Badani, MD, attracted a standing-room-only audience at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting in May, when the Mount Sinai physicians led a 3D satellite symposium on complex robotic prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer surgeries.
Mount Sinai developed some of the key techniques that were shown at the AUA meeting in Boston. U.S. and international physicians—from 15 countries—wore 3D glasses to view the surgeries and then listened to a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Tewari, Chairman, Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Dr. Badani, Vice Chair of Urology and Robotic Operations at the Mount Sinai Health System.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently opened a new Addiction Institute that will address one of the nation’s greatest health concerns by exploring effective treatments for patients with substance abuse problems.
“Bringing science to bear on the development of new therapies has reached the top of the national agenda, and that is where Mount Sinai excels,” says Yasmin Hurd, PhD, the Ward-Coleman Chair in Translational Neuroscience and Director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai.
The Institute will manage therapies for all types of substance abuse. By removing the traditional silos that separate research and clinical care, and unifying all areas of addiction under one umbrella, Dr. Hurd says the Institute is “well positioned to meet the challenges of New York City and the nation.” The Institute will leverage Mount Sinai’s considerable body of research and clinical expertise in neuroscience and behavioral health in order to move the field forward.
According to the 2016 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health, more than 20 million Americans have substance abuse disorders and 12.5 million reported misusing prescription painkillers. Despite decades of expense and effort focused on a criminal justice-based model for addressing substance-related problems, the report acknowledged that addiction remains a public health crisis with economic consequences in crime, health, and lost productivity totaling more than $400 billion annually. Dr. Hurd says the Institute’s collaboration with Mount Sinai’s other specialties such as precision medicine, population health, infectious disease, epidemiology, and genomics will help advance treatments and novel discoveries.
“The Institute’s modernized structure across a large, integrated health system will enable us to approach addiction in a cohesive way,” says Dr. Hurd. “In addition to prioritizing our research based on clinical needs, we want to understand the populations at risk and their patterns of behavior. Addiction is complex and one group cannot do it alone.”
Yasmin Hurd, PhD
An important aspect of the Institute’s work will be dispelling the stigma associated with addiction through greater understanding of the biological and behavioral complexities of substance use disorders. Another goal will be encouraging young clinicians to enter residencies and fellowships in the fields of addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine.
“We want to train the best and the brightest through enhanced clinical and research rigor to elevate the field,” says Dr. Hurd. “Clinical treatments for some addictions have not advanced in 50 years. This and other stigmas can deter young physicians from going into this field. Unless we improve the clinical toolkit available for clinicians we will not be able to change the trajectory of care.”
Decades of scientific studies have established that chronic substance misuse leads to profound disruptions of brain circuits involved in pleasure, reward, habit formation, stress, and decision-making. Repeated drug use alters the expression of genes to ultimately increase or decrease their production of proteins, leading to long-term changes in cellular function and even reshaping of the physical structure of neurons.
“Drugs can change the morphology of cells and induce a cascade of adverse events in the brain,” says Dr. Hurd. The Institute plans to move forward with multiple clinical trials that seek to reverse those disruptions. “Most addicts do not want to be addicted,” she adds. “Addiction can be treated. We need medical therapies that partner with behavioral therapies, and we need to be diverse in our treatment portfolio.”
A treatment for depression using Emotional Faces Memory Task (EFMT), a technology originally developed by two Mount Sinai researchers, resulted in a significantly greater reduction of major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms compared to a control group, according to initial clinical results presented at the Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Scientific Convention.This treatment was developed at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai by Brian Iacoviello, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry who is Director of Scientific Affairs for Click Therapeutics, and Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Pharmacological Sciences.
The critical developmental windows for the observed discrepancies varied for each element, suggesting that systemic dysregulation of environmental pollutants and dietary elements may serve an important role in ASD. In addition to identifying specific environmental factors that influence risk, the study also pinpointed developmental time periods when elemental dysregulation poses the biggest risk for autism later in life.
‘‘The drug works. It gives you your life back,” says Austin Jacobson. Watch the video
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new biologic drug that is based on seminal research by Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, Professor of Dermatology, and Medicine (Clinical Immunology), at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The drug, dupilumab, was approved in March—fast-tracked because it is a “breakthrough therapy” for adult patients with uncontrolled eczema. “It brings hope to patients who have tried everything.” Dr. Guttman-Yassky says.
One of them is her patient Austin Jacobson, a personal injury defense lawyer in Manhattan. “Living with eczema is like having poison ivy from head to toe,” he says. “You can’t sleep because you’re itching so badly. It affects every single aspect of your life.” Mr. Jacobson took part in clinical trials of the drug, which is injected every two weeks, and still uses it now. He says he felt relief from itching “two hours after taking the first injection.”
Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, Professor of Dermatology, and Medicine (Clinical Immunology), at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
At least 31 million Americans are affected by some form of eczema. The most common type is atopic dermatitis, caused by a combination of genetic, immune and environmental factors. Dupilumab, sold by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals as Dupixent, is an antibody that binds to a protein, IL-4 receptor alfa, inhibiting the inflammatory response that leads to eczema’s rashes and itching. Dr. Guttman-Yassky’s laboratory was the first to map immune pathways underlying eczema, including those now targeted by dupilumab and other drugs in clinical trials.
Her team is among those testing more new therapies, including a drug made by Pfizer Inc. that targets a different immune molecule, interleukin 22 or IL-22. Dr. Guttman’s research was the first to identify the lymphocytes that produce IL-22, and show their link to eczema. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, she designed a study that tested IL-22 antibody targeting in the clinic and in the lab—a treatment that is showing promising preliminary results.
“These are exciting times for patients with eczema, and for me specifically, as I am able to contribute to the scientific development for this disease and help millions of patients worldwide,” Dr. Guttman-Yassky says. “This is a dream come through for a physician-scientist.”
As for Mr. Jacobson, he says that his skin, which had been “100 percent” covered with a scaly, flaking rash, is now largely clear. “The drug works,” he says of dupilumab. “It gives you your life back.”
Dr. Guttman-Yassky has received research funding from Regeneron, and drug and research support from Pfizer, and is working with most companies developing treatments for atopic dermatitis/eczema.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently opened a new Addiction Institute that will address one of the nation’s greatest health concerns by exploring effective treatments for patients with substance abuse problems.
A treatment for depression using Emotional Faces Memory Task (EFMT), a technology originally developed by two Mount Sinai researchers, resulted in a significantly greater reduction of major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms compared to a control group, according to initial clinical results presented at the Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Scientific Convention.This treatment was developed at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai by 
