Mackenzie Langan Receives a Master of Science in Biomedical Science Degree, Immersing Herself in Research and Gaining New Insights into Brain Disorders

Updated on Jul 8, 2022 | School

As a student at Mount Sinai’s Master of Science in Biomedical Science program, Mackenzie Langan says she had an extraordinary opportunity to join the ultra-high field MRI neuroimaging team led by trailblazing scientist Priti Balchandani, PhD, and use 7 Tesla MRI to image the brain at greater magnet resolution. Ultra-high field MRI—coupled with novel processing pipelines developed in the Balchandani lab—allows Mount Sinai scientists to gain a deeper understanding of neurological diseases in ways never seen before, providing new insights into epilepsy, for example, major depressive disorder, and COVID-19.

“I have had the opportunity to explore MRI research and look at the brain in different ways,” Ms. Langan says. “Here, we use an ultra-high field MRI magnet and advanced contrast and resolution to look at detectable differences that you wouldn’t see at lower MRI magnet strengths—the kind used in a clinical setting. Being able to ask questions about the brain, and image it in really advanced ways, is what’s so alluring about MRI and all the incredible things that you can discover,” explains Ms. Langan. “The possibilities are endless, and that’s what is most exciting for me.” She will continue her MRI research as she pursues her PhD in Biomedical Science at Mount Sinai.

By the time Ms. Langan graduated in June 2022 from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, she could claim a list of remarkable achievements. In April 2022, she was first author of research published in Frontiers in Neurology and is a middle author of a paper accepted to Brain and Behavior. Two abstracts presented at the May 2022 International Society in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine annual meeting in London will likely yield new first-author manuscripts. She also received an award for best poster in the neuroimaging category at the 10th Annual BMEII Symposium, hosted by the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII), part of the Icahn Mount Sinai, and received the Graduate School’s Master of Science in Biomedical Award for Scientific Excellence.

Beyond her coursework and lab work, Ms. Langan is active in the Mount Sinai community, where she is involved in PEERS, a resilience program designed to help students navigate the non-classroom aspects of graduate school, including work-life balance, stress management, and other challenges they may face. Earlier in 2022, she was part of the Icahn Mount Sinai Student WorkForce mobilized during the busiest times of the COVID-19 pandemic to alleviate non-medical staffing shortages caused by staff illness.

Reflecting on the past two years of her studies, she admires the mentors she has had and what she describes as the “incredibly intelligent, hardworking, and passionate” students she has been surrounded by every day. “Mount Sinai has completely changed my life,” she says. “I’ve had a lot of really great mentors and I definitely would not have gotten here without the support of all those people. Everyone is invested in seeing you succeed. And I think that the level of caring is something that has just really blown me away.”

Learn more about Mount Sinai’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Meet other Mount Sinai graduating master’s students who are sharing their experiences and passions

Celebrating Fortitude and Achievement at a Rousing Master’s Commencement Ceremony

Jul 6, 2022 | Featured, School

For the 220 master’s students who had started—and completed—their academic studies at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was an especially joyful in-person graduation at Stern Auditorium on Tuesday, June 21. This was an event that honored much more than degrees—this was a rousing celebration of the Class of 2022, a highly diverse group of students who displayed fortitude, resilience, and altruism as they worked together to achieve their career goals and to serve the Mount Sinai community during unprecedented times.

Click here to meet five of the graduating master’s students and learn more about their experiences and passions

 Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer for Icahn Mount Sinai, greeted the students and guests, saying that two words come to mind when he thinks of this class—grit and optimism. “Grit expresses the idea that a crucial component of success is a person’s ability to pick a goal and stick with it,” said Dr. Nestler. “Grit is interesting because empirical research has shown that it does not correlate with IQ or standardized test scores. Rather, it more closely maps an individual’s conscientiousness to work hard, with scruples and care, and to adapt to new experiences.”

Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, salutes the graduates’ grit and optimism at Master’s Commencement 2022

Dr. Nestler continued: “Optimism may seem like an ephemeral stance in today’s world,” but it “is especially poignant for today’s graduation because each of your master’s degrees…imbue you with the ability to make the world better.” Dr. Nestler is also Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience and Director of The Friedman Brain Institute.

Marta Filizola, PhD, Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, told graduates: “Class of 2022, as I stand here, I applaud your passion, your dedication, and your commitment to hard work. Your experience at the Graduate School has been like no other…Not only have you witnessed history at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai during the COVID-19 pandemic, you have also helped make history with your extraordinary contributions to biomedical research and volunteer work across the Health System.”

Dr. Filizola added: ”We are proud of the diverse group of talented students graduating today, and, now more than ever, we see a need for that diversity in science and health care…You have seen your studies through and added to your growing abilities, and now, when they are needed most, you will be applying your new skills across biomedical and clinical research, data science, genetic counseling, public health, epidemiology, health administration, and health care leadership. We’ve worked together to prepare you to meet some of the greatest challenges these fields have ever faced, and we know you are ready for them.” Dr. Filizola is also the Sharon & Frederick A. Klingenstein/Nathan G. Kase, MD Professor of Pharmacological Sciences,  Professor of Neuroscience, and Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health.

Dean Marta Filizola, PhD, congratulates the graduates at Master’s Commencement 2022

The Commencement address was presented by Torian Easterling, MD, MPH, the first Deputy Commissioner and Chief Equity Officer for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene who was appointed at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Dr. Easterling also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for a career committed to combatting longstanding complex public health disparities that include violence, maternal health outcomes, and chronic disease.

Dr. Easterling received his Master of Public Health degree from Mount Sinai in 2012 and passionately addressed the graduates. “In my role at the Health Department over the last two and a half years, the more public facing part of my job has been to change people’s minds about vaccines,” he said. “But a more longstanding and behind-the-scenes parts of my work involves changing minds, both inside and outside the agency, around public health itself, around equity and why it matters, around why notions like equality and inclusivity and even diversity are insufficient to eliminate inequity and to make the larger changes we need.”

Torian Easterling, MD, MPH, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Equity Officer, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is Commencement Speaker and receives an honorary degree at Master’s Commencement 2022

He added: “Around health inequity in particular, good intentions—without rigorous science and data-informed analysis, a clear-eyed understanding of root systemic causes, and a fierce ideology of purpose matched with boldness of vision—are stultifying…When I’m asked to describe the work I do, I can answer in one word—change, and the work of change comes in three main forms: changing minds, changing lives, and changing society.” He asked each graduate to join “in solidarity, resolving to change the systems that imprison far too many of us, and by never settling for good intentions.”

There are 220 graduates from nine programs: Master of Science in Biomedical Data Science (7); Master of Science in Biostatistics (5); Master of Health Administration (29); Master of Science in Health Care Delivery Leadership (11); Master of Science in Clinical Research (23); Master of Science in Biomedical Science (61); Master of Public Health (62); Master of Science in Genetic Counseling (12); and Master of Science in Epidemiology (10), which graduated its first class.

When the time came for graduates to receive their degrees, it was a boisterous audience that joined in the celebration. Beyond the formal handshakes, and smiles and hugs onstage, graduates could count on robust applause of friends and family, and special shouts of congratulations from all reaches of Stern Auditorium. This is the Class of 2022, of whom Dr. Easterling had said in his Commencement address: “You are not burgeoning health leaders. You’ve been health professionals and heroes for quite some time already. How about a huge round of applause for yourselves?”

 

Scenes From Master’s Commencement 2022

PreviousNext
12345678
Read more about Mount Sinai’s graduating master’s students as they share their experiences and passions
Learn more about Mount Sinai's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Mount Sinai Launches Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine: What Is it and Why Does it Matter?

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Research, School

Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Priti Balchandani, PhD, and Jonathan Dordick, PhD, attend the launch of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine.

The opening of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine (CEPM) brings together biomedical experts from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and engineering experts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under the same roof.

The center, located on the West Side of Manhattan, represents a first in the city that would bring together two areas of research that greatly benefit from joint development: engineering and precision medicine. The center’s co-directors, Priti Balchandani, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai, and Jonathan Dordick, PhD, Institute Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer, explain why this center is a big deal.

What is precision medicine?

Dr. Balchandani: With every patient being unique, diseases can sometimes occur differently across individuals. Precision medicine is a term meant to describe customized health care tailored to a specific group of patients. In order to do that, we need to apply new technologies engineered to understand causes of specific diseases and combine highly precise and sensitive physiological measurements to provide targeted treatment plans.

There are many areas in which precision medicine plays a big part. Cancer is one of them, as are various neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, where having precise tools to measure and integrate different types of patient data is crucial not just to the development of tailored treatment plans, but also for understanding disease mechanisms.

If [engineers] are at the table at every stage of research, they can figure out the best solutions rather than look for what exists out there.

Dr. Jonathan Dordick

Co-Director of CEPM; Institute Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

How have precision medicine and engineering developed in the past?

Dr. Dordick: I wouldn’t say they were siloed, but advancements in either field have sometimes developed alongside each other, or on top of each other, rather than being fully integrated.

For example, devising a therapeutic at a broad level is a traditional path toward patient treatment, but then what are the ways and tools needed to individualize the treatment for an individual patient? How do we scale those methods? Engineering brings in infrastructure, such as using modeling or simulations, as well as broad systems-level expertise that can sometimes help answer those questions.

But there hadn’t really been a case where engineers and biomedical researchers got together to ask those questions from the get-go and figure out what tools might be needed. If they are at the table at every stage of research, they can figure out the best solutions rather than look for what exists out there.

What sort of innovation might this center enable?

Dr. Balchandani: Types of innovations include devices, algorithms, methods, and therapeutics to improve diagnosis, treatment, and surgical care of a wide range of diseases, including neurodegenerative disease, infectious diseases, and cancer.

There will be a mix of basic science and translational work. For example, the basic science work may be focused on revealing disease causes or mechanisms in order to drive new treatments. These preliminary clinical trials are important to establish safety and eventually help treatments receive regulatory approval.

Dr. Dordick: A co-located center in New York City primes us to answer pressing questions. Take COVID-19, for example: Why did some people develop severe disease while others didn’t? What are the mechanisms that lead to long COVID? Through the combined expertise of Rensselaer and Mount Sinai, we hope to learn answers at an individual level about this pandemic, which will make us better prepared for future crises.

I also envision us making strides in improving current therapeutics. Can we devise less invasive techniques for certain treatments? Can we better grow tissue that reduces the risk of rejection? Rensselaer is not a medical school, and through this partnership we’ll be able to know what are the right questions to ask.

Read more about what the new Center will focus on and its future plans

Our hope is that they will be designed with the intention of being tested in clinical trials immediately after development.

Dr. Priti Balchandani

Co-Director of CEPM; Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai

How soon can these innovations reach patients?

Dr. Balchandani: Our hope is that they will be designed with the intention of being tested in clinical trials immediately after development. We will also work with commercial partners to manufacture and deploy the inventions to patients as quickly as possible. We will create a “development lab” within the Center to facilitate this.

New Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine Paves the Way for Two Fields to Work More Closely Together

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

Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Andrew Kimball, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, sign a ceremonial agreement at the launch of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on May 12 announced the opening of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine (CEPM), forming a new venture to bridge engineering and biomedical science expertise between the two organizations.

The center, located at 619 West 54th Street in Manhattan, focuses on three research areas—neuroengineering, immunoengineering, and regenerative and reparative medicine. Its footprint includes spaces for wet and dry laboratories, as well as offices for faculty and researchers.

In addition to research, CEPM will develop a joint PhD in engineering and precision medicine, and ultimately master’s degrees and certificate programs. Enrollment could occur as early as the fall of 2023, said Jonathan Dordick, PhD, Institute Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer and Co-Director of the Center.

The Center is the latest development borne from a partnership between Mount Sinai and Rensselaer—dating to 2013—that has secured more than $70 million in shared research funding. Milestone achievements have included an artificial pancreas system developed by the two institutions and a number of advances in improving treatment and health infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We identified that there was a need in New York City and the state for such a collaboration to be the foundation of a new path of innovation between engineering and precision medicine,” said Priti Balchandani, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai and Co-Director of the Center.

FAST FACTS

  • Project planned since: 2018
  • Footprint: 14,000 usable square feet
  • Faculty size: Mount Sinai and Rensselaer jointly hope to recruit 20 faculty members within five years for the center
  • Planned academic programs: PhD in Engineering and Precision Medicine jointly awarded by Mount Sinai and Rensselaer, master’s programs, and certificate programs in entrepreneurship and other areas relevant to advanced education at the interface of medicine and engineering.

The creation of the Center sets the stage for engineers to consider the needs of biomedical researchers to develop tools, systems, and infrastructure needed to address unanswered questions, Dr. Dordick said. “As a field, we’ve been asking how engineering can play a closer role at each stage of development in biomedical science from bench to bedside.”

Read a Q&A from the leaders of the new Center on how bridging engineering and precision medicine can benefit patients

The Center will also serve as a hub for industry partners and collaborators. Its “Development Labs” will be working with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, the team focused on commercializing innovations from Mount Sinai Health System, on technology transfers with industry partners, as well as fostering the creation of startups, Dr. Balchandani said.

“This partnership with Rensselaer is truly a first where not only are two organizations coming together for research and academic excellence,” she noted, “it is also creating a partnership that will augment translational work in the city.”

Mount Sinai is also growing its presence in the area by building laboratory spaces in a facility on 11th Avenue, adjacent to the Center, for the Mount Sinai West campus.

“Ultimately, the goal is to develop new innovations that will benefit patients,” Dr. Dordick said. “The work at the Center cannot start soon enough.”

Voices From the Class of 2022 at Icahn Mount Sinai’s Commencement

May 25, 2022 | Featured, School

After two years of remote instruction and Zoom meetings, students graduating from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai celebrated their big day in person. The ceremony was held at Carnegie Hall on May 11, and the energy was palpable—masks could not hide the glee that shone through smiling eyes, and family and friends beamed with pride watching the graduates walk and be hooded by faculty and mentors.

Learn about what some graduates from the class of 2022 had to say about their commencement being in person, and what their journey had been like as a student at Mount Sinai and in New York City.

Ayan Hussein, PhD, Neuroscience

Next steps: Weill Cornell Medicine, postdoctoral fellow

“This is a monumental day for me and my family. The vibrant, robust scientific culture at Mount Sinai was influential in shaping and steering me through my research. Even though conducting research during the pandemic was challenging, it helped me cope and escape from the harshness of the pandemic.”

Video Player

Nick Upright, PhD, Neuroscience

Next steps: deciding between four postdoctoral programs in Neuroscience

“It’s surreal having spent six years in a PhD program. There were definitely some lowlights, such as failed experiments and imposter syndrome. But there were just as many highlights. I’ve never had as much excitement defending my thesis, and I’ll always remember that—and the support my friends, faculty mentors, and family gave me at every step of the way. All the help I received throughout my PhD truly allowed me to become the best researcher I could be.”

Video Player

Allison Kann, PhD, Biomedical Science

Next steps: Harvard University, postdoctoral fellow

“I’m so grateful to be done after six long years, and celebrating with friends and family is a really nice way to wrap things up. Seeing everybody here has reminded me how much we’ve relied on each other throughout our PhDs, and finishing the program during a pandemic has just increased that sense of community. I think we’ve all had to be much more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.”

Video Player

Sayeeda Chowdhury, MD, MPH

Next steps: Institute for Family Health/Mount Sinai, residency in Family Medicine

“I feel a sense of relief and also gratefulness toward my family, friends and faculty. I lost my father to Covid, and I grew up in Queens, which had a huge battle with the pandemic. I’m grateful because I now have a clearer sense of my place and how I can play a bigger role in helping my community. This program has given me a clear purpose.”

Video Player

Eziwoma Alibo, MD/PhD

Next steps: Mount Sinai, residency in Surgery

“I’m riding high, and while I’m excited, I know today could have been better for me. My parents couldn’t make it, they are in Nigeria and there were visa and COVID issues, but I have my sister and so many other friends and family here for me. I will say: an MD/PhD program is really hard! There were so many times I wondered if I could do it. But what was really special was the type of people who came to Mount Sinai. They were talented, caring, and we all helped each other through our low times. They were a family we created, and I’ll forever treasure them.”

Video Player

Gabriela Frid, MD

Next steps: Columbia University, residency in OB-GYN

“Like others, a challenge I struggled with during medical school was imposter syndrome. When I got something wrong, I would wonder if it was because of my lack of ability. But my friends believed in me and supported me, as well as my OB-GYN adviser. New York City and Mount Sinai have been the best place for me to train and learn about who I am and want to be.”

Video Player

Axel Epié, MD

Next steps: Mount Sinai, residency in Emergency Medicine

“I’m ecstatic. It’s been an amazing journey. While I expected to make sacrifices to be on this path, my colleagues helped me find a way to pursue a work-life balance that I did not think was possible. I thought to be in this field meant having to give up some of the things I had worked on outside of my work life, but thanks to the support of colleagues and friends, I’m sure this balance will no doubt help me become a better doctor.”

Video Player

Evan Garden, MD

Next steps: Mount Sinai, residency in Urology

“The saying ‘It takes a village’ really applied here to my time at Mount Sinai. Studies were hard but my friends and family showed up for me in many ways. I will always remember how my mom and dad dropped off dinner and made sure I was fed when I got too busy, or how my family and friends checked in on me during the pandemic when we were isolated. It has also made me appreciate the importance of teamwork in medicine. I thought being a doctor was about an individual’s heroic effort, but I learned it was so much about being in a team, with different specialties coming together at all levels.”

Video Player

Stephanie Jeong, MD

Next steps: Mount Sinai, residency in Internal Medicine

“There were so many great people I met at Mount Sinai and everyone really helped and supported each other here. For example, I remember during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of my classmates and I regularly checked in with each other, sent care packages to support each other, and kept each other accountable through board exam study sessions on Zoom. There are many hospitals where you can receive excellent medical training, but the program at Mount Sinai is unique among those, especially having played an essential role at the forefront of the pandemic in New York.”

Video Player

Stephanie Hojsak, MD

Next steps: Mount Sinai, residency in Anesthesiology

“This had been a perfect end. My time in the school had been punctuated by indecision on my specialty. But with the help of my advisers, I feel confident in having found a place where I belong. Being in New York City during the pandemic was a jump start to my career and I was exposed to a level of training that was crucial not just clinically, but also for my empathy for patients.”

Video Player
PreviousNext
12345678910

Medical Student Takes Detour to Understand the Potential of Artificial Intelligence

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | School

Interrupting your fourth-year medical studies is a bold decision. But that’s what Gabriel Marx did, immersing himself in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) through the Master of Science in Biomedical Data Science (MSBDS) program at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Mr. Marx is working with Mount Sinai’s Neuropathology Brain Bank and Research CoRE and the Crary Lab on AI-based computer vision algorithms that use digitized brain slides to enhance understanding of neurodegenerative disease and aging. For his master’s thesis, he created a novel model that predicts a person’s age based on a post-mortem slide section of the individual’s hippocampus, an area of the brain important for memory yet vulnerable to the effects of aging and Alzheimer’s disease. John F. Crary, MD, PhD, is Director of the Neuropathology Brain Bank and Research CoRE, and Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine; and Neuroscience.

“I envision myself becoming an ambassador between the clinical side and the engineers and technicians who are on the development side, or even developing tools myself. Either way, my goal is to be on the forefront of harnessing AI for the benefit of dementia patients.”

Mr. Marx then applied this model on a cohort of deceased professional athletes with confirmed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease caused by repetitive concussions. He found that these athletes’ brains exhibited marked accelerating aging. “These athletes who passed away in their 60’s had brains that looked like they belonged to a 90-year- old,” he says. “This is some of the first quantitative evidence that repeated concussions can cause your brain to age faster.”

In continuing his research, Mr. Marx plans to use this model to discover genes and other environmental factors that either accelerate or protect against the effects of aging in the brain. Mr. Marx is also working with Mount Sinai researchers on a project that uses sophisticated AI models to look at digitized slides and determine the areas of the brain that are most predictive of cognitive impairment. Areas of interest include white matter and the vasculature. “The whole scientific community is still in a place of discovery regarding dementia and neurodegenerative disease,” he says. “Tools like these can form the foundation for effective treatments by advancing our understanding of what is going on in the brain.”

After earning his MSBDS, anticipated in spring 2022, Mr. Marx will return to the medical school where he is pursuing his MD.

Mr. Marx intends to specialize in cognitive impairment and neurological disease and sees AI playing a key role in his efforts to advance therapeutic treatment. “I envision myself becoming an ambassador between the clinical side and the engineers and technicians who are on the development side, or even developing tools myself,” he says. “Either way, my goal is to be on the forefront of harnessing AI for the benefit of dementia patients.”

Read more student stories
Read more about Mount Sinai’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Pin It on Pinterest