‘You Represent the Very Best’: Celebrating Mount Sinai’s 2025 Graduating Master’s Students

Updated on Jul 23, 2025 | Featured, School

There were many achievements to celebrate at Mount Sinai’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 2025 Master’s Commencement Ceremony in Stern Auditorium, a lively event of cheers and tears, applause and hugs, that graduated a class of 178 students committed to advancing science, health care, and medicine.

“One of our graduates led groundbreaking research on anti-tumor T cell immunity and published six papers in academic journals, including two as first author,” said Marta Filizola, PhD, who leads the Graduate School as Dean and is the Sharon and Frederick Klingenstein/Nathan Kase, MD Professor of Pharmacological Sciences, and Professor of Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health.

“Another graduate presented innovative research at national conferences on the role of motivation in major depressive disorder. And yet another conducted award-winning studies in skeletal muscle regeneration,” Dr. Filizola said.

“The inventive work of this year’s graduates also includes an artificial intelligence-based craving management tool for cocaine use disorder, and a technology platform for managing symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome,” she continued, listing other achievements. “You represent the very best of what Mount Sinai aspires to cultivate in its students.”

The graduates earned degrees across nine programs: Master of Science in Biomedical Science; Master of Science in Biostatistics; Master of Health Administration; Master of Science in Health Care Delivery Leadership; Master of Science in Biomedical Data Science and AI; Master of Science in Clinical Research; Master of Science in Genetic Counseling; Master of Science in Epidemiology; and Master of Public Health.

From left: Brendan G. Carr, MD, MA, MS; David Sandman, PhD; Marta Filizola, PhD; and Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD.

Brendan G. Carr, MD, MA, MS, Chief Executive Officer and Professor and Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair of the Mount Sinai Health System, greeted the students and their families, faculty, and guests.

“I want to make sure that your family, friends, and loved ones know how important you are to this wonderful ecosystem that is Mount Sinai because our relationships with each other—our connectivity—is a superpower,” he said. “The symbiotic connection between our educational portfolio, our research, and our clinical care is what allows us to transform health care delivery and save lives.”

Dr. Carr continued: “Every part of our whole learns from the others, and we will continue to iterate and to evolve over time. We are a learning health system—ever curious and always pushing the boundaries. That’s what has driven Mount Sinai for over a century: the never-ending search for a better answer, one that unlocks a previously impossible challenge. Academics and clinicians who work together to find new ways to help people live longer, fuller, healthier lives…Thank you for being a critical part of this ecosystem.”

Master’s program graduates celebrate their achievements at the 2025 Commencement Ceremony.

Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Interim Dean and Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, applauded the graduates for their academic achievements and career ambitions. “Your work will be especially meaningful because we are living in a time of unprecedented challenges to science and medicine,” he said.

Dr. Nestler added: “The United States has long been, by far, the world’s leading funder of biomedical research. But suddenly, that research is under assault. New federal research grants this year have been only about half of what we would normally expect. This is especially disappointing because today’s research technologies are more powerful than ever and have the potential—with continued robust funding—to dramatically improve human health over the next decade.

“Biomedical research—funded by the National Institutes of Health [NIH]—has transformed health care, and led to remarkable improvements in life, and life expectancy, for tens of millions of Americans. Consider the treatment of heart disease and stroke. We witnessed a 56 percent decrease in age-adjusted deaths due to heart disease and a 70 percent reduction in deaths due to stroke over the course of my lifetime. This extraordinary improvement in health is directly related to NIH-funded research.”

“Despite these major challenges, I want you to know I am most confident this will be a momentary detour on the path to greater knowledge and better medicine. For the sake of humanity, science must prevail—and it will. Biomedical knowledge will grow. Our ability to treat and prevent disease—and care for patients—will continue to improve.”

Master’s program graduates celebrate their achievements at the 2025 Commencement Ceremony.

David Sandman, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Health Foundation, gave the Commencement address and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree for his lifelong visionary commitment to transforming the health and well-being of New Yorkers and marginalized people in New York and around the globe.

Dr. Sandman reflected on past health crises—including AIDS and the COVID-19 pandemic—and discussed the inequities in health care that remain entrenched in communities today.

“Right now, we are in upper Manhattan, but we can ride just a few subway stops in either direction, and it’s as if you are on different planets, with big differences in health status and life expectancy,” he said. “We have some the best academic medical centers in the world, including Mount Sinai. People come from all over the globe to get care here, but it’s also true that you can live right in the shadow of one of these miraculous places and be almost completely shut out of the health care system.”

Yet, he told the graduates, “I have faith that, together, we will keep fighting for what is right, no matter how strong the current headwinds might be.”

Then, he relayed what he called his “common-sense advice,” telling graduates: “First, dream big. Aim high, but keep your feet on the ground. Do things that are both ambitious and achievable. Second, be fearless, but not reckless—there is a big difference. Third, remember it’s all about people in the end.”

“These are hard times for public health,” he said. “We really need you. We need your brains. We need your creativity. We need your passion, and your compassion. I wish you all great success.”

Student speaker Pamela Ming Ern Toh

Student speaker Pamela Ming Ern Toh, who earned a Master of Science in Biomedical Science, galvanized her classmates.

“You, my friends, are the ones who did the work,” she said. “You are the ones who took the steps, who overcame the challenges. You pursued, and persisted, and, my friends, you prevailed. Look at all the things you know now that you didn’t know before, all the things you can do now that you couldn’t do before.

“Let every problem you have solved be a mark of your creativity. Let every challenge overcome [be] a testament to your resilience. Let every failure [be] a mark of hope and bravery, because you wanted something and took a risk, and learned a lesson.

“Despite the forces against science at the moment, and the injustices we are witnessing every day, I hope we can continue to be moved toward action over apathy, to be guided more by inspiration than fear, to continue showing up for the communities we serve, and to stick around to lift others up, the way we have been lifted up.

“Your futures are bright because of the light inside yourselves,” she said. “Nobody gave you your work ethic; nobody gave you your tenacity. Those traits are yours and they are precious. So when uncertainty makes it hard to know what steps to take, as inventor Simone Giertz said: ‘Remember, you are good at trying hard, and you are good at trying different. And between those two things, there will always be a way forward.’”

Click below for a celebratory slideshow of graduates.

Meet six graduates from Mount Sinai’s master’s programs and learn more about their experiences

Mount Sinai Ranked a Global Leader in Health Care Research

Updated on Jul 2, 2025 | Featured, Research, School

Thomas Marron, MD, PhD, Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (left), and Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, Mount Sinai Professor in Cancer Immunology (right), at an immunology lab with researchers.

Each year, the Nature Index—a database produced by academic publisher Springer Nature that tracks research output—puts out a ranking list of leading institutions, organizations, and corporations with publications in prestigious journals.

In the Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders list released in June, the Mount Sinai Health System earned top marks: among health care institutions in the United States and North America, it was No. 5 for its research output. When compared against health care institutions around the world, Mount Sinai ranked sixth.

“These rankings are a reflection of the spectacular success that we have had in building innovative research programs at Mount Sinai,” said Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System and Interim Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In recent years, the Health System and the Icahn School have launched several new departments, institutes, centers, and programs in key areas of biomedicine and health care delivery, he noted.

The ranking is based on a score that takes into account the number of published papers in a defined list of prestigious journals, as well as contributing authors’ share of the papers. Mount Sinai was the only health care institution among the top 10 to have improved its adjusted share score in this year’s ranking from the previous year.

Who came in top? Click to see the full rankings.

Attaining that ranking is no small feat, considering Mount Sinai researchers focus only on a narrow scope of topics within health and life sciences, and do not produce research in other areas, including engineering, energy sciences, and astronomy.

As U.S. research institutions enter a period of funding uncertainty, staying a leader will take boldness and creativity, and Mount Sinai’s ability to respond with unusual nimbleness to opportunities as they arise will certainly help, said Dr. Nestler. “We have formulated a new strategic plan for research that will guide our continued growth, development, and leadership over the next 5 to 10 years,” he said.

Curious about where Mount Sinai shone in research? Take a look at the tables below, which showcase the journals Mount Sinai researchers had authored most papers in, as well as leading research topics.

Top five journals Mount Sinai published in during 2024
Leading research topics for Mount Sinai in 2024
Number Publication name Article count
1 Nature Communications 96
2 Nature 37
3 Journal of the American College of Cardiology 37
4 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 30
5 Nature Medicine 21
Number Research topic Article count
1 Clinical sciences 165
2 Oncology and carcinogenesis 120
3 Cardiovascular medicine and hematology 85
4 Neurosciences 41
5 Nutrition and dietetics 37

Stories Behind the Science: Dennis S. Charney, MD, and Psychiatry

Updated on Jun 25, 2025 | Featured, Psychiatry, Research, School

Stories Behind the Science: Dennis S. Charney, MD, and Psychiatry

Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, created a legacy by serving as Dean for 18 years—one of the longest tenures of any medical school dean in the United States. His research career has been just as illustrious over the decades.

Rooted in psychiatry, pharmacology, and neurobiology, Dr. Charney’s research has resulted in treatment breakthroughs for depression, enhanced medical and scientific understanding, and led to two U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapies. He has published more than 800 articles, which have been cited more than 198,000 times, according to Google Scholar, and was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine in 2000.

To read more about Dr. Charney’s career timeline, click here

One of his biggest research milestones was discovering that ketamine can be used as a fast-acting antidepressant, offering a useful alternative for patients who do not respond well to conventional therapies. However, pursuing that discovery was not easy amid societal stigma at the time.

“We were looked at like we were pursuing a PCP study or something,” said Dr. Charney, referring to the recreational street drug. “But we knew we had something big on our hands. We were on the verge of discovering something that could change the lives of patients, and we were very motivated. We weren’t scared, and we went about doing it the right way.”

In addition to discovering the antidepressive effects of ketamine, Dr. Charney is known for his work on the science of resilience, and for his role in the first FDA-approved digital therapeutic for depression.

Read more below about the decades of Dr. Charney’s research efforts, and what it was like being at the frontier.

The Beginnings:
A Focus on Bringing
Bench to Bedside

A young Dr. Charney (right) with mentor and collaborator George Heninger, MD (left), photo taken in 1996.

In the early 1980s, working at the Yale School of Medicine in conjunction with the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Dr. Charney was focused on understanding the pathophysiology of serious forms of depression, along with panic and anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“We wanted to develop better treatments for these conditions,” said Dr. Charney.

At the time, the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine were known to be involved in some psychiatric conditions, and Dr. Charney and his team members were developing methods of examining those relationships closely.

“It’s fair to say we developed, at that time, more sophisticated ways of studying those neurotransmitters,” he said, adding, “although they’re probably not considered sophisticated today.”

Those efforts led to the study of yohimbine, an alkaloid of the bark of the yohimbe tree, which revealed that excessive norepinephrine function was involved in panic disorder and PTSD (Arch Gen Psychiatry, 1984, now JAMA Psychiatry).

“That study was a great example of a combination of going from the lab to studying patients,” he said.

While a number of serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors were emerging at the time, Dr. Charney’s findings were showing that targeting these neurotransmitters alone were insufficient to move the needle on treating depression.

“However, I felt that just looking at serotonin and norepinephrine couldn’t tell us the whole story about depression,” said Dr. Charney.

Finding Alternatives: Ketamine and the Glutamate System

Starting in the late 1980s, the treatment of major depression moved toward using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). However, there was still a notable proportion of patients for whom these drugs were not effective enough.

“In patients who were not doing better, we tried to augment the serotonin system,” said Dr. Charney. “It didn’t work.”

“With all the studies we’ve been doing in depression, we thought monoamines told only part of the story in depression,” he noted, referring to the class of neurotransmitters that includes dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. “So we thought maybe there is another system that was, in part, regulated by the monoamines, but would be more fundamentally involved in depression.”

In the early 1990s, Dr. Charney and his collaborator at Yale, John H. Krystal, MD, began looking for a pathway affected by monoamine neurotransmitters, and through a logical progression of studies, focused on the glutamate system and, soon, on ketamine—an anesthetic with known effects on the glutamate system. This work yielded some of Dr. Charney’s top-cited papers (Arch Gen Psych, 1994).

In the mid-1990s, Drs. Charney and Krystal did a series of studies on ketamine, first on healthy volunteers and then a small trial on seven patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). The results were shocking.

“The patients got better in a few hours,” recalled Dr. Charney. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ As an investigator watching it, it was like a miracle.”

Dennis S. Charney, MD (right) with John H. Krystal, MD (left), being awarded the Colvin Prize at the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Gala, November 2019.

Drs. Charney and Krystal published their findings (Biological Psychiatry, 2000), but faced skepticism from both the scientific and general communities. The study was dismissed as not being replicable, and additionally for the fact that the researchers were working with a compound that was stigmatized for its recreational use.

When Dr. Charney went to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 2000, he sought to repeat history. “Nobody believed it, nobody was trying to replicate it, so we’re going to have to do it ourselves at NIMH,” he said. “In the second study, we replicated it dead on.”

At the end of his stint at NIMH in 2004, Dr. Charney brought his findings with him to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now the Icahn School of Medicine), where he began his career as Dean of Research.

Dr. Charney is a named co-inventor on patents filed by Mount Sinai relating to the use of ketamine for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression and suicidal ideation. Mount Sinai licensed those patents to Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the development of SPRAVATO (esketamine) by Janssen, which received FDA approval in 2019. Its approval makes it the first antidepressant of its kind to target N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors—introducing the first new class of antidepressant drugs since the 1950s.

A Prescription for Resilience

In the 1990s, Dr. Charney turned his focus to studying trauma and PTSD, in collaboration with Steven M. Southwick, MD. That journey led to some of Dr. Charney’s most impactful work on understanding resilience.

“My buddy, Steve Southwick, was really involved in that work,” said Dr. Charney of his colleague, who passed away in 2022. “He’s on a lot of my papers, and he became my closest friend.” The ties between the two researchers dated back to before the 1980s.

Drs. Charney and Southwick tackled understanding PTSD from all angles—psychological, biological, social, pharmacological. Then, they had an idea to take their findings a step further to help patients.

“Back then, we thought, ‘If we studied people who were resilient—people who had been traumatized but didn’t develop PTSD—perhaps we could learn something from it, and apply those lessons to help patients with PTSD,” said Dr. Charney. “That’s how I ended up studying resilience for over 30 years.”

Dr. Charney’s paper on resilience (Am. J. Psychiatry, 2004) became one of his most cited works after his publications on ketamine in depression. He and Dr. Southwick then published a book called “Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges” (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

The book, now in its third edition, is rooted in the hundreds of interviews Drs. Charney and Southwick did with people who faced challenges in their lives—including prisoners of war and survivors of sexual and physical abuse. It includes a “prescription” for being resilient—10 steps that people can take to overcome life challenges.

From left to right, Dennis S. Charney, MD; Steven M. Southwick, MD; and John H. Krystal, MD.

“Not just for others—our research on resilience was also a personal journey,” said Dr. Charney. In 2016, Dr. Charney survived being shot, and he credits the lessons on resilience for overcoming that ordeal.

Those resilient factors also helped Dr. Charney navigate the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he established the Center for Stress, Resilience and Personal Growth in 2020 to extend that support to Mount Sinai staff.

Through Boldness,
a New Therapy Emerges

 

In 2024, the FDA approved a new class of treatments: digital therapeutics. In that class was REJOYN, a prescription smartphone app by Click Therapeutics and Otsuka Precision Health for major depressive disorder. That novel treatment had its beginnings through Dr. Charney’s research.

“This goes back to when we were interviewing prisoners of war who were subject to solitary confinement in Vietnam,” said Dr. Charney. “Some of them said that when they were in solitary, all they could do was think.”

A Life Magazine cover from 1967, featuring a prisoner of war from the Vietnam War, whom Drs. Charney and Southwick had interviewed as part of their research on resilience. That body of work eventually led to the development of Rejoyn, a digital app for treating depression.

Over time, some of those individuals reported developing cognitive capacities they never had before, such as being able to do complex multiplication with just their mind. “To me, that suggested evidence of neuroplasticity, where you can change the chemistry and circuits in your brain through repeated tasks,” said Dr. Charney.

With that inspiration, Dr. Charney pondered whether neuroplasticity could be tapped to “correct” the brain circuitry of patients with depression and improve their symptoms.

“We knew something about the circuits of depression that involved the prefrontal cortex and subcortical regions, like the amygdala. What if we developed a task that involved both of those regions?” he said.

Brian Iacoviello, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine, and Dr. Charney developed the Emotional Faces Memory Task and ran two randomized controlled studies. The findings (npj Digital Medicine, 2018) showed that patients who did the task repeatedly had improvements in their depression symptoms.

Drs. Charney and Iacoviello are co-inventors of patents filed by Mount Sinai for the Emotional Faces Memory Task intervention for the treatment of depression and related psychiatric disorders. Mount Sinai licensed the patents to Click Therapeutics, Inc. and Otsuka Precision Health for the development of REJOYN, a digital treatment for depression. REJOYN received FDA clearance in 2024, as the first prescription adjunctive treatment for adults with MDD.

“Like with ketamine for depression, I see going for a digital approach for depression as a story about being bold,” said Dr. Charney. “Each time, it was a realization that our current understanding isn’t enough, and it’s worth it to take a different approach.”

With more than 50 patents, and a slew of scientific achievements, what’s next for Dr. Charney? “Resilience will continue to inspire me after I step down as Dean,” he said.

Dr. Charney steps down as Dean from the Icahn School of Medicine on Monday, June 30, and Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, has been appointed Interim Dean.

“I’m going to need to figure out how to be inspired next. I’m going to continue my research in depression and resilience,” said Dr. Charney. One option that’s underway is working on the fourth edition of his book on resilience. But there might be other bold options out there too.

“I have two therapies on the market,” said Dr. Charney. “My goal is to discover a third. I’m not sure if anyone in psychiatry has ever done that.”

Dennis S. Charney, MD, at Commencement: A Final Address, a Career to Remember

Updated on Jun 25, 2025 | Featured, School

Dennis S. Charney, MD, at Commencement: A Final Address, a Career to Remember

Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, giving the Commencement address

In the 18 years that Dennis S. Charney, MD, has served as the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, he has often applauded the achievements of graduating students during Commencement while calling upon them to be resilient during difficult times.

On Thursday, May 8, at the School’s 56th Commencement, the message of resilience resounded, but this time more aptly so—this was Dr. Charney’s last Commencement speech, and he reflected upon how staying the course in the face of challenges rang true throughout his life and career.

“Our school has faced hurdles along the way,” Dr. Charney told the crowd at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. He described the institution having to overcome its financial difficulties in 2003, navigating the Great Recession in 2008, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“Yes, these are challenges, but we have prevailed in the past. And we shall prevail again,” he said.

In his final address as Dean, Dr. Charney imparted some wisdom to the Class of 2025. Here’s a look at the themes he brought up.

“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal.”

Even as students, the Class of 2025 has made an impact. They have made important scientific discoveries about human disease, been passionate advocates for human rights, and shown potential to be exceptional physicians and scientists, said Dr. Charney.

However, the challenges do not stop once they leave the Icahn School. “You will face situations when you cannot heal a patient, or worse, where you cannot save a patient,” he said. “You will experience disappointment along the way as you try to make scientific breakthroughs. You may even experience skepticism and ridicule.”

Staying resilient in the face of challenges will be key. “What matters is how you meet disappointment and failure—which is far more important than how you embrace success,” said Dr. Charney. “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts,” he said, quoting Winston Churchill.

Keeping the cup full

Core to being resilient is to be kind, and care for oneself, said Dr. Charney.

“You cannot pour from an empty cup,” he noted. “So, I want to remind you to constantly build your resilience skills to keep your cup full.”

Tapping insights from his own research, he shared the following tips: maintain a positive attitude; allow yourself to reappraise highly stressful, even traumatic, events, and put them in proper perspective; nurture your supportive social network; seek role models; take care of your physical well-being; and embrace your personal moral compass.

These mantras have helped him navigate not just professional challenges, but personal ones, said Dr. Charney. These include having lost a grandchild to a rare genetic disorder, surviving an attempted murder, and overcoming cancer.

“Like all of us, life will throw you curveballs,” he said, paraphrasing a quote from Ernest Hemingway. “But I know you will be strong in the broken places.”

Dr. Charney steps down as Dean on Monday, June 30, and was honored for his legacy of leadership at Mount Sinai’s 40th annual Crystal Party, held Tuesday, May 20, at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers. To learn more about the event, click here. Also, in recognition of his contributions, he received an honorary Doctor of Science from the Icahn School of Medicine during Commencement.

Here’s a look at Dr. Charney’s career and highlights, from early medical training to leading the Icahn School to where it is today.

Dennis S. Charney, MD (right), received a Doctor of Science from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He was hooded by Alexander Charney, MD, PhD (second from right), and the honorary degree citation was given by Kenneth L. Davis, MD (second from left). Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD (left), gave the introductions.

Dr. Charney is also well-known for his scientific research. Did you know that he discovered ketamine could be used as a fast-acting antidepressant?

To read more about Dr. Charney’s research highlights, click here

1977

Received MD degree from Penn State College of Medicine

1978-1981

Psychiatry residency at Yale School of Medicine

1981-2000

Rose from Assistant Professor of Psychiatry to tenured Professor of Psychiatry at Yale

2000

Elected as member of the National Academy of Medicine

2000-2004

Chief of the Mood and Anxiety Disorder Research Program and Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Program at the National Institute of Mental Health

2004-2005

Dean of Research at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)

2006-2007

Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine

2007-present

Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center (later the Mount Sinai Health System)

2013-present

President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System

Empowering Education At the Icahn School of Medicine With AI

Updated on Jun 10, 2025 | Featured, School

Active medical and graduate students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, along with some teaching and research faculty, now have comprehensive access to ChatGPT through the School. Compared to free users, they’ll be able to make more complex queries with fewer limits, especially regarding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, and benefit from enhanced privacy protections.

The Icahn School announced, in May, that it has inked an agreement with OpenAI for an educational license—dubbed ChatGPT Edu—of OpenAI’s products. While a number of universities are using ChatGPT Edu, this agreement makes the Icahn School the first medical school partner in the nation, according to OpenAI.

“At Mount Sinai, we believe it’s our responsibility not just to adopt emerging technologies, but to do so with care, purpose, and a strong commitment to equity and academic integrity,” said David C. Thomas, MD, MHPE, Dean for Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine.

“This initiative is the result of a close collaboration between the Scholarly and Research Technologies team, the Department of Medical Education, Graduate School leadership, and OpenAI,” says Marta Filizola, PhD, Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She added that the Levy Library team has developed educational content and workshops to support students, faculty, and staff in effectively using ChatGPT Edu and integrating AI into academic learning, research, and scholarly activities.

What’s contained in this license, and what do those features spell for our users? Read on to learn more.

Access to advanced models

OpenAI offers a range of models to handle different types of tasks. Through the educational license, users can access them via ChatGPT.com. The following bullets describe the models available to Icahn School of Medicine users, and the table below summarizes specifications at a glance. The following information is current as of June 2025, but may change in the future as OpenAI models can change rapidly.

  • GPT-4o: This is OpenAI’s flagship model, the one most consumers are familiar with, and starts up by default on the ChatGPT Edu license. This model of reasoning is grounded in unsupervised learning, and is capable of processing text, images, file uploads, and voice for input and output. Tasks this model is good at include summarizing meetings into actionable notes, drafting copy, proofreading, and coming up with new angles and ideas.
  • GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1-mini: A specialized model for coding and tasks that need precise, step-by-step instructions. This model is helpful for front-end coding, such as developing web applications, debugging, explaining, and improving code, or comparing long reports while focusing on specific factors. The mini version trades off processing capability for speed, and is ideal for people who need quicker answers for simpler problems about coding.
  • The o-series: These are advanced models of reasoning, designed to deliberate and produce a “chain of thought” before generating answers. Its deliberation process is supposed to provide better-quality output, with lower levels of hallucinations. It is described as being “ideal for complex queries requiring multifaceted analysis and whose answers may not be immediately obvious.”
    • o3: With a knowledge base specialization in STEM, this model is suited for advanced math, science, and coding tasks, detailed analysis, devising strategy, and visual reasoning.
    • o4-mini, o4-mini-high: The model to use if one needs the STEM expertise and deliberative reasoning, but quicker answers. The o4-mini model can provide quick summaries of scientific articles or extract key points from an Excel spreadsheet, and the o4-mini-high model is capable of more complex tasks, albeit more narrowly than the o3 model in terms of subject expertise.
  • GPT-4.5: Intended to serve as a bridge between GPT-4o and its eventual successor, GPT-5, this model draws from both unsupervised learning and the “chain of thought” reasoning that the o-series models use. It was touted as being fine-tuned to understand human needs and intents better, and for better collaboration with the user. This model will be phased out later this year, in favor of GPT-4.1, as announced by OpenAI.
Model name GPT-4o GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1-mini o3 o4-mini, o4-mini-high GPT-4.5
Initial launch May 2024 April 2025 January 2025 April 2025 February 2025
Ideal for Everyday tasks, brainstorming, summarizing, search, and creative content Precise coding, close instruction following Complex, multistep tasks, has a specialization in STEM topics Quick queries relating to STEM, programming, or visual data extraction Creative tasks, clear communication, brainstorming
Recency of information (as of March 2025) October 2023 June 2024 December 2024 May 2024 January 2025
Request limits for ChatGPT Edu users Unlimited GPT-4.1: 500/3 hours; GPT-4.1-mini: unlimited 100/week o4-mini: 300/day; o4-mini-high: 100/day 20/week

Privacy, data safety, and ethics guardrails

Personal health information, sensitive information, and student data are safeguarded via a data privacy and business associate agreement between the Icahn School and OpenAI.

This means that no data, prompts, or responses will be used to train OpenAI’s models when using a ChatGPT Edu account through the Icahn School. The guardrails implementation was guided by Research and Education leadership, Cybersecurity, Compliance, and Legal teams, alongside the AI Steering Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Discoveries.

Community sharing of custom-build applications

Users can create customized resources for specific tasks—such as a flash card study guide for biochemistry—known as GPTs. Icahn School of Medicine ChatGPT Edu users can share the GPTs they’ve built on the Explore GPTs community page with other users, as well as access OpenAI’s official GPTs. However, they can’t access GPTs built by public users. This ensures a safe and secure space that supports collaboration while following Mount Sinai’s security standards.

“ChatGPT is just a great way to establish the baseline for what I want to say how I want to approach the patient,” said Joy Jiang, MD/PhD student, about how she used the AI tool during a mock patient simulation exam, in an interview segment on CBS Saturday Morning.

Watch how various students from the Icahn School of Medicine are using ChatGPT to bring their education to the next level in the segment below.

Voices From the Class of 2025 at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Commencement

Updated on May 23, 2025 | Featured, School

After years of medical and scientific learning, Thursday, May 8, was a day the class of 2025 of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai had been waiting for: Commencement. Held at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the ceremony served as a reminder for the graduating students that they had overcome great odds to receive their diplomas.

Many in this class started their education amid great challenges—the COVID-19 pandemic was still going on, noted Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine. And even after they graduate, there will be more challenges to face in residency and postdoctoral training, he said.

The Icahn School granted a total of 173 degrees at the 56th Commencement: 95 MD, 55 PhD, 13 MD/PhD, four MD/MPH, and six MD/MSCR.

“What matters is how you meet disappointment and failure—which is far more important than how you embrace success,” said Dr. Charney. “To thrive, personally and professionally, you will have to accept disappointment and failure, learn from it, and move forward.”

The graduates will also be entering a political climate that has cast uncertainty over scientific progress, said Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, who will become Interim Dean of the Icahn School when Dr. Charney steps down as Dean at the end of June.

“Disease knows no political party—it can strike anyone. As physicians and scientists, our allegiance is to humanity—to apply biomedical research to better understand disease so that we can end suffering, heal patients, and save lives,” said Dr. Nestler. “Science should not be politicized—not by the left, or by the right. Ever.”

The student speakers called upon their graduating class to draw courage as they step into a daunting future, but also to hold compassion for others and themselves.

“As we transition from students to doctors, let’s carry forward not just what we’ve learned, but how we’ve learned to think. The world doesn’t need more impressive credentials; it needs people who can navigate complexity with both intellectual rigor and humanity,” said graduating student Anina Lund, who represented the PhD class.

“And at the crossroads of patient care, we face a question: What kind of doctors will we be?” said graduating student Dorothy Adu-Amankwah, who represented the MD class. “The answer will look different for each of us. But at the core, I hope we choose to be doctors who embrace the gift of listening—because listening is the foundation of healing. And as we listen, may we also speak—and advocate—for those whose voices have been silenced by systems, by structures, and by history.”

In the slideshow below, we’ve gathered the stories of 10 graduating students on why they chose to enter the medical and research profession, and how their time at the Icahn School has shaped them.

DeAnalisa Jones, MD/PhD

Next step: Internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai, in the research track.

Why did you choose to enter your field?
The physician-scientist career path gives me the opportunity to combine my love of math and engineering with my interests in tribal, carceral, and cardiovascular health. My mentors at Mount Sinai are helping me carve out a career for myself that includes all these diverse interests.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
This graduation week has been one of the best weeks of my life. For the first time since I moved to New York City for college in 2011, all four of my siblings and my parents are here visiting at the same time. It has been so fun!

I would like to thank my parents, Donald and Deborah Jones; my siblings, DeAngela, Christopher, DeAnna, and Cameron; and the many friends I’ve made while at Mount Sinai.

Dorothy Adu-Amankwah, MD

Next step: Psychiatry residency at Stanford Medicine.

Why did you choose to enter medicine?
Medicine is where my intellectual curiosity and calling to serve meet. I’ve always felt drawn to healing. As a child, I watched my grandmother, a traditional healer in our community in Ghana, and I would say, “I want to heal people too.” Over time, I found other ways to offer healing—through poetry and creative writing—connecting with others and providing comfort through words. However, I was also very intellectually curious about the human brain and its functionality and I wanted to eventually be in a field of work that was service-oriented, but grounded in inquiry. Medicine felt like a calling from God. It offered space to be curious, compassionate, and impactful. Psychiatry, in particular, allows me to integrate my love for stories, language, curiosity, and service.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
One of my most meaningful memories is from an open mic night during my first year. It was a collaboration between the Academy for Humanities in Medicine, Music in Medicine, and the Med-Peds Interest Group. We organized it to raise funds for an organization supporting individuals reentering society after incarceration.

That night, I saw our Mount Sinai community at its best—coming together around art, advocacy, and mutual support. I felt deeply loved and safe during my performance, and I fell in love all over again with the power of art to connect and heal. It was a moment that affirmed both who I was, who I was becoming, and what mattered to me most.

First and foremost, I would like to thank God for carrying me through these years. I couldn’t have made it without His grace.

I’m forever grateful to my amazing brothers, who sacrificed so much so I could finish college and medical school. And to my friends—truly the best friends in the world—thank you for your love, encouragement, and for lifting me when I was down.

I would like to thank my mentors Jacob Appel, MD; David Heller, MD; and Lauren Linkowski, EdD, and the entire Office of Student Affairs—thank you for your constant support, encouragement, and care. I couldn’t have done this alone. I’ve been surrounded by a village, and I carry their love and wisdom with me as I take the next step.

Anina Lund, PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Neuroscience

Next step: Postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai

Why did you choose to enter your field?
I chose this field because the brain is incredibly complex, and despite all we’ve learned, so many fundamental questions still remain unanswered. Mount Sinai’s collaborative environment, exceptional resources, and strong focus on translating research into real-world impact make it the ideal place to pursue these questions and contribute to meaningful discoveries.

Mount Sinai’s culture is all about collaboration and curiosity. People here really care about pushing science forward and helping each other do their best work

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
It’s hard to pick just one. What really sticks with me is a collection of everyday moments: random conversations in the lab, figuring something out after weeks of troubleshooting, or getting that first glimpse of meaningful results.

I would like to thank my incredible mentors, family, and friends. It wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Jennifer Dias, MD

Next step: Emergency Medicine residency at Mass General Brigham in Boston.

Why did you choose to enter medicine?
I chose to enter medicine because of my cousin, Conner. I’ve always been drawn to the intersection of science, service, and human connection. I wanted to be part of a profession where I could contribute to something bigger than myself. Medicine felt like a calling—one that challenges me intellectually while grounding me in a deep sense of purpose.

I’ve learned that the spirit of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is dynamic, eclectic, and grounded in a legacy of mission-driven care. It has been a place where bold ideas and rigorous science live alongside a commitment to questioning norms and advancing more just models of care. Mount Sinai didn’t just train me in medicine—it helped shape the foundations of my practice. Here, I learned to challenge the status quo, to bring my authentic self into every patient interaction, and to uphold equity and justice, even when doing so is uncomfortable. Mount Sinai’s culture instilled in me the responsibility to provide equitable, evidence-based care and to never lose sight of the humanity before me. It’s a community that taught me to listen with intention and to act with hope.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
There are so many: delivering food and cash grants to East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, being on Good Morning America, assisting in a tracheoesophageal fistula repair for a one-day-old newborn, my annual “surprise” birthday parties in Aron Hall, and presenting my scholarly year work at the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine.

I would like to thank my mom, Maura, and my dad up above, Waltair. My friends and family, both near and far. Many donors and mentors, deans and faculty, including Ellen Seely, MD; Valerie Parkas, MD; David Muller, MD and so many more. The Aron Hall community and staff, members of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Racism and Bias Initiative, Medical Education, as well as the Student and Trainee Mental Health Program and the Financial Aid Office. My patients and my classmates: the most incredible humans who I have had the distinct pleasure of growing with and learning from. To each person who walked alongside me—through challenges, growth, and countless moments of joy—thank you.

Michelle Mediolaza, PhD in Clinical Research

Next step: Exploring career opportunities involving patient-centered research, particularly around chronic immune-mediated conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Why did you choose to enter your field?
I was drawn to the Clinical Research Education Program at Mount Sinai because it offered a robust, hands-on curriculum and focused on turning research into tangible, impactful results to help improve patient outcomes. What really stood out to me was how much the program emphasized collaboration and gave me the opportunity to work across different disciplines, from learning about various clinical trial methodologies and statistical approaches, to applying these concepts to tackle complex and real-world health care issues.

While I’ve always been interested in gastroenterology—in fact my master’s thesis focused on the efficacy of different closure methods for GI perforations and leaks—it’s especially meaningful that Mount Sinai is the very place where Crohn’s disease was first described back in 1932. Since then, Mount Sinai has truly led the way in advancing research and treatment for IBD, including developing breakthroughs that have helped patients better manage their conditions. Being able to study IBD at such a historically significant and impactful clinic has been a true honor and highlight in my PhD journey.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
One memory that will always stay with me is the moment I presented our findings at a national conference and realized the impact our work was beginning to have. The Resilience Scale for IBD (RISE-IBD), which I developed alongside my incredible mentor Laurie Keefer, PhD, was gaining strong enthusiasm from respected researchers in the field. I was deeply moved to learn that two research teams outside of Mount Sinai wanted to use the scale in their upcoming research projects as well. It was one of those rare moments when all the long nights and tribulations felt worth it. That experience was such a powerful reminder that our work truly has the potential to reach researchers and patients across the country.

I would like to thank Dr. Keefer, who has shown so much kindness and grace throughout our journey together. Whenever we faced challenges in our work, she always responded with optimism, and that truly changed the way I approach setbacks. Her positivity helped me understand that it’s okay to fail, pivot, and grow from unexpected trials. Furthermore, she taught me how to face obstacles with resilience and grit. I also want to thank my incredible parents, family, and friends for their unwavering support and constant encouragement throughout these past few years. Without them, I truly wouldn’t have made it this far!

Jack Gomberg, MD

Next step: Neurology residency at Mount Sinai.

Why did you choose to enter medicine?
My first exposure to medicine was as a circus performer in pediatric oncology units. I loved connecting with patients on a personal level but was also drawn to the science and potential to directly improve lives. Every step along the way has reinforced that initial curiosity, and it’s a dream to have come so far.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
I got to bring out my gymnastics wheel—also known as a German wheel—into the Guggenheim Lobby for the admissions music video. Performing in scrubs was a very surreal experience.

I want to thank my wife, Devon, and my mom and dad for getting me through med school. I also want to especially thank my incredible, inspiring, and passionate mentors for their support.

Christos Sazeides, PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Neuroscience

Next step: Working for a pharmaceutical company in Boston as a R&D scientist developing therapies for autoimmune diseases.

Why did you choose to enter your field?
I chose Mount Sinai not just because of the exceptional research that goes on here, but also because of the collaborative environment it offers, not only within the institution itself, but globally as well. For example, we had collaborators based in Spain and Japan. Mount Sinai is a very inclusive institution where everyone is able to be who they are. It fosters a safe space for everyone.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
Truthfully, the relationships I formed with my lab mates. It felt like home. Besides my friends and family, who without their unwavering support, I wouldn’t be able to do this, I do want to thank my PhD mentor, Dusan Bogunovic, PhD, who always pushed me out of my comfort zone and motivated me to go after the work and career that I truly wanted.

Michael Peruggia, MD

Next step: Psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai.

Why did you choose to enter medicine?
For me, it was a particular patient population that drew me in. My sister, Alexa, was diagnosed with autism just before I was born. Growing up, I saw both how the medical setting could be a scary place for her and her friends, and how medicine was pivotal in managing comorbidities, from epilepsy to anxiety. I am excited about the future of the autism field, have had amazing experiences with and mentorship from the Seaver Autism Center team here at Mount Sinai, and I’m endlessly fascinated by the relationship between neurobiology and human expression. I hope to be the kind of doctor that patients with neurodevelopmental disorders feel comfortable with, and families of these patients feel understood by.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
At the end of first year, some people in our class put together a field day in Central Park, where we played games like egg toss and tug of war. I have never laughed harder than I did during the watermelon-eating race, where we had to eat a quarter of a watermelon with our hands held behind our backs.

Medical school isn’t easy, and sometimes life and school can pile on top of each other, too. I owe it all to the friends I’ve had by my side for years and the lifelong friends I’ve made here at Mount Sinai. They kept me grounded and kept me laughing. And I thank my family for their constant love and support and macaroni and meatballs.

Sanan Venkatesh, PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Neuroscience

Next step: Postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai.

Why did you choose to enter your field?
I’m interested in understanding the etiology of neuropsychiatric disease so that we can develop novel therapies and help people find the therapy right for them. I came to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai since they had the best psychiatric genetics department I could find.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
When I went to conferences for the first time after the height of the pandemic. I was recognized by a lot more people than I originally expected, and I realized that, despite not seeing everyone face to face, I had become a member of the scientific community.

I would like to thank my wife, Richa; my cat, Chilli; my parents, and my sister’s family for their support during my graduate studies. I’d also like to thank my mentors, Georgios Voloudakis MD, PhD, and Panos Roussos, MD, PhD, as well as the many other members of the Center for Disease Neurogenomics, without whom my work would not be possible.

Lucy Schultz, MD

Next step: Internal medicine residency at NYU Langone, in the primary care track.

Why did you choose to enter medicine?
I was a middle school teacher for many years through Teach for America. I decided to make the switch from education to pursuing medicine after seeing how much health impacted my students and their families. Conditions like asthma, diabetes, sickle cell, and HIV caused so many challenges for kids and families. I also had loved science and biology since I was a little kid, so medicine had always been this personal dream as well. Now, I really love medicine for a lot of the same reasons I loved teaching: you get to build a lot of relationships and support people through difficult situations.

Describe a memorable experience at Mount Sinai, and who would you like to thank?
I will always remember my time working at our student-run free clinic, East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP). It is such a great experience to work with other students and faculty who believe health care should be accessible for all. At every EHHOP clinic, the hallways are buzzing with volunteers being energized by the mission. I also loved being on the leadership teams and seeing how students really are able to deliver quality care and keep the clinic running.

I want to thank my husband, family, and friends for sticking with me through all the ups and downs. I am also very thankful to the amazing Mount Sinai faculty for their teaching and advice, particularly those involved in EHHOP and the Primary Care Scholars Program. I am grateful to the residents, medical students, and nursing staff who were always willing to help me and answer my questions. Thank you also to our wonderful patients who trusted me to be a part of their care.

Navigate with the arrows to learn more about the Class of 2025 and their time in medical and graduate school.

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