Celebrating Mount Sinai’s 2022 Administrative Fellowship Graduates

Sep 2, 2022 | Uncategorized

Stories Behind the Science: A New Way Forward With Food Allergies

A clinical trial helped a young boy overcome his peanut allergy, and the research team is gearing up for next steps

‘You Represent the Very Best’

Celebrating Mount Sinai’s 2025 Graduating Master’s Students

A Final Address

At Commencement, Dennis S. Charney, MD, reflects on a career to remember

Voices From the Class of 2025

Students reflect on Commencement Day at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

A Homecoming for a Mount Sinai Nurse and COVID-19 Patient

A retired nurse returns to the intensive care unit where she worked for many years and later received lifesaving care

COVID-19 Five Years Later: Reflecting. Learning. Advancing.

How Mount Sinai Health System responded to the lessons learned from the pandemic

Five Years Post-Pandemic: Here’s What We’ve Learned About Long COVID

David Putrino, PhD, explains how the work of physicians and researchers at Mount Sinai is helping patients

Expanding Services for the Community

New Mount Sinai Express Care-Queens offers expert care in a specially designed facility

Stories of Excellence

Highlighting the people at Mount Sinai and their extraordinary work on behalf of our patients

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

,

Medical humanities is the field that examines the intersection of art and humanities with medicine, and on September 18, 2025, the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hosted the inaugural Two-Minute Talks in Medical Humanities. Members of the Mount Sinai Health System presented various topics that they were passionate about, showcasing their interests outside just the medical field.

read more

Rising Above the Health Toll of Racism

Jun 21, 2022 | Uncategorized

Stories Behind the Science: A New Way Forward With Food Allergies

A clinical trial helped a young boy overcome his peanut allergy, and the research team is gearing up for next steps

‘You Represent the Very Best’

Celebrating Mount Sinai’s 2025 Graduating Master’s Students

A Final Address

At Commencement, Dennis S. Charney, MD, reflects on a career to remember

Voices From the Class of 2025

Students reflect on Commencement Day at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

A Homecoming for a Mount Sinai Nurse and COVID-19 Patient

A retired nurse returns to the intensive care unit where she worked for many years and later received lifesaving care

COVID-19 Five Years Later: Reflecting. Learning. Advancing.

How Mount Sinai Health System responded to the lessons learned from the pandemic

Five Years Post-Pandemic: Here’s What We’ve Learned About Long COVID

David Putrino, PhD, explains how the work of physicians and researchers at Mount Sinai is helping patients

Expanding Services for the Community

New Mount Sinai Express Care-Queens offers expert care in a specially designed facility

Stories of Excellence

Highlighting the people at Mount Sinai and their extraordinary work on behalf of our patients

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

,

Medical humanities is the field that examines the intersection of art and humanities with medicine, and on September 18, 2025, the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hosted the inaugural Two-Minute Talks in Medical Humanities. Members of the Mount Sinai Health System presented various topics that they were passionate about, showcasing their interests outside just the medical field.

read more

Phillips School of Nursing Announces Scholarship for Students From Underrepresented Groups

Oct 21, 2021 | Uncategorized

Stories Behind the Science: A New Way Forward With Food Allergies

A clinical trial helped a young boy overcome his peanut allergy, and the research team is gearing up for next steps

‘You Represent the Very Best’

Celebrating Mount Sinai’s 2025 Graduating Master’s Students

A Final Address

At Commencement, Dennis S. Charney, MD, reflects on a career to remember

Voices From the Class of 2025

Students reflect on Commencement Day at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

A Homecoming for a Mount Sinai Nurse and COVID-19 Patient

A retired nurse returns to the intensive care unit where she worked for many years and later received lifesaving care

COVID-19 Five Years Later: Reflecting. Learning. Advancing.

How Mount Sinai Health System responded to the lessons learned from the pandemic

Five Years Post-Pandemic: Here’s What We’ve Learned About Long COVID

David Putrino, PhD, explains how the work of physicians and researchers at Mount Sinai is helping patients

Expanding Services for the Community

New Mount Sinai Express Care-Queens offers expert care in a specially designed facility

Stories of Excellence

Highlighting the people at Mount Sinai and their extraordinary work on behalf of our patients

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

,

Medical humanities is the field that examines the intersection of art and humanities with medicine, and on September 18, 2025, the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hosted the inaugural Two-Minute Talks in Medical Humanities. Members of the Mount Sinai Health System presented various topics that they were passionate about, showcasing their interests outside just the medical field.

read more

Mount Sinai Neuroscience Student Earns NIH Fellowship to Study Substance Use Disorders

Oct 21, 2021 | Uncategorized

Katherine Meckel

Can the bacteria in your gut influence addictive behavior? That is the question that Katherine Meckel is studying and trying to answer. Currently a fifth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Ms. Meckel is one of 31 young scientists from across the country to be honored with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award.

The award will provide Ms. Meckel with a six-year, $447,000 fellowship to fund the remaining two years of her PhD studies, as well as four years of postdoctoral research. The D-SPAN Award recognizes outstanding trainees from historically underrepresented communities in the sciences.

Working in the lab of Drew D. Kiraly, MD, PhD, Ms. Meckel is drawing upon her background in gastroenterology and neuropharmacology to study the effects of the gut microbiome on gene expression and behavior in a rodent model of cocaine use disorder.

“When we look at human patients and also animal models of substance use disorders, we see highly altered gene expression in response to cocaine and other drugs of abuse,” she explains. “This seems to emerge from long-term adaptations or ‘molecular scars’ which affect the ability of gene sequences in the DNA to be accessed and expressed. My work seeks to understand how gut bacteria and the metabolites they produce regulate the structure and accessibility of the DNA, influencing gene expression and ultimately drug-seeking behaviors.”

Dr. Kiraly, her dissertation advisor, praises her tenacity in establishing a new line of research within the field of neuroscience. “Katherine has generated a tremendous amount of exciting data, which provides insight into the mechanisms of gut-brain communication,” says Dr. Kiraly, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and Neuroscience, at Icahn Mount Sinai. “Her work holds potential to uncover novel pathways for drug development, which may one day lead to much-needed treatments for patients with substance use disorders.”

Trusting Her Gut Intuition

As an undergraduate, Ms. Meckel pursued a rigorous five-year dual degree program in Voice Performance and Biochemistry at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. There, she conducted neuropharmacology research under Bruce Hetzler, PhD, studying the effects of methylphenidate (Ritalin) on rodent behavior and visual processing.

After graduating, she joined the Section of Gastroenterology at the University of Chicago, working under Joel Pekow, MD, and Marc Bissonnette, MD, to study the effects of diet and metabolism on inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer.

Ms. Meckel credits her time in gastroenterology for encouraging a more integrative physiological approach, which now informs her studies. “Often times in neuroscience, we study the brain in isolation,” she says. “But it’s important to consider that the brain exists in communication with the other peripheral organs throughout the body, and they influence each other’s activity.”

Building Community for Students With Disabilities

Ms. Meckel has also emerged as a leader in disability rights since joining Icahn Mount Sinai. Together with classmates Jessica Pintado Silva and Marisa Goff, she co-founded Disability Rights, Education, and Awareness at Mount Sinai (DREAMS), which provides peer mentoring and support to graduate students with visible and invisible disabilities.

“As a queer, disabled individual, I often compare living with invisible chronic illness to ‘being in the closet.’ If you didn’t know me well, you probably wouldn’t realize I am disabled,” she says. “But much of my life outside of lab is characterized by managing chronic health flares.”

Ms. Meckel expressed gratitude to her advisors and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for supporting her training. “I hope that my experience inspires disabled and chronically ill trainees to continue in the sciences,” she says. “So we can share our unique perspectives and bring new innovation to STEM.”

 

Occupational Therapist Provides Inspiration and Expert Care

Oct 8, 2021 | Stories of Excellence, Uncategorized

Lea Tsao, MS, CSRS

The Rehabilitation Department at Mount Sinai West would like to highlight Lea Tsao, MS, CSRS, an occupational therapist who works on our inpatient unit and on the acute medical floors.

When Lea started working with us, she was immediately dedicated to patients, willing to learn, and eager to help. She has a track record for going above and beyond for her patients, giving them not only excellent care but in difficult moments giving heartfelt words of encouragement that could inspire anyone else in the room listening.

Lea has been involved in several challenging cases, but we’d especially like to acknowledge her role in helping a patient who had a complex clinical presentation and a limited support system. Over several months, Lea remained an advocate for his functional progress and for the goal of getting him home.  She advocated for interdisciplinary communication, family involvement, and comprehensive care. Her consistency allowed for the continuity of care we strive for as health care providers to best meet the individual needs of our patients.

Without a doubt, this patient also benefitted from the care of numerous physical therapists, including Caitlin Counihan, Victor Rhee, and Erika Chason. Many of them worked to bring the patient’s mobility closer and closer toward functional independence.

We are very lucky to have a team of dedicated therapists and good human beings.

 

A Celebration of Mount Sinai’s Administrative Fellows

Sep 22, 2021 | Uncategorized

Stories Behind the Science: A New Way Forward With Food Allergies

A clinical trial helped a young boy overcome his peanut allergy, and the research team is gearing up for next steps

‘You Represent the Very Best’

Celebrating Mount Sinai’s 2025 Graduating Master’s Students

A Final Address

At Commencement, Dennis S. Charney, MD, reflects on a career to remember

Voices From the Class of 2025

Students reflect on Commencement Day at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

A Homecoming for a Mount Sinai Nurse and COVID-19 Patient

A retired nurse returns to the intensive care unit where she worked for many years and later received lifesaving care

COVID-19 Five Years Later: Reflecting. Learning. Advancing.

How Mount Sinai Health System responded to the lessons learned from the pandemic

Five Years Post-Pandemic: Here’s What We’ve Learned About Long COVID

David Putrino, PhD, explains how the work of physicians and researchers at Mount Sinai is helping patients

Expanding Services for the Community

New Mount Sinai Express Care-Queens offers expert care in a specially designed facility

Stories of Excellence

Highlighting the people at Mount Sinai and their extraordinary work on behalf of our patients

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

Beyond the Scalpel, Learning About Humanities in Medicine

,

Medical humanities is the field that examines the intersection of art and humanities with medicine, and on September 18, 2025, the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hosted the inaugural Two-Minute Talks in Medical Humanities. Members of the Mount Sinai Health System presented various topics that they were passionate about, showcasing their interests outside just the medical field.

read more