Erik Lium, PhD, Executive Vice President, Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, center, presents the Mount Sinai Inventor of the Year Award to Edward Schuchman, PhD, and Calogera Simonaro, PhD
Individuals and teams from the Mount Sinai Health System were honored for significant advances in biomedical research, technology, and medicine at the fifth annual Mount Sinai Innovation Awards ceremony, which was held Monday, October 14, in conjunction with the SinaInnovations conference.
Two faculty members from the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Edward Schuchman, PhD, Professor, and Calogera Simonaro, PhD, Research Professor, received the Mount Sinai Inventor of the Year Award for their discovery of the drug pentosane polysulfate sodium for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), a rare and potentially fatal disease that affects the skeletal system, skin, heart, brain, and other organs. Their work has led to exclusive licenses with Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd, and ReqMed Company, Ltd.
The Mount Sinai Deal of the Year Award for RenalytixAI was given to Barbara Murphy, MD, Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine and Dean for Clinical Integration and Population Health; Steven Coca, DO, Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology); and Girish Nadkarni, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology). RenalytixAI is the first AI-enabled diagnostic for kidney disease to be publicly announced as a Breakthrough Device designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dirk Hubmacher, PhD, Assistant Professor of Orthopedics, and Tim Ahfeldt, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, and Neurology, received the Faculty Idea Prize for their work with disorders that involve dysregulation of the extracellular matrix (ECM).
Seventeen innovators received the 4D Technology Development Program Award for four projects:
- Novel inhibitors via an unexplored epigenetic strategy in cancer treatment: Emily Bernstein, PhD; Robert DeVita, PhD; Chiara Vardabasso, PhD; and Roberto Sanchez, PhD.
- Detachable balloon-sheath microcatheter for improved flow control in transvenous and transarterial liquid embolization: Anthony Costa, PhD; Kurt Yaeger, MD; Thomas Oxley, MD, PhD; Alejandro Berenstein, MD; and Peter Backeris, ME.
- Novel phase-shifting retinal tamponade: Avnish Deobhakta, MD; Richard Rosen, MD; Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH; and Christopher Frenz, PhD.
- Multitasking deep neural nets for improving breast cancer diagnosis from digital screening mammography: Li Shen, PhD; Weiva Sieh, MD, PhD; Laurie R. Margolies, MD; and Joseph H. Rothstein, MS.
The Annual Dean’s Healthcare System Award went to Laurie Keefer, PhD; Ksenia Gorbenko, PhD; Marla C. Dubinsky, MD; Stacy Tse, PharmD; Laura Manning, MPH, RD; and Jordyn Feingold, MAPP, on behalf of the GRITT-IBD Team (Gaining Resilience Through Transitions for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases) and its interdisciplinary collaboration in service of optimal patient care.
Five individuals received Trainee Innovation Idea Awards:
MD student Daniel Ranti: Automated generation of discharge summaries using deep learning.
PhD student Arpit Dave: PatchAid, a possible treatment for vitiligo, a skin disease.
Postdoctoral fellows Eugenie Martineau, PhD, and Enrica Piras, PhD: Vaginal Lactobacillus spray for infants delivered by C-section.
House staff physician Kurt Yaeger, MD: Arteriovenous malformation microcatheter.
Jones Day was the premier sponsor.