The agreement was signed by, from left: Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System; Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, Dean of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine; and Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Stony Brook University School of Medicine have entered into an affiliation agreement that will build on a shared “culture of innovation” to enrich academic medicine programs and pursue breakthroughs in treating and understanding disease.
“Mount Sinai and Stony Brook bring unique strengths to this partnership,” says Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “Together we are committed to finding new ways to enhance academics and clinical care.”
The most important advantage of the affiliation, which was signed on Thursday, August 11, is that the two institutions complement each other so well, says Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of The Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“Mount Sinai is one of the largest health systems and research institutions in the world, yet we are a free-standing medical center. Stony Brook Medical School is part of a large university with world-renowned programs in the physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science,” Dr. Nestler says. “There are numerous areas where the combined strengths of our faculty will enable new directions for research and education on both campuses.”
Dr. Nestler says a Request for Applications, which provides an initial $400,000 to fund pilot projects across the institutions, has been released to both faculties.
The affiliation is overseen by Dr. Nestler and Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System. At Stony Brook, the lead will be taken by Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and Lina Obeid, MD, Dean for Research and Vice Dean for Scientific Affairs.
The new relationship with Stony Brook is in the same spirit as the successful affiliation that Mount Sinai formed in 2013 with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). “We have learned through our successful relationship with Rensselaer the power of aligning great institutions that have complementary strengths in order to synergize collaborative success,” says Scott Friedman, MD, Fishberg Professor of Medicine and Dean for Therapeutic Discovery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
In that affiliation, Mount Sinai and RPI jointly participate in major institutional grants, including the Children’s Health Exposure Analysis Resource. The institutions share educational programs and coursework in experimental design and entrepreneurship, and they hold joint biannual scientific symposia, including an upcoming program focused on the interface between cancer biology and technology, taking place on Tuesday, September 20, from noon – 5 pm, at Davis Auditorium.
In the new affiliation, Mount Sinai and Stony Brook will develop joint graduate and medical educational programs, building on the master’s and doctoral programs at each institution. Students will have the opportunity to take classes on both campuses, allowing them to learn new techniques and expand their learning capacity. Mount Sinai and Stony Brook will also build summer programs for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students.
“The partnership will revolutionize medical research by combining expertise from both premier medical schools,” Dr. Charney says. “Both institutions are committed to a culture of innovation in research and education, and we look forward to working with Stony Brook to help make exciting breakthroughs in health care.”