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.
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.
| 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 |