Nineteen individuals from the Mount Sinai Health System were honored for their contributions to research, technology, medicine, and health care at the second annual Mount Sinai Innovation Awards ceremony, which was held on Monday, October 24, in conjunction with the SinaInnovations conference.
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, received the Inventor of the Year Award for his contributions to the field of depression. Dr. Charney’s work, demonstrating that ketamine is a rapidly acting antidepressant, has been hailed as one of the most exciting developments in antidepressant therapy in more than half a century.
Young investigators Roland H. Friedel, PhD, and Nadejda M. Tsankova, MD, PhD, received the Faculty Idea Prize for their strategy to test the Zika virus as a potential treatment for glioblastoma, a fatal brain tumor. Dr. Friedel is Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery; and Dr. Tsankova is Assistant Professor, Pathology, and Neuroscience.
The Dean’s Healthcare System Team Science Award, which acknowledges the importance of interdisciplinary teams in translational research, went to seven investigators who are studying the bacterial profiles of pregnant women with and without inflammatory bowel disease and their newborn babies. The winners were: Jose C. Clemente, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and Medicine; Jean-Frédéric Colombel, MD, Professor, Medicine (Gastroenterology); Jeremiah Faith, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and Medicine (Clinical Immunology); Jianzhong Hu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences; Inga Peter, PhD, Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences; Joanne Stone, MD, Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science; and Joana Torres, MD, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Medicine (Gastroenterology).
Four innovators received the 4D Technology Development Program Award for their projects that use new technology: Sander Houten, PhD, Associate Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences; Sarah J. Miller, PsyD, Assistant Professor, Oncological Sciences; Christopher Strother, MD, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, and Medical Education; and Douglas B. Unis, MD, Associate Professor, Orthopaedics.
A team of five doctoral and medical students who created Multis, a low-cost handheld diagnostic tool that screens for multiple diseases in one test and is designed to reach patients in resource-limited settings, received the Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Q.E.D.) Award. The recipients were Kieran Chacko, Brandon Hogstad, Michela Masi Leone, David Sachs, and Olivia Torre.