Raymond Schinazi, PhD
Scientists whose revolutionary treatments have cured millions of people with hepatitis C and restored sight to patients with a rare form of blindness were among keynote speakers at the seventh annual SinaInnovations conference, held in Stern Auditorium during two consecutive days in October.
Innovation in science and medicine was the theme of this year’s SinaInnovations conference. The event highlighted the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s commitment to groundbreaking research and concluded its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration.
“This conference exemplifies Mount Sinai’s mission to produce the great translational research that improves the lives of our patients through innovation and entrepreneurship,” 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, said as he opened the event.
Katherine A. High, MD
Keynote speaker Raymond Schinazi, PhD, Director of the Center for AIDS Research at the Emory University School of Medicine, spoke about his part in developing an antiviral treatment for hepatitis C that has had a 96 percent cure rate and is considered to be one of the greatest successes in modern medicine. Dr. Schinazi also helped develop TRUVADA for PrEP®, a prophylactic drug that enables people to protect themselves before coming into contact with HIV-1. His next priority, he said, will be developing a cure for hepatitis B, which affects 400 million people worldwide. “We can do this,” Dr. Schinazi said.
Katherine A. High, MD, President of Spark Therapeutics, spoke about development of a gene therapy for hemophilia and the creation of LUXTURNA™, a treatment for a rare form of blindness caused by a defective gene. Spark Therapeutics’ LUXTURNA is now the first gene therapy for an inherited disease to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Commission.
Sri Madabushi, PhD
The conference also featured a session on the promise of data-driven innovation that included Sri Madabushi, PhD, Business Development Director of Google AI Healthcare; and Eric Dishman, Director of the All of Us Research Program of the National Institutes of Health. All of Us is seeking to enroll more than 1 million Americans who will share their personal health data with researchers and clinicians who are advancing precision medicine.
Mr. Dishman said his personal experience is emblematic of the program’s goals. For 23 years, he battled a rare form of kidney cancer, enduring 57 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Seven years ago, when he was near death, he had his genome sequenced, and physicians used that data to identify a pancreatic cancer drug that eradicated his disease. “Here I was, a wealthy, college-educated man who knows CEOs and senators, and I barely got access to precision medicine—at the 11th hour. What about everyone else?”
Access to quality health care was the focus of the final session at SinaInnovations. Kelly J. Kelleher, MD, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Public Health at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said that years ago, Nationwide became troubled by economic and health care disparities in a nearby neighborhood. “Some of our patients came from one of the areas most affected by violence, homelessness, drug addiction, and infant mortality, and I was offering a little bit of amoxicillin for ear infections,” Dr. Kelleher said. “This was unacceptable.” He said Nationwide has adopted a “neighborhood as patient” philosophy, working to incentivize doctors to keep patients healthy, support efforts to build affordable housing, and create job-training programs in the underserved community.
At the conclusion of SinaInnovations, conference leader Scott L. Friedman, MD, Dean for Therapeutic Discovery and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine, summed up the event’s overarching message of innovation.
“We are a great medical school working to fulfill great ambitions,” he said. “This conference was intended to reflect upon the history of our 50 years as a medical school and project into our future.”
A panel on Caring for the Community Through the Lifespan with, from left: R. Shaun Morrison, MD; Nina A. Bickell, MD; Nathan Goldstein, MD; Elizabeth Howell, MD; John Steever, MD; David Blumenthal, MD; Kelly J. Kelleher, MD; and Angela Diaz, MD, PhD.