For the first time in its 47-year history, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America has awarded all three of its 2014 annual scientific achievement awards to research and academic luminaries at the Mount Sinai Health System.
“It seems quite fitting that they all are from Mount Sinai, where Crohn’s disease was first described by Dr. Burrill B. Crohn, a Mount Sinai physician, together with his Mount Sinai colleagues, Drs. Leon Ginzburg and Gordon Oppenheimer, and where groundbreaking research and treatment for Crohn’s continues today,” says Marjorie Merrick, Vice President of Research Special Projects at Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. The Foundation was created in 1967 at Mount Sinai, and among its founders was Henry D. Janowitz, MD, a world-renowned physician and educator and longtime Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, which now bears his name.
The Henry D. Janowitz Lifetime Achievement Award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) was granted to David B. Sachar, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director Emeritus of the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Sachar contributed to the development of oral rehydration therapy, known as one of the most significant medical advances of the twentieth century, and was instrumental in laying the foundation for the current international classification of Crohn’s disease.
The Foundation’s Scientific Achievement in IBD Clinical Research award was granted to Jean-Frédéric Colombel, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Mount Sinai. Dr. Colombel is the former president of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization, and past chair of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and is one of the world’s most prominent IBD researchers, having published or co-published more than 600 articles and books on the disease.
The Scientific Achievement in Basic IBD Research distinction was awarded to Judy H. Cho, MD, Ward-Coleman Chair in Translational Genetics, Vice Chair for Translational Genetics, Associate Chief of Research in the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology, and Director of CePORTED at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Cho, the first female to win the award, has identified many of the first genes associated with Crohn’s disease.
“These awards recognize not only their profound individual contributions to this area, but also Mount Sinai’s ongoing contributions to understanding these complex and difficult diseases,” says Bruce E. Sands, MD, Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology.