Dean's Office 

Dennis S. Charney, MD
Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center

As a medical school embedded in a hospital, Mount Sinai School of Medicine has always integrated research and clinical medicine, and our institution's long record of scientific firsts proves the wisdom of this approach. Building on this distinguished legacy, we have expanded our ability to attract the most outstanding undergraduates to our medical and basic science programs, and the most promising and renowned physicians and scientists to our faculty ranks. Mount Sinai graduates, fellows, and post-doctoral students are highly sought after, and are known throughout the world for their scientific expertise, clinical skills, and professional leadership.

It was just five years ago that we unveiled the $2.25 billion strategic plan that laid the foundation for our robust 15-institute structure. These institutes were designed for truly interdisciplinary and nimble translational science, and owing to their success, we have been able to meet our goals in recruitment and in the development of cutting-edge research, clinical, and educational programs. This momentum is also visible in our physical growth: the 550,000-square-foot Center for Science and Medicine at Mount Sinai is on schedule for completion in 2012, and it will supercharge innovation by creating ideal conditions for collaboration among scientists and physicians.

We are now entering the next phase of our strategic plan, one that will allow us to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunities of 21st century biomedicine. In the Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) that we are developing, researchers across the biomedical sciences will work with one major vision in mind: to illuminate new disease targets and the molecules which treat those targets. The CDI team—some of whom will be recruited based on their standing as drug developers and patent-holders—will collaborate with many of our renowned scientists within all of Mount Sinai's disease-focused institutes.

The Center is structured to focus on five areas that represent the most pressing global disease burden: cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurological disorders, immune disorders, and virology/vaccines. To explore these areas in the greatest depth and breadth possible, we will expand the facilities and capabilities of our Experimental Therapeutics Institute in five key areas: small-molecule drug discovery, monoclonal antibodies and purified proteins, high-content screening/RNAi, induced pluripotent stem cell, and systems pharmacology and network analysis facilities. CDI will also partner with industry, both to invite external innovation and to bring major discoveries to market.

Concurrent with—and critical to—this major effort, we have launched an equally ambitious plan to chart a new world course in genomic science and application. Much has been said about the scientific promise within this vast and complex arena, but there are great voids to fill in translational genomics. It is our mandate to fully develop and integrate the bioinformatic, clinical, and educational resources needed to make genomic medicine an everyday reality.

Within this, it is my personal goal to have Mount Sinai's graduates enter their chosen fields as experts in the latest genomic tools and therapeutics available, and as visionaries in the uses that are to come. The ultimate outcome measure of all of our efforts will be whether Mount Sinai's graduates, physicians, and scientists discovered new ways of predicting, diagnosing, preventing, and treating human disease. By working in a seamless, translational environment, I assure you that they will and the results will be awesome.