Overview

New Director of the Transplant Immunology Research Program

Peter S. Heeger, M.D. will join the Mount Sinai faculty on September 1 as the new Director of the Transplant Immunology Research Program and Professor of Medicine within the Division of Nephrology. In this new position, he will build a comprehensive translational research program in transplant immunology. He comes to Mount Sinai from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Lerner Research Institute where he was Co-Director of the Transplantation Research Program and Associate Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University. His research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular immunologic events involved in rejection and tolerance of allogeneic organ grafts.

New Director for New Biostatistics Core in the Department of Medicine

Mark Woodward, M.S.c, Ph.D., will be joining the Department of Medicine on October 1 as Director of the new Biostatistics Core. He will develop the infrastructure and processes to support the overall biostatistical needs of the department including: biostatistical, epidemiological, and analytical expertise in study design, grant preparation, and data analysis for the basic science and clinical research enterprise.

Research Highlights

Bridge Funding

With the NIH confronting its first budget decrease since 1970, maintaining grant funding will become increasingly challenging. To assist talented investigators through this difficult budgeting period, the Department of Medicine has developed a bridge funding plan. An RFA will be sent out later this summer for grants of up to $75,000/year for Department of Medicine researchers who have submitted new or competing renewal NIH RO1 grant applications and received IRG summary statements, but were not funded. Young investigators at the end of startup or K awardees nearing end of K award and established investigators with one or two RO1s trying to renew one or both grants will be eligible for this funding. Investigators must have a critique from a recent grant application that conveys reasonable expectation that a revised application will be competitive for funding. A panel of senior, funded investigators will select the recipients.

National Research Service Award

Donald Haas, M.D. has been awarded a National Research Service Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study medication adherence in depressed coronary patients.

Mary E. Klotman, M.D. elected to Association of American Physicians

Mary E. Klotman, M.D. was elected to membership in the Association of American Physicians. Each year, 55 individuals are elected to membership in the AAP in recognition of their achievements in the pursuit of medical knowledge, and the advancement through experimentation and discovery of basic and clinical science and their application to clinical medicine. Dr. Klotman joins fellow Mount Sinai Department of Medicine faculty Terry F. Davies, M.D., Scott L. Friedman, M.D., Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., James F. Holland, M.D., Paul E. Klotman, M.D., Derek LeRoith, M.D., Ph.D., Lloyd F. Mayer, M.D., Yale Nemerson, M.D., and Mone Zaidi, M.D., Ph.D. in membership in the AAP.

U.S. News & World Report Rankings

Mount Sinai School of Medicine ranked 22nd out of 126 medical schools nationwide in the 2009-2010 U.S. News & World Report rankings of best graduate schools.

In the 2009-2010 U.S. U.S. News & World Report Hospitals report, The Mount Sinai Hospital ranked 7th in the nation in digestive disorders.

Mount Sinai ranked 14 in the nation in educational programs for AIDS in the 2006 U.S. News World Report rankings of best graduate schools. In the best hospitals rankings, The Mount Sinai Hospital ranked seventh in the nation in Digestive Disorders.

Reminder

If you have news for the Department of Medicine Web site, please send information to to Debra Kaplan at debra.kaplan@mssm.edu or box 1118.