Jessica Tome-Garcia, PhD, has been named the third Joseph Schein, MD Fellow at Mount Sinai’s Lillian and Henry M. Stratton-Hans Popper Department of Pathology. The fellowship emphasizes training in experimental neuropathology in addition to training in clinical neuropathology and the provision of high-quality patient care.
About Dr. Tome-Garcia
Dr. Tome-Garcia earned her PhD in molecular genetics and cancer from the University of the Basque Country in Spain. She has since completed several postdoctoral fellowships in molecular genetics and cancer, neuropathy, and neuropathology and stem cell biology. Dr. Tome-Garcia’s research in the Tsankova Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai builds upon previous work in in-vivo cancer mouse models. This includes her work on several neuropathology and stem cell biology projects and her research covering the molecular drivers of stem cell biology in cells freshly derived from primary human tissues. Dr. Tome-Garcia helped develop a unique technique to isolate neurons, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, and astrocytes nuclei from human brain tissue for the first time. She is a main contributor in various publications, including in Nature Communications; Epigenetics, the official journal of the DNA Methylation Society; Stem Cell Reports, and Plos One.
“Dr. Tome-Garcia is a brilliant young scientist who continues to show great potential with her contributions to the field of experimental neuropathology and stem cell biology,” said Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology. “Her efforts at Mount Sinai have already seen development of unique techniques in the neuropathology sphere, and we are looking forward to seeing her future accomplishments.”
About the Schein Fellowship
The Joseph Schein, MD Endowed Fellowship in Experimental/Molecular Pathology was established in 2013 to honor Dr. Schein and his long-standing belief in the value of pathology and its impact on medical practice, patient care, and the advancement of medicine. Dr. Schein began his career with Mount Sinai as a fellow in 1943. Now age 102, he remains engaged in the field.
Dr.Schein graduated from Princeton with a degree in humanities–modern languages in 1937 and from the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1941. He was mentored by Abraham Flexner, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies. At Penn, Dr.Schein met and married his wife of 75 years, the late Dr.Selma Snyderman, who forged a distinguished career in pediatric research, notably diseases of inborn errors of metabolism.
After a rotating internship at Newark City Hospital where he was a protégé of Harrison Martland (Professor of Forensic Medicine at NYU), Dr.Schein started a life-long and continuing relationship with Mount Sinai through a series of fellowships. He served for many years as the liaison psychiatrist, first to medicine and then to neurology. He worked closely with Drs.Klemperer and Otani in the Pathology Department, and then became a fellow on George Baehr’s service because of his interest in “Psychosomatic” medicine, including work on the pioneering “Ward A” under the tutelage of Dr.Kaufman.
At the same time, because of major activity in neuro-hormonal research (Hans Selye et al), he elected to study at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and was trained by Dr.Paul Federn, one of Freud’s most trusted colleagues. Throughout his career as a practicing psychiatrist, Dr.Schein has never wavered in his conviction that, even in that field, there was no better training than the one originated in the 18th century by Giambattista Morgagni at the School of Padua in his famous treatise De Sedibus et causis morborum per anatomem indagatis. He is especially honored that his attachment to pathology is being recognized through this endowed fellowship.