Experimental Therapeutics Institute

Ravi Iyengar, PhD
Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute, and Director and Principal Investigator of the NIGMS-funded Systems Biology Center New York

Ravi Iyengar, PhD, develops therapeutic drugs that will customize and advance patient care. As Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute, he oversees cutting-edge basic and clinical research programs focused on creating new drugs, devices, and intellectual property.

Supported by a strong faculty with research programs in biological mechanisms, medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics, Mount Sinai's integrated research programs focus on small-molecule drug discovery, biological therapeutics, therapeutic vaccine development, target validation and side effects, and preclinical testing. Under Dr. Iyengar's direction, investigators conduct scientific and commercial assessments of promising research and technology, perform preclinical testing, and foster commercial relationships with pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Trained as a biochemist, Dr. Iyengar studies cellular signaling networks. His laboratory is trying to understand how cell signals are routed and processed through cellular signaling networks to discover new drug targets for complex diseases. Currently, laboratory researchers are examining cellular signaling systems with a particular emphasis on signaling through heterotrimeric G proteins. Dr. Iyengar uses experimental and computational approaches to understand the regulatory capabilities of these cellular signaling networks. The goal is ultimately to identify potential drug targets and develop small-molecule interactors that could intervene in cellular processes that instigate disease.

Dr. Iyengar also serves as Director and Principal Investigator of the Systems Biology Center New York, which received a five-year grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health. The Center unites experts in biomedicine, mathematics, engineering, and computer science who work together to study how disease impacts the heart and brain. They use animal models to assess activity at the cellular and tissue levels. They also investigate how drugs impact disease progression.

Dr. Iyengar received a master's degree in science from Bombay University and a PhD from the University of Houston. He continued on at Houston for his postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine, eventually rising to Assistant and then Associate Professor. In 1986, Dr. Iyengar joined Mount Sinai as an Associate Professor of Pharmacology. He was appointed Chair of the Department of Pharmacology in 1999. Two years later, he was named the Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry. Dr. Iyengar also served as the Dean of Research for Icahn School of Medicine from 2002 to 2004. In 2004, Dr. Iyengar was named a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.