The Rensselaer-Mount Sinai Collaborative Research Projects program spearheads studies under the affiliation between the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
Ongoing Projects
ISMMS and RPI are engaged in several ongoing, collaborative research projects.
Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR) Center for Data Repository, Analysis and Science Center (U2C)
Research teams from ISMMS and RPI are working together to study environmental impact on children. In 2015, the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences awarded two grants to the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, led by Professor and Chair Robert O. Wright, MD, PhD and Susan Teitelbaum, PhD.
The grants, totaling $20 million over four years, are from the NIH’s newly-formed Child Health Environmental Assessment Resource (CHEAR) program.
One of the grants, for a Data Repository, Analysis and Science Center, is run by researchers at Mount Sinai and RPI. It is led by Mount Sinai researchers, Dr. Titelbaum, principal investigator, Chris Gennings, PhD, and Patricia Kovatch, along with RPI researcher Deborah McGuinness, PhD. The Data Center addresses methodology for combining data from a wide range of environmental health studies, develops statistical approaches for analyzing exposomic/chemical mixtures, and performs big data science, integrating exposomics with genomics. This part of the award is $9 million over four years.
Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Training
ISMMS and RPI are participating in a five-year grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences related to improving the translational research process. As part of the grant, faculty from RPI are collaborating with Mount Sinai scientists and clinicians to develop gaming theory practices. RPI scientists have also participated in a couple of 4D technology development projects.
PAIR
The Rapid Prototyping Center at ISMMS has recently launched a collaborator program to streamline the coordination of multidisciplinary teams between ISMMS researchers/clinicians and student engineers and designers at external institutions. Two projects are currently being used to pilot this model of interaction with RPI students.
Completed Projects
The Rensselaer-Mount Sinai Collaborative Research Projects program received 29 project proposals during a Call for Proposals that took place in the fall of 2013. The following seven projects were selected for Pilot Fund Awards and were completed
- Effects of retrotransposons on genome stability and consequence for the biology of aging and cancer
Researchers: Matthew O’Connell, PhD and Patrick Maxwell, PhD - In situ generation of tissue-engineered vascular conduits using vascular progenitor cells
Researchers: Jason Kovacic, MD, PhD and Mariah Hahn, PhD - Inhibiting hepatitis C virus with high-affinity, single-domain antibodies
Researchers: Matthew Evans, PhD and Peter Tessier, PhD - Proteoglycan metabolism and painful intervertebral disc degeneration
Researchers: James Iatridis and Robert Linhardt, PhD
Outcomes from the collaborative project, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant, were published the following articles in medical journals:- Purmessur D, Cornejo MC, Cho SK, Roughley PJ, Linhardt RJ, Hecht AC, Iatridis JC: Intact glycosaminoglycans from intervertebral disc-derived notochordal cell-conditioned media inhibit neurite growth while maintaining neuronal cell viability. Spine J. 2015 May 1;15(5):1060-9. PMID:25661435
- Cornejo MC, Cho SK, Giannarelli C, Iatridis JC, Purmessur D. Soluble factors from the notochordal-rich intervertebral disc inhibit endothelial cell invasion and vessel formation in the presence and absence of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2015 Mar;23(3):487-96. PMID: 25534363
- Toward a universal influenza virus vaccine: development of nanoscale constructs that elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies
Researchers: Peter Palese, PhD and Ravi Kane, PhD - Continuous monitoring of compartmental pressures for objective diagnosis of compartment syndrome
Researchers: David Forsh, MD, James Gladstone, MD, Eric Ledet, PhD, and Kenneth Connor, PhD - Inducing targeted mutations in cells in the brain in vivo (can dopamine transporter be modified to resist drug abuse?)
Researchers: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD and Shiva Kotha, PhD