1. Office of the Dean
Eric Nestler

Message From the Dean

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is proud to be an international leader in biomedical and scientific education, research, and patient care. Through a culture of excellence, innovation, collaboration, and inclusion, the Icahn School of Medicine educates and nurtures the next generation of exceptional clinicians, researchers, teachers, and leaders; conducts groundbreaking research; and delivers the most advanced, compassionate care with an unwavering commitment to health equity.

Among the nation’s top medical and graduate schools, the Icahn School of Medicine is unique. We are independent, having grown from a hospital, not a university. We are collaborative in our quest to advance science, medicine, and health care delivery for the benefit of humanity; entrepreneurial in our efforts to generate new therapeutics and improvements in care; and resilient, exemplified by our courageous response to the first wave of COVID-19, which put Mount Sinai at the epicenter of the epicenter of the pandemic. We are tightly connected to the many communities we serve, and we distinguish ourselves with a culture where everyone feels welcomed and enjoys the tools and opportunities for professional and personal success.

As the medical and graduate school of the Mount Sinai Health System, the Icahn School of Medicine is seamlessly integrated with the Health System’s seven hospitals, including The Mount Sinai Hospital, ranked among the nation's best, allowing us to serve and learn from one of the largest and most diverse patient populations in the United States.

At the Icahn School of Medicine, you will find a school buzzing with intellectual rigor and energy. Scientists and clinicians working on the frontiers of biomedicine, recruited from around the globe, teach our students, postdoctoral fellows, and clinical residents and fellows to become creative and compassionate clinicians, researchers, and health care leaders. Our talented students pursue MD, PhD, MD/PhDMaster’s, and several dual degrees, while clinical and research fellows undertake advanced training. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences trains students and fellows to become innovators and leaders in biomedical research and health care. We offer three  PhD programs, in Neuroscience, Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Research, and a fourth PhD program jointly with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Health Sciences Engineering. The Graduate School’s nine master’s degree programs encompas basic, clinical, and applied science; public health; health administration; health care delivery leadership; and advanced applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to every facet of biomedicine and patient care.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2024 funded nearly $500 million of research at the Icahn School of Medicine, placing the School 11th among all medical schools in the United States in NIH funding and in the 99th percentile among U.S. private medical schools in research dollars per principal investigator. Two Mount Sinai basic science departments—Neuroscience and Pharmacology—rank among the top five nationwide in NIH funding in their disciplines, as do three clinical science disciplines, Dermatology, Psychiatry, and Public Health/Preventive Medicine. Ranking among the top 20 in NIH research funding are Anatomy/Cell Biology, Emergency Medicine, Genetics, Internal Medicine, Microbiology, Pediatrics, Physical Medicine, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Radiology, and Urology

Through investments in focused research institutes, the Icahn School of Medicine pursues important avenues of discovery. We have aggressively pursued our research portfolio in the past few years in such areas as addiction science, biomedical engineering and imaging, women’s health, cardiovascular disease, genomic health, health equity, and more, including how artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming all that we do in the lab, clinic, and classroom. And most important, the Icahn School of Medicine is an international leader in conducting science that leads to discoveries that change the lives of patients throughout the world.

Beyond internal initiatives, the Icahn School of Medicine remains passionate about collaborating with our expanding list of external research partners. In March 2023, alongside our long-term partners at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, we opened the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine, a nexus of interdisciplinary investigation focused on developing new precision technologies, including cell and tissue engineering and innovative means of controlling the human nervous and immune systems—all designed to revolutionize patient care.

This narrative underscores the Icahn School of Medicine’s national leadership as a research powerhouse and a training ground for future translationally focused scientists. The world-changing work our researchers and clinicians are pursuing is featured in a series of supplements published in collaboration with Science magazine.

We have invested heavily in massive computing power to generate insights that can solve biomedical puzzles and transform patient care. The Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health—the first of its kind within a medical school in the United States—is applying machine learning and AI-driven decision-making across the Mount Sinai Health System’s hospitals and ambulatory clinics to create a “learning health system” that can continuously elevate quality of care and efficiency. This work is housed in our newly opened James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, a state-of-the-art facility that includes high-performance computing and cloud computing database capabilities, as well as advanced imaging modalities such as virtual and augmented reality.

Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP) facilitates the application and commercialization of our research discoveries into new products and services that can benefit patients and society. MSIP licenses intellectual property, negotiates joint ventures, and starts new companies, some of which have successfully gone public.

Mount Sinai faculty members teach, conduct research, and care for patients. Our multispecialty Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice, which emphasizes a patient-centered model of clinical care, includes more than 2,000 physicians who are able to rapidly translate research breakthroughs in our labs to deliver the most advanced treatment of disease for our patients’ benefit.

Integral to our commitment to an open and thriving community is the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s national leadership in health equity and medical education. Our Institute for Health Equity Research is developing health and health care solutions for all. Additionally, the Icahn School of Medicine is partnering with colleges, medical schools, and many other institutions around the nation and world to enhance opportunities in the basic and clinical sciences and optimize career advancement for everyone in science and medicine.

I welcome you to learn more about the Icahn School of Medicine. Explore our website and speak with our faculty and students. The expertise, creativity, enthusiasm, boldness, and commitment you encounter are certain to persuade you that the Icahn School of Medicine is the place you want to be.

Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD
Interim Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Executive Vice President, Mount Sinai Health System
Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry

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