Academic Honors & Events

How Einstein CARES About Remote Learning—At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. Congress passed the CARES Act, which allocated funds to higher education institutions to provide assistance for a smooth transition to a remote environment. Last year, Damien Jackson applied on behalf of Einstein and was awarded $1.3 million to help our community safely adjust to the global pandemic. Half of the funding has been used in the form of student grants to support housing, childcare, and other living expenses. The remaining funds helped to expand Einstein’s remote education resources. This has included training for professors, purchase of test preparation materials for students in need, and procurement of software to enhance the learning environment. Mr. Jackson is assistant dean of student finance and an advisor to the executive dean. 

Improving Type-1 Diabetes Care—Shivani Agarwal, M.D., M.P.H., has received the 2021 Outstanding Adult Principal Investigator Award from T1D Exchange. (T1D is an abbreviation for Type 1 diabetes.) The honor recognizes Dr. Agarwal for going “above and beyond” in addressing health disparities among patients with T1D. —particularly for being a leader in improving the quality of T1D patient care and serving as a peer mentor for colleagues at partner institutions. T1D Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together researchers from across the nation to help develop treatments and a cure for T1D. Dr. Agarwal is assistant professor of medicine at Einstein and director of the Supporting Emerging Adults with Diabetes program at Montefiore.

Augmenting Medical Education—Managing patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is seldom included in medical education, yet these individuals often have more long-term conditions and higher healthcare costs. To address this issue, a team led by Joanne Siegel used funding from the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry (AADMD) and Special Olympics International to develop curriculum focused on treating IDD patients. Vincent Siasoco, M.D., also aided Einstein students in establishing a student chapter of the AADMD. The program, now permanently part of second-year curriculum, demonstrates Einstein’s leadership in inclusive medical education aimed at reducing healthcare disparities in patients with IDD. The duo highlighted their work in an article they co-wrote for Exceptional Parent Magazine. Ms. Siegel is principle associate in pediatrics and co-director of the Rose F. Kennedy Center University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Siasoco is assistant professor of family & social medicine and of pediatrics, and director of primary care at the Kennedy Center’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center.

At the 'Head' of Migraine Research—Migraines are estimated to affect one billion people worldwide, costing over $15 billion in medical expenses in the United States alone. Uncovering the pathophysiology of and novel treatments for migraines are critically important. A recent analysis of 6,327 publications focused on migraine research, published in the Annals of Palliative Medicine, identified Einstein as the most-published institution in the field. It also found Richard Lipton, M.D., to be the most frequently published researcher on the topic in the world. His colleague Dawn Buse, Ph.D., was ranked fourth. Their work contributed to greater understanding of migraine prevalence and treatment efficacy. The scholarly review establishes Einstein’s global leadership in migraine research, led by Drs. Lipton and Buse. Each is a professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Einstein. Dr. Lipton also is vice chair in that department, as well as professor of psychiatry & behavioral science and of epidemiology & population health. He holds the Edwin S. Lowe Chair in Neurology as well, and is director of the Montefiore Headache Center. 

Insights on Cardiovascular Disease—Carlos J. Rodriguez M.D., M.P.H. is co-editor (with Keith Ferdinand, M.D., and Herman Taylor, Jr., M.D., M.P.H.), of the latest edition of Cardiovascular Disease in Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations (Springer).  Available as an e-book in PDF format and as a hardcover textbook, the publication is part of the Contemporary Cardiology series edited by Peter Toth, M.D., M.P.H., and is a helpful resource for general practitioners caring for patients with cardiovascular disease, including determining when it would serve the patient best to refer them to a cardiologist. Its content covers the impact of genetics, social determinants of health, the environment, and lifestyle on cardiovascular conditions in African-American and Hispanic/Latinx populations. Dr. Rodriguez is professor of medicine (cardiology), and of epidemiology and population health at Einstein, and director of clinical cardiology research and of cardiovascular epidemiology at Montefiore.

ExCITING News—Ana Maria Cuervo, M.D., Ph.D., Jeffrey Pollard, Ph.D., and the late Paul Frenette, M.D., have been named to Clariviate Analytic's Highly Cited Researchers 2021 list.The list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index. Dr. Frenette was named in the field of immunology, Dr. Cuervo and Dr. Pollard, who has a second affiliation with Einstein, earned the honor in the "cross-field" category. Dr. Cuervo is co-director of the Einstein Institute for Aging Research, and professor of medicine, of developmental & molecular biology, and of anatomy & structural biology. She also is the Robert and Renée Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases. Dr. Pollard is professor emeritus of developmental & molecular biology and of obstetrics & gynecology and women's health and the Louis Goldstein Swan Chair in Women's Cancer Research Emeritus. Dr. Frenette is former chair and director of the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research, and was professor of medicine and of cell biology. 

Resourceful Research—Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS), the official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, presented Oren Tepper M.D., with its 2021 PRS Best Paper award. The article for which Dr. Tepper was honored had appeared in the PRS’s December 2020 issue. It detailed the virtues of the iPhone X as a viable resource for plastic surgeons to use when doing three-dimensional (3-D) facial scanning. In the paper, Dr. Tepper described the phone’s attributes, including it being a cheaper and readily accessible option, and its ability to provide accurate and precise 3-D data. He concluded that the 3-D technology of the phone is highly valuable to plastic surgeons during virtual surgical planning sessions, and it fits in the palm of their hands. Dr. Tepper is associate professor of surgery (plastic and reconstructive) at Einstein and director of aesthetic surgery at Montefiore.

Influential Research Pioneer—The Metastasis Research Society has given John Condeelis, Ph.D., its I.J. "Josh" Fidler Innovation in Metastasis Research Award, for his significant contributions to metastasis research. Since 2012, this biennial award has gone to an investigator whose work has substantially influenced the field. Dr. Condeelis has published more than 350 scientific publications, primarily focused on biophotonics, tumor cell motility and invasion, and metastasis. By combining high-resolution in-vivo microscopy, multi-photon imaging, and gene expression analysis, Dr. Condeelis has uncovered key molecular mechanisms driving tumor cells’ invasive abilities. His latest discoveries reported in Nature Communications, reveal the cells and the signaling pathways that transform breast-cancer tumor cells into invasive cancer stem cells responsible for metastasis—findings that could lead to treatment strategies for preventing metastasis from occurring. Dr. Condeelis is professor and co-chair of anatomy and structural biology, professor of surgery where he is director of the program in Basic and Translational Research, and co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center and Integrated Imaging Program. He also holds the Judith and Burton P. Resnick Chair in Translational Research. 

Recognizing Excellence—Robert Singer, Ph.D., has received the 51st Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research. A panel of scientists appointed by the director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center at Brandeis University recognized Dr. Singer for his key role in revealing the dynamics of gene expression using high-resolution imaging. This work has enabled researchers to visualize and characterize gene expression at single-molecule resolution and to follow the subcellular choreography of diverse messenger RNAs “from cradle to grave”—from its transcription to its translation to its degradation. Dr. Singer is professor and co-chair of anatomy and structural biology as well as professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and of cell biology, and co-director of the Gruss-Lipper Biophotonics Center and of the Integrated Imaging Program. He also holds the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Anatomy and Structural Biology.

Optical Excellence—The National Eye Institute has awarded Dr. Wei Liu and his team $40,000 for developing two different types of organoids that mimic the human retina in complex features. One of the small retinal structures that Dr. Liu’s group created is rich in cones—visual receptor cells responsible for color vision and visual acuity—and the other contains an optic nerve-like structure. The organoids can serve as models for researchers investigating retinal diseases that threaten or severely impair vision, such as juvenile glaucoma and Leber Congenital Amaurosis. In a video about his research, Dr. Liu explains how to grow the organoids. This is Dr. Liu’s third success in the NEI 3-D Retina Organoid Challenge, making him the only winner who has succeeded three times in a row. Dr. Liu is Assistant Professor of ophthalmology & visual sciences and of genetics.