In early September, 2024, doctors, nurse practitioners, and families from the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai strutted down the runway at New York Fashion Week, hosted by Runway 7 Fashion.

The fashion show, dubbed Project Lab Coat, featured stunning Mount Sinai-inspired lab coats designed to raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Project Lab Coat is led by Runway 7’s CEO, Anthony Rosa, who lost his brother to MS. The team from the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai proudly modeled these one-of-a-kind coats. The evening was made even more meaningful with a generous $25,000 donation from Anthony’s mother, Elizabeth Rosa, to support the mission of the Center. Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic disease affecting the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord. It is is a leading cause of disability in young adults, and while incurable, treatments can control symptoms and improve quality of life.

“We created Project Lab Coat to use our platform of Runway 7 for a greater cause. The goal of the Project is fighting against MS. It’s a first in many senses for us, and could be a model for fighting additional important health battles—cancer, Lyme disease, or others. Our slogan is ‘Project Lab Coat at New York Fashion Week with Mount Sinai…Elevating awareness, fashionably fighting against Multiple Sclerosis, and uniting for a cause that truly matters.’”

– Anthony Rosa

On a spectacular Manhattan spring evening, some 900 supporters, Trustees, and friends of the Mount Sinai Health System joined physicians, faculty, and staff for the annual Mount Sinai Crystal Party, which celebrates research and health care advances made in the past year.

The Mount Sinai Crystal Party is also an opportunity to recognize the philanthropists whose generosity and support are so integral to the Institution’s success.

This year’s event honored Kenneth L. Davis, MD, whose life and career are intertwined with the modern history of Mount Sinai. Across more than 50 years, Dr. Davis left a lasting legacy as a student, physician, educator, scientist, and administrator. He eventually rose to become Chief Executive Officer, a role he held for more than 20 years, until he stepped down at the end of 2023.

As CEO, Dr. Davis engineered a difficult financial turnaround in addition to transforming Mount Sinai into a world-class hub of scientific research, medical education, and clinical excellence. In 2013 the Medical Center was able to expand into a full-fledged Health System with a footprint across New York City and out to Long Island—an operation that now includes eight hospitals, more than 20 research institutes, and more than 400 ambulatory locations and physician practices. Icahn Mount Sinai is also one of the premiere medical schools in the United States.

But Dr. Davis’ connection to Mount Sinai runs much deeper than his accomplishments as CEO.

“The Ken Davis story, as it relates to Mount Sinai, is almost the story of Mount Sinai.”

– Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Davis’ relationship with Mount Sinai began at a young age. A native of Syosset, on Long Island, he had hernia surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital at age 7, and his family would venture into Manhattan to have many of their medical needs met there. This experience left a lasting impression on him.

Dr. Davis drew on this impression when it came time to enroll in medical school. He was valedictorian of the second graduating class of four-year medical students at what was then the Mount Sinai Medical School, where he began dating Bonnie Morrison—now Bonnie M. Davis, MD—a renowned endocrinologist and internal medicine specialist who also became one of his research collaborators. They have been married for 51 years.

Other than a six-year stint at Stanford University in the 1970s, Dr. Davis dedicated his professional career to Mount Sinai. He would go on to become one of the most impactful psychiatric neuroscientists in the world, developing groundbreaking insights that greatly enhanced the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

“Ken’s impact on the research field?” Deborah B. Marin, MD, George and Marion Blumenthal Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn Mount Sinai, and Director for the Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth, Mount Sinai Health System, said of Dr. Davis. “In the field of dementia, he contributed the seminal articles on understanding the role of the cholinergic neurons in Alzheimer’s.” These insights led to the development of a class of drugs that continues to be used to treat dementia patients to this day.

In 2003, shortly after Dr. Davis became Dean of the Medical School, Peter W. May, MBA, the then-Chairman of the Boards of Trustees, asked him to simultaneously take on the role of CEO. Mount Sinai was faced with steep financial difficulties and administrative problems, and May felt that Dr. Davis was the right person to put the institution back on track.

“I had confidence in Ken from the minute I met him,” May said.

To turn things around, Dr. Davis initiated a bold strategy: He invested in people. He felt that by recruiting the best and brightest scientists, educators, and clinicians, Mount Sinai could position itself as a destination for researchers, students, and patients alike.

“He had an unparalleled vision for Mount Sinai’s future, and the energy to pursue it,” according to James S. Tisch, Co-Chairman of the Boards of Trustees. To execute that vision, Dr. Davis leveraged his expertise as a scientist and a leader, combining it with his true passion for the values he always felt Mount Sinai represents.

“Mount Sinai was great and could be great—the sky was the limit,” Dr. Davis said, reflecting back on his tenure as CEO and on Mount Sinai. “There were no boundaries. We could be the greatest in the world at whatever we wanted to do. There were no limitations. We were there to make a difference.” The difference Dr. Davis made as CEO of Mount Sinai inspired a new era of philanthropy, especially across a pair of record-breaking capital campaigns. This enduring support will enhance the institution’s mission to advance science, academic medicine, and patient care for years to come.

As an enduring tribute to Dr. Davis, it was revealed at the Crystal Party that Mount Sinai will establish a distinguished chair position in his name. The Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair at Mount Sinai will be occupied in perpetuity by the CEO, ensuring that Mount Sinai’s leadership can draw from a permanent resource to sustain its continued trajectory well into the future.

Ken Davis now serves as Executive Vice Chairman of the Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees.

Modern-Day Humanitarian Values that Reflect a Charitable Jewish Founding

Mount Sinai’s robust connection to the Jewish community is a rich heritage that dates back more than 170 years. This lineage, rooted in a shared commitment to serving a vulnerable population at a time of great need, has been instrumental in shaping the delivery of advanced medical care in New York City and around the world.

Today’s Mount Sinai Health System is a global leader in compassionate patient care, innovative scientific research, and first-rate medical education. At a time of rising antisemitism, Mount Sinai also continues to offer programs and initiatives that directly serve the Jewish community—a through line of humanitarian values that stretches back to our distinctly humble and charitable Jewish founding.

Our History

The original Mount Sinai Hospital traces its origin to January, 15, 1852, when nine representatives from a variety of Jewish charities, including the philanthropist Sampson Simson and Jacques Judah Lyons, incorporated a hospital in New York City for poor Jews. Three years later, what was then known as Jews’ Hospital opened in a four-story building with 45 beds on West 28th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues—a rural neighborhood at the time. Its founding principle was tzedakah, a Hebrew word meaning “righteousness” that is often used to indicate “charity.”

Jews’ Hospital primarily treated foreign-born patients in its earliest years; records indicate that 83 of our first 100 patients were German. Notes from a Medical Board meeting in 1872 even indicate that it was “hard to attract new House Physician because the ‘applicant must take an examination and because Board of Directors wanted a Jew and someone who could speak German.’”

Jews’ Hospital was an altruistic organization that relied on donations from friends and members, in addition to government subsidies, to cover its costs. And even though it was a sectarian institution, Jews’ Hospital accepted emergency patients regardless of their religious beliefs, and even accommodated Union soldiers during the Civil War. Then, in 1866, the hospital broadened its mission by becoming nonsectarian in order to continue to qualify for government funding. It also chose a new name with an unmistakable Jewish pedigree: The Mount Sinai Hospital is a direct reference to the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments, one of the most significant events and sacred locations in the Jewish tradition.

A Sustained Sense of Purpose

Even as The Mount Sinai Hospital expanded and grew across the last century and a half, it never lost sight of its general dedication to tzedakah, or to its particular commitment to responding to the needs of the Jewish community. Today, Mount Sinai continues this tradition via initiatives such as: 

Engagement with the Sephardic Community. During the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Mount Sinai assisted many families of Sephardic Jewish descent. In gratitude, more than 80 families became philanthropic partners with Mount Sinai, generously supporting faculty research and clinical programs across cancer, cardiology, emergency medicine, women’s health, neurology, and more. In recognition of our partnership with the Sephardic Jewish community, the Mount Sinai Board of Trustees elected businessman and community member Nathan Hoffman as a member in 2022.

The Mark Lebwohl Israeli Visiting Fellowship in Dermatology. This program, which is part of Mount Sinai’s commitment to training the next generation of international dermatologists, is a partnership between Mount Sinai’s Department of Dermatology and the Sheba Medical Center’s Ella Lemelbaum Institute for lmmunoOncology in Tel Aviv, a well-known leader in skin-related diseases. The fellowship is named for Mark G. Lebwohl, MD, who transformed the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai into one of the largest in the country during his more than 20 years as Chair.

Mount Sinai-National Jewish Health Respiratory Institute. In partnership with National Jewish Health, the nation’s leading respiratory health hospital based in Denver, Colorado, this institute offers specialized programs committed to collaborative care and advanced diagnostics for a full range of lung conditions. Personalized treatment plans are enhanced by the implementation of genetics and genomics into disease management approaches.

Specific programs from the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility for the Hasidic community. Implemented through the Reproductive Medical Associates of New York, these programs ensure that all fertility tests and treatments adhere to proper religious guidelines and orthodox Jewish faith traditions.

Takanot Program for male and female Orthodox Jewish survivors of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. Our Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (SAVI) offers counseling and support services that are culturally sensitive and religiously knowledgeable. Our Takanot clinician is trauma-trained and has an understanding of Torah values, religious law, and Orthodox Jewish cultural practices. Services are available to provide support, referrals, and psychotherapy to Orthodox survivors of abuse and their affected family members. These services are free and confidential.

Expanded Carrier Screening Panel for Ashkenazi Jews. Several genetic diseases occur at increased frequencies in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Because disease inheritance can be autosomal recessive or X-linked, many people are carriers without knowing it. Mount Sinai has been setting the bar for Ashkenazi Jewish carrier screening since 1997, when the Genetic Testing Laboratory (GTL) initiated the triple-screen for Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, and Gaucher disease. Additional disorders have been added steadily over the years as new genes were discovered. In 2014, eight new diseases were added based on population screening studies performed by scientists at the GTL.

Since its founding, Mount Sinai has been uniquely positioned to serve the Jewish community. This proud history established the strong foundation that allows us to serve patients from all backgrounds. That same spirit of tzedakah that motivated our founders more than 170 years ago lives on, bolstering our mission to achieve better health outcomes for all.

Mount Sinai Hospital circa 1852

The Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital is dedicated to uncovering how the heart and circulatory system function within the body’s interconnected systems. Before a group of our philanthropic supporters, CVRI scientific experts recently shared updates on their groundbreaking research aimed at understanding how various medical conditions place stress on the heart and vascular system, ultimately helping improve outcomes for patients with complex heart disease.

With the generous support of our donors, CVRI is revolutionizing our understanding of the intricate connections between diseases like diabetes and kidney disease; and how viral infection reveals how inflammation and metabolism drive cardiovascular complications. With advancements in precision medicine, we aim to develop targeted treatments that address these root issues, minimizing side effects and optimizing patient outcomes.

Filip Swirski, PhD
Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute
Arthur and Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine (Cardiology)
Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

As we age, it’s inevitable that we accumulate more health issues, or what we call comorbidities. Some of these conditions may exist side by side without affecting each other—chronic back pain, for example, typically doesn’t impact asthma or depression. But what we’re discovering is that many diseases do interact and influence each other, particularly in the context of cardiovascular health. There is growing evidence linking heart disease to conditions like cancer (a field known as cardio-oncology), inflammatory bowel disease, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and of course, classic risk factors like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. The question we’re trying to answer is why these links exist—how do these diseases “talk” to one another?

Several systems seem to connect these comorbidities at a biological level. For instance, the immune system and its inflammatory responses appear to play a central role, as does metabolism. The circulatory, hematopoietic (blood-forming), endocrine, and even nervous systems might also facilitate these connections. Our work at the Cardiovascular Research Institute dives into the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind these links. By understanding how inflammation, metabolic activity, and other systemic responses drive the interaction between diseases, we’re aiming to unlock new approaches to treatment. This research has far-reaching implications, from developing therapies that target specific pathways to potentially mitigating the cascade of health issues that often accompanies aging.

One of our projects focuses on how influenza infections exacerbate heart disease. We’ve observed that people with the flu have a significantly higher risk of heart attack or heart failure, especially if they already have underlying cardiovascular issues. Our findings suggest that influenza exploits circulating immune cells, which act as Trojan horses, delivering the virus directly to the heart. This discovery points to inflammation as a key factor in viral-induced heart damage, and we’re now exploring ways to allow the immune system to combat the virus in the lungs while protecting the heart. The ultimate goal is precision medicine—targeted interventions that can limit the damage from comorbidities without broad, unintended effects. This precision approach could transform how we manage these interconnected diseases, improving outcomes by treating the root causes at a molecular level.

Leigh Goedeke, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

In my lab, we’re deeply focused on understanding how dysregulated metabolism contributes to chronic diseases, especially diabetes and cardiovascular disease. When I talk about metabolism, I mean the complex, life-sustaining chemical reactions that convert nutrients from our diet—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—into energy or molecules our cells need. This process is highly regulated within our cells and at a broader level to maintain health, but when it’s dysregulated, it can lead to conditions like diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body can’t produce insulin, whereas, in type 2 diabetes, our cells become resistant to insulin, which leads to high blood sugar levels over time. This is critical because type 2 diabetes, affecting millions in the U.S., significantly raises the risk of cardiovascular issues such as heart attacks, heart failure, and stroke.

We’re particularly interested in how various risk factors in type 2 diabetes—such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation—contribute to cardiovascular disease. Beyond this, we’ve observed that metabolic changes in specific tissues like the liver and heart can exacerbate cardiovascular risks. For example, fat accumulation and dysfunctional mitochondria in the liver can lead to excess glucose and lipid production, which raises blood sugar and promotes atherosclerosis. Additionally, we’ve identified certain harmful signaling metabolites generated by dysfunctional mitochondria in the liver that not only trigger local insulin resistance and inflammation but also travel through the bloodstream to affect other organs, including the heart. By collaborating with scientists across the CVRI, we’re exploring how these circulating metabolites might predict cardiovascular risks in patients with diabetes and testing how they drive inflammation and damage in different organs.

One exciting avenue we’re pursuing is an oral compound known as a controlled metabolic accelerator, which mimics a natural process called mitochondrial uncoupling. In our animal studies, this compound has shown promising results: it leads to fat-specific weight loss, improves glycemic control and insulin resistance, and reduces cardiovascular disease in models of obesity. By digging into the mechanisms of how this compound works, we hope to develop new treatment options that can address both diabetes and cardiovascular disease more effectively. The collaboration and integration of different expertise at CVRI allow us to study these interconnected processes holistically, aiming for breakthroughs that can truly transform patient outcomes.

Susmita Sahoo, PhD
Associate Professor, Medicine, Cardiology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

In my lab, we focus on understanding why patients with type 1 diabetes and those with advanced kidney disease are so prone to developing heart failure. These individuals experience heart failure at much higher rates than others, often succumbing to it rather than their primary illness. This phenomenon is not fully understood by clinicians, who currently lack treatments specifically for the heart complications in these patients. To investigate, we collaborate with nephrologists and endocrinologists to gather blood samples from hundreds of patients, comparing these with samples from healthy individuals. Our goal is to examine molecules within the blood that may explain why these patients develop heart failure, using heart cells in lab conditions to observe the impacts of disease-specific particles.

A critical focus is on extracellular vesicles (EVs) found in everyone’s blood, which act as molecular couriers. In our research, we’ve found that EVs from patients with kidney disease or diabetes carry damaging microRNAs from affected organs to the heart, influencing heart cells negatively. Using advanced sequencing, we analyze these microRNAs to identify which ones cause specific damage, whether in cultured heart cells or in live animal models. By pinpointing harmful microRNAs, we hope to develop diagnostic tools that can detect heart failure risk early—before symptoms appear. Additionally, this research paves the way for treatments tailored specifically to heart failure in patients with kidney disease or type 1 diabetes.

Our goal is to move towards precision medicine by developing diagnostics and therapies that target disease-specific factors, potentially more effective than general treatments like statins or SGLT2 inhibitors. We’re excited about the possibility of eventually partnering with pharmaceutical companies to bring these targeted therapies and diagnostic kits to clinical use. This work is possible thanks to a multidisciplinary effort, involving data scientists and lab teams who assist in processing and analyzing extensive data, with the supportive, collaborative environment at CVRI allowing us to push the boundaries in understanding and treating these complex heart conditions.