Points Turning

TURNING POINTS

MED.NYU.EDU MEDICINE OF SCHOOL NYU 2015 RESEARCH REPORT

CREDITS

2015 Research Report of NYU Langone Medical Center Produced by the Oce of Communications and Marketing

Senior Vice President: Kathy Lewis Editor/Writer: Nicole Dyer Copy Editor: Mel Minter Production: Sherry Zucker Design: Ideas on Purpose, www.ideasonpurpose.com Photography: Karsten Moran; page 2, 16-17, John B. Carnett; page 5, John Madere; page 8-10, 13-14, 19-22, 25, Dwight Eschilman/Getty Images; pages 30, Illustrations: Ennead Architects. Photograph: Rene Perez.; page 32 Printing: Allied Printing Services, Inc.

Special thanks to Mary Furcht, content coordinator for the Funding, Honors, and Facts & Figures sections; to Laura Ahlborn, Sadhana Chitale, Wendy Cunningham, Susan DiGeronimo-Wild, Liz Donathan, Abram Goldnger, Keith Micoli, Nancy Rieger, Stuart Spore, Susanne Tranguch, and Deepa Venkatraman for contributing content to these sections. 2015 RESEARCH REPORT RESEARCH 2015

TURNING POINTS

MED.NYU.EDU MEDICINE OF SCHOOL NYU 2015 RESEARCH REPORT

CREDITS

2015 Research Report of NYU Langone Medical Center Produced by the Oce of Communications and Marketing

TURNING POINTS Melanoma cells growing in culture. NYU Langone researchers seek to predict which ones will metastasize.

2 THE ROAD TO SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY WOULDN’T BE QUITE AS THRILLING WITHOUT A FEW DETOURS AND UNEXPECTED TURNS.

As the distinguished researchers proled on the following pages will tell you, progress rarely follows a straight trajectory. It’s the surprising twists along the way—the new clues, the unconventional experiments, the serendipitous collaborations—that yield some of the most profound insights in science. At NYU Langone Medical Center, we embrace a culture of spontaneous interactions and free thinking because we wholeheartedly believe it’s the mainspring of medical breakthroughs.

4 6 8 CONTENTS Turning Points Our Blueprint Proles in Scientic for Success Discovery

26 34 37 38 Growth and Facts and Our Philanthropic Leadership Expansion Figures Leadership

3 DEAR COLLEAGUES Turning Points in Scientic Discovery

Welcome to the 2015 Research Report, an intimate snapshot of the people and events that help put NYU Langone Medical Center at the forefront of basic, translational, and clinical research. This year’s report celebrates notable turning points in our ongoing scientic eorts to transform medicine. As one of the country’s preeminent academic medical centers, NYU Langone provides fertile ground for our gifted investigators, who continue to set the bar high for biomedical research.

4 2015 RESEARCH REPORT As we spoke with the inspiring researchers proled on the following pages about the pivotal events that have launched their research to new levels, a common theme emerged: our institutional values. At NYU Langone, we pride ourselves on a culture of collaboration and exploration. We encourage our investigators to search for answers in unexpected places, and we embrace the scientic surprises born of spontaneous interactions and serendipitous connections. Why? Because it’s a philosophy that yields extraordinary results.

Take Daniel Sodickson, MD, PhD, a pioneer in the eld of magnetic resonance imaging, whom you will meet in this report. It will also enable our researchers to carry the momentum of When he wanted to bring more powerful imaging technology to our recent successes well into the future. This year, we received the clinic faster, he established a collaborative new center that $245 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, brings together researchers, industry partners, and clinicians to a signicant increase over the previous year. At the same time, test and develop new ideas. Then there is Eli Rothenberg, PhD, a our ranking in NIH research funding jumped to number 16, up physicist and biochemist, also proled here. For him, an entirely from number 21 last year. Meanwhile, our faculty continues to new line of inquiry sprang from a chance encounter with a publish an impressive volume of seminal work in many of the colleague over lunch. Now, the two researchers are collaborating most prestigious peer-reviewed science journals. on a new diagnostic tool for sudden cardiac arrhythmias. These and other scientists embody a vibrant culture of imagination and It’s all part of our broader mission to provide the very best in ingenuity at NYU Langone, and we hope you enjoy learning about patient care, scientic research, and medical education. We hope the turning points in their research. our singular dedication to this worthy goal shines through on the pages that follow. This report also celebrates a major milestone in our ongoing Campus Transformation. The 16-story research facility now under construction along East 30th Street and the FDR Drive Service Road will bridge the Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center and the Medical Science Building. When it opens in 2017, ROBERT I. GROSSMAN, MD DAFNA BARSAGI, PhD it will allow researchers, clinicians, and students to intermingle, creating the sort of “casual collisions,” to borrow a phrase from The Saul J. Farber Dean and Vice Dean for Science and Silicon Valley, that so often advance scientic discovery. Chief Executive Ocer Chief Scientic Ocer

TURNING POINTS 5 2

5 4

As we carry this strong tradition of excellence into the 21st century, Our Blueprint our talented team of investigators has never been better prepared to shape new milestones in science and medicine. Our expertise in for Success obesity, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, cancer, diabetes, and other pressing health areas is forging a new understanding of NYU Langone Medical Center has long chronic disease and laying the groundwork for new treatments.

been an incubator of transformative It’s no surprise that we spend a lot of time thinking about how medical discoveries. Our researchers to help our researchers achieve an uncommon level of success have helped eradicate polio, stymie and eciency. What we’ve learned over the years makes our research programs truly unique. First, we place a premium on tuberculosis and yellow fever, advance interdisciplinary research. We encourage it at every opportunity, vaccines for hepatitis B, cancer and through innovative new programs, funding, and forums for sharing information. It’s even built into our infrastructure. The new malaria, and develop Remicade®, a potent biomedical research facility now under construction on our rapidly anti-in¥ammatory agent that has helped expanding campus will connect two existing research centers, millions of people worldwide. allowing investigators, clinicians, and students to freely intermingle. Serendipitous collaborations, after all, yield some of the most profound insights in science.

6 2015 RESEARCH REPORT 6 7

1 Dr. Jan Vilcek, celebrated biochemist and alumnus of NYU School of Medicine, receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama. 2 Malaria parasites infecting red blood cells 3 Dr. Martin Blaser at a gala hosted by Time magazine, which name him among the top 100 most inuential people of 2015. 4 Dr. Vilcek in 1969. His pioneering work led to the anti-inammatory drug Remicade. 5 Gut bacteria 6 Dr. Severo Ochoa, Nobel Laureate and esteemed alumnus of NYU School of Medicine 7 Dean Grossman at Dean’s Honors Day in 2009 with honorees Drs. Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig, and Dr. Gerald Weissmann. 8 Drs. Albert B. Sabin and Jonas Salk, alumni of NYU School of Medicine whose 8 vaccine research helped eradicate polio.

We also strive for “full spectrum” research. That is, we tackle 20 state-of-the-art core facilities we make available to our disease from the ground up, starting with basic research and researchers. You’ll read about some of them on the following pages. advancing all the way to the clinic and beyond, into communities and even the halls of government. We look for root causes, we All of this helps us retain and attract the very best minds in science. pioneer treatments, we study health trends, we test behavioral “We’ve hired 100 new researchers in the past ve years and plan to interventions, and we advocate for smarter health policies. Our hire 100 more in the next ve years,” says Laura Ahlborn, vice work to stem the obesity epidemic is a good example. On the president of science strategy. To accommodate our growing team, molecular level, our award-winning scientists are uncovering the our laboratory capacity will double over the next ve years, and as hidden in¥uence of gut bacteria on metabolism. In the clinic, we our talent and resources grow, so, too, will our funding for are equipping our patients with modern tools and techniques to groundbreaking science. Already, our portfolio of grants from the achieve long-lasting weight loss. In communities hardest hit by National Institutes of Health has grown faster than that of any other the epidemic, our population-health experts are breaking down academic medical center in the nation. cultural barriers to quality healthcare. Physicist Niels Bohr once quipped that predictions are dicult, Finally, we recognize that signicant turning points in medicine especially about the future. He’s right, of course. No one can truly come from signicant resources. At NYU Langone, we’re predict the next big turning points in medicine. But at NYU Langone, innovating powerful tools and support systems, including a new our ability to save lives and alleviate suering through research on-campus data-management resource that helps researchers depends not on the ability to see the future, but rather to prepare harness the power of massive data sets. It’s one of more than for it.

TURNING POINTS 7 BIOMEDICAL IMAGING AND BIOENGINEERING

DANIEL SODICKSON, MD, PhD

Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Radiology; Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology; Principal Investigator, Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research; Director, Bernard & Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging

8 Pioneering Better The problem is that every promising idea in the eld faces a long, arduous journey on Body Scanners the road to the clinic. First, it must be published and proven. Then, researchers A physicist’s fresh idea puts must convince an imaging company of its potential clinical benet. After that, the NYU Langone at the forefront of company will often redevelop the idea from the ground up and throw it back to a medical groundbreaking medical imaging. center as a prototype for clinical testing. “A year or two later, you’re nally ready for the regulatory approval phase, which can Since the birth of magnetic resonance imaging take another year or more, and only then and computed tomography in the early 1970s, does the gradual process of clinical adoption begin,” Dr. Sodickson explains. the eld of medical imaging has dramatically “Such time lines are expected in the transformed the way physicians diagnose pharmaceutical industry, but in many cases, and treat disease. Yet the process by which the imaging products in question are software products. When judged by the imaging innovations reach clinical practice standard of modern software development, has traditionally been glacially slow and the process is ridiculously long.” cumbersome, says Daniel Sodickson, MD, PhD, A turning point for Dr. Sodickson and his professor of radiology, and neuroscience and team at the Bernard and Irene Schwartz physiology, and vice chair for research in the Center for Biomedical Imaging came last October, when they founded the Center for Department of Radiology. Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R) at NYU Langone Medical Center. CAI2R, directed by Dr. Sodickson, champions a bold new model of interdepartmental and academic-industrial collaboration. Rather than passing the baton to dierent players along each long leg of the development process, CAI2R brings together researchers, industry partners, and clinicians right at the scanners to test and develop new ideas. Where new imaging hardware or software might take the better part of a decade to get into the hands of interested clinicians, the CAI2R model promises to produce the same innovations in a small fraction of the time. “It dramatically accelerates the development cycle,” says Dr. Sodickson.

Drs. Daniel Sodickson (right) and Ryan Brown examine a mannequin, dubbed an “imaging phantom,” used to test prototype MRI detectors and transmitters.

TURNING POINTS 9 CAI2R is one of just 14 centers in the country designated by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering as a national resource center. This rarefied designation recognizes groups of innovators who are developing the most advanced technologies, techniques, and methodologies in the biomedical sciences today. Indeed, Dr. Sodickson and his colleagues are pursuing several new technologies at the heart of a genuine renaissance in medical imaging. Among them is a process called rapid continuous imaging. Simply put, it allows radiologists to continuously stream images instead of NETFLIX FOR RADIOLOGISTS: painstakingly framing shot after shot. STREAMING MRI SETS A NEW “It’s like the difference between a fax machine and a digital video camera,” STANDARD FOR MEDICAL IMAGING Dr. Sodickson explains.

That speed boost makes all the difference in Daniel Sodickson, MD, PhD, has On a practical level, streaming MRI the clinic. Faster imaging delivers sharper, nothing against art photography. He means a radiologist can request clearer pictures of disease, resulting in just doesn’t believe it’s a particularly multiple views of the body from better diagnostics. It also translates to a modern paradigm for magnetic virtually any angle and at any point more comfortable experience for patients, resonance imaging. Yet for the past in time. “Let’s say a radiologist since it eliminates the need to lie stock-still 40 years, he says, the process of wants to see the heart in a in an MRI tube for long periods of time. acquiring clinically useful MRI particular phase of contraction,” Finally, speed saves money, as slow imagery has borne a strong Dr. Sodickson says. “No problem, scanning is expensive scanning. resemblance to staging a photoshoot. we can go back to the data and “It’s as if we’re telling a model, ‘OK, mine it for new images.” For The challenge is controlling the data deluge look here, act natural, now freeze!” patients, it means no more than 10 that results from streaming imagery. Here, says Dr. Sodickson, professor of minutes in a tube, and the freedom the researchers are advancing a technology radiology, and physiology and to cough or scratch an itch, for called compressed sensing (see box at left). neuroscience, and vice chair for instance. There’s no staging, no It works similarly to the way your phone research in the Department of uncomfortable posing. “If the does when it compresses images for text Radiology. “We’re framing the shots patient moves, we can use new messages or emails. But unlike the software very, very carefully. It can take longer algorithms to capture and correct in your phone that strips away unnecessary than an hour.” For patients, even a the movement,” explains Dr. elements from an existing photo, few moments lying stock-still in an Sodickson, whose team at the compressed sensing randomly excludes MRI tube can feel like an eternity. Center for Advanced Imaging data points as the shot is being taken. It Now, Dr. Sodickson and his Innovation and Research has used then uses software to regenerate the colleagues are innovating a far better early versions of the technology to missing information and render a complete alternative: streaming imagery. image more than 4,000 patients at image. It’s a bit like a musician who can “Instead of taking shot after shot, the Medical Center. perfectly reconstruct a song after hearing we want to acquire images in a just a few signature notes. “Compressed rapid, continuous stream,” explains Streaming imagery is a welcome sensing is a clever way of precompressing Dr. Sodickson. Think Netflix advance for both clinicians and data,” Dr. Sodickson explains. for radiologists. patients, and just one of the ways that Dr. Sodickson and team at The trick is compressing vast NYU Langone are reshaping the amounts of data. To do this, the field of medical imaging. researchers are developing a technology called compressed sensing, which is a clever way to dramatically reduce the amount of data required to generate images.

10 2015 RESEARCH REPORT Another speed-driven project led by Dr. Sodickson has earned numerous Dr. Sodickson is the development and “The eld of biomedical accolades and honors over the years for evaluation of a new breed of scanner that his innovations. In 2006, he received a combines both MRI and PET imaging for imaging is in the midst Gold Medal from the International faster and more robust diagnostic power. of a genuine renaissance, Society for Magnetic Resonance in NYU Langone is home to one of the rst Medicine, the organization’s highest integrated MRI/PET scanners in the and NYU Langone is honor, for his contributions to parallel world, the focus of an ongoing very much leading imaging, among other achievements. collaboration between Dr. Sodickson’s He credits his success in the eld to his team and a major manufacturer of the way.” background in physics and math. medical-imaging machines. “There’s a lot of basic physics in the ¨DANIEL SODICKSON, MD, PhD construction of next-generation imaging Combing MRI and PET images into one machines,” says Dr. Sodickson, who scanner oers several advantages. For holds a doctoral degree in medical starters, a patient only needs one exam physics from the Massachusetts instead of two. Second, clinicians get Institute of Technology. “And there’s complementary information. “It delivers Dr. Sodickson learned the value of speed a lot of mathematics in the algorithms a ngerprint of disease that’s much more early on in his career. During a rotation used to take the raw data from those robust than a single scanner alone,” with a cardiologist and cardiac imaging machines and turn them into clinically Dr. Sodickson explains. researcher at Harvard Medical School, he relevant images.” got stuck on a seemingly naive question: Take epilepsy. An MRI scanner might lack Why can’t we image the heart faster? After But his true inspiration is medicine. the contrast to see certain subtle reading stacks of articles about incremental “I love being part of a team that cares developmental abnormalities in the improvements in the speed of magnetic for patients, and developing tools that cortex of the brain that predispose to resonance imaging, the physicist-clinician will improve their care in times to come,” seizures. The PET scanner, meanwhile, hit upon an idea that would change the he says. “I love having a stake in might see a blush of contrast, but it lacks arc of his career. Instead of using a single people’s lives.” the necessary spatial resolution to detector to take images, why not wrap localize the abnormality. Combine the multiple detectors around the body? That scans and suddenly you can see the insight was the birth of parallel imaging, contrast overlapping a suspicious area a revolutionary method of accelerating on the MRI. “The two scans together the acquisition of MRI data through make the diagnosis,” Dr. Sodickson says. detector arrays.

CENTER FOR ADVANCED IMAGING INNOVATION AND RESEARCH: A NEW VISION FOR TRANSFORMING IMAGING RESEARCH

The Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research, The center,«designated a national resource center or CAI2R, champions a new standard of academic-industrial by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and collaboration, bringing together researchers, industry Bioengineering,«employs more than 80 basic researchers partners, and clinicians to test and develop new ideas. and engages a large number of clinical collaborators. It Under this new model, clinicians can oer researchers instant focuses on three general areas of high public health impact: feedback. A physician might inform the team that she needs cancer, musculoskeletal disease, and neurologic disease. At a better view of a cartilage lesion in the knee, for example. the top of its research agenda are projects to develop rapid “Instead of waiting six months to collect feedback and modify continuous image acquisition (see “Net¥ix for Radiologists” the software, the developers can x the glitch that night and opposite page) and to merge PET scans and MRIs into try again the next day,” explains Dr. Sodickson. a single comprehensive imaging examination. “The eld of imaging is in the midst of a genuine renaissance,” says Dr. Sodickson, “and NYU Langone is very much leading the way.”

TURNING POINTS 11 Unlocking the Mysteries of Human Immunity

For this immunologist, bacteria and Victor Torres, PhD, associate professor of microbiology, to explore the intricate B cells oer tantalizing clues to the relationship between bacteria and immunity. Using a novel animal model recently molecular puzzle of lymphomas and generated by his lab, Dr. Koralov and his colleagues have discovered that both chronic in¥ammation. friendly and pathogenic bacteria in¥uence the onset of steroid-resistant asthma. They are also helping elucidate the role The linchpin of adaptive immunity, B lymphocytes, or of microbiota in psoriatic arthritis and B cells, are capable of producing antibodies to in cancer. recognize more than a billion dierent foreign invaders. “The sheer number of diseases driven by Sergei Koralov, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, immune dysfunction is astounding,” says studies the genetic shu¯ing that underlies this Dr. Koralov. “A better understanding of how bacterial communities in¥uence remarkable adaptability, and explores what happens immune function can help us develop more when it goes wrong—and it often goes wrong. The eective treatments.” problem is that the splicing and dicing of gene Another turning point for Dr. Koralov— segments required to adapt to such a mind-boggling and for science in general—is the advent number of pathogens is a highly error-prone process. of a game-changing technology known as Crispr-Cas9, which allows scientists to The result can be lymphomas, or cancer of the immune easily edit the genes of any organism. Where cells, and chronic in¥ammation. “The recombination it once took Dr. Koralov years to genetically process is inherently dangerous,” says Dr. Koralov. engineer an animal model, it now takes only a few months with Crispr-Cas9. “This revolutionary technology has transformed Since setting up his laboratory at NYU School of Medicine in 2010, Dr. Koralov has how we do science,” says Dr. Koralov, “and had a number of insights into B cell development that point to novel treatments few places are putting it to better use than for these illnesses. In mice, for instance, he and his colleagues have found that NYU Langone to advance our basic microRNAs, a type of noncoding genetic material that regulates gene expression, understanding of disease.” play a critical role in the survival and proliferation of B cells. “We’ve shown that B cells die without these microRNAs,” says Dr. Koralov.

While Dr. Koralov’s historical strengths lie in decoding the raw mechanics of B cell development, his work has taken on a new dimension since engaging with “ My work has taken on NYU Langone Medical Center’s vibrant community of experts on the human microbiome, the 100 trillion bacteria that live in and on our body. Like so many of an entirely new his peers, he has found inspiration in the pioneering work of Martin Blaser, MD, dimension since joining the Muriel G. and George W. Singer Professor of Translation Medicine, and director of the NYU Human Microbiome Program at NYU School of Medicine, and NYU Langone’s vibrant Dan Littman, MD, PhD, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular research community.” Immunology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He also routinely collaborates with microbiologists Ken Cadwell, PhD, assistant professor SERGEI KORALOV, PhD of microbiology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, and

12 2015 RESEARCH REPORT IMMUNOLOGY

SERGEI KORALOV, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pathology

13 MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY

EVA HERNANDOMONGE, PhD

Associate Professor of Pathology, a Member of the Helen S. Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology, and the Perlmutter Cancer Center

14 Unmasking Melanoma For this cancer biologist, interdisciplinary research reveals fresh clues to the evolution of deadly skin tumors.

Eva Hernando-Monge, PhD, investigates “We focus on dierent aspects of the molecular basis of metastatic melanoma, melanoma biology but with the main goal of understanding what makes tumor cells a deadly form of skin cancer that kills more spread and how we can use that than 9,000 people in the U.S. every year. One information to identify and treat patients fundamental question guides her research: who are at highest risk for aggressive melanoma.” How does a tiny tumor originating in melanocytes, the cells that produce skin Current diagnostics fail to reliably predict pigment, so aggressively spread to other which melanoma cells will metastasize, but once the cancer spreads to other parts of the body? parts of the body it becomes very dicult to treat. While the survival rate Dr. Hernando-Monge’s search for answers took a critical turn in for melanoma is higher than 92 percent 2006 when she joined the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer if caught early, the life expectancy of Center’s Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group (IMCG) people with the most advanced stages at NYU Langone. The IMCG is a multidisciplinary translational of melanoma is less than a year. melanoma research program founded in 2002 by Iman Osman, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology, medicine, and urology. The The IMCG’s unorthodox model of prospect of collaborating with researchers across a broad range research brings a fresh perspective to of disciplines was a big draw. “We never work in isolation,” says the problem, and new hope for novel Dr. Hernando-Monge, associate professor of pathology and a treatments. Cancer research often member of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone. begins in vitro or in mouse models and progresses to human tissue samples. “Our approach is completely the opposite,” explains Dr. Eva Hernando- Monge. She and her colleagues explore the IMCG’s bank of 17,000 human tissue specimens for questions most relevant “ Joining NYU Langone’s to patients and then design the multidisciplinary melanoma experiments to answer them. The resources available at the IMCG aord research group gave me Dr. Hernando-Monge and her team the ability to explore the cellular a new perspective on underpinnings of melanoma at all stages skin cancer.” of the disease. “The big question is whether we can look at the primary stage of melanoma, when the tumor is EVA HERNANDOMONGE, PhD still conned to the skin, and predict whether it will metastasize,” Dr. Hernando-Monge says.

TURNING POINTS 15 Dr. Hernando-Monge’s research so far In yet another promising nding, points to rogue stem cells in melanocyte Dr. Hernando-Monge and her team have cells that fail to dierentiate into mature found that more aggressive melanomas cells. In a paper published in 2013, overexpress a specic group of Dr. Hernando-Monge and her team microRNAs, a class of molecules that described how melanoma cells modulate protein levels. This insight holds overexpress BRD4, a protein known to important prognostic value. This year, her fuel tumor growth. Inhibiting BRD4, the group published a paper describing a clinical researchers found, inhibited melanoma study in which microRNA signatures were growth. Last year, her team published found in nearly 300 patients. The study is a another paper describing how the same big step toward a new diagnostic assay. protein helps stem cells retain their “The same microRNAs that confer near-magical ability to replicate daughter aggressive features to melanoma cells can cells rather than mature into tell us which patients are at higher risk of adult cells. developing more metastatic tumors,” says Dr. Hernando-Monge.

As part of an exciting new initiative that “ The big question is takes NYU Langone research to a new whether we can look continent, Dr. Hernando-Monge and others at the Medical Center are now collaborating at the primary stage with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in the ght against cancer of melanoma, when (see page 29). The partnership, funded by the tumor is still a $9 million gift from philanthropists and NYU Langone trustees Laura and Isaac conned to the skin, Perlmutter, bridges two world-class and predict whether research enterprises and marks a turning point in the Medical Center’s commitment it will metastasize.” to international collaboration.

EVA HERNANDOMONGE, PhD

16 2015 RESEARCH REPORT This page: Eva Hernando-Monge, PhD, (third from right) collaborates with a wide range of researchers as part of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group. Opposite page: An investigator seeds cells in an experiment to ªnd new therapeutic targets against melanoma.

TURNING POINTS 17 Seeing the Unseen

A biophysicist capitalizes on the trigger potentially lethal cardiac arrhythmias. Their research has broken new ground—it’s latest microscopy tools to visualize the rst technique to visualize the molecules populating the juncture between cardiac new markers of disease. cells—and has led to several seminal papers.

Dr. Rothenberg and his team are applying When Eli Rothenberg, PhD, rst developed an similar imaging techniques to visualize the interest in microscopy in the mid 2000s, he cellular machinery responsible for DNA repair. (Dr. Rothenberg’s forte, the knew nothing about biology. “Zilch, nada,” he mechanics of DNA repair, was among the confesses. “I was versed in physics, math, and main subjects of his postdoctoral training.) chemistry.” But the more he read about In his research, Dr. Rothenberg examines the vast array of proteins and enzymes that biology, the more intrigued he became. cells employ to help DNA endure stress from a host of factors, from environmental radiation, radiation treatment, and “The questions were so complex,” recalls Dr. Rothenberg, assistant chemotherapeutics to the rigors of professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology. In 2010, replication. Using single-molecule imaging after nishing his postdoctoral training in biological physics at the technology to track living cells, his team University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Dr. Eli Rothenberg faced recently published the rst visual evidence a dilemma: should he aim to set up a laboratory within a traditional of how molecules organize themselves to physics department or pursue his growing interest in biomedical repair damaged DNA. The ndings hold research at a medical school? Dr. Rothenberg chose NYU School important implications for cancer of Medicine, a move he now considers a major turning point in his therapeutics. “When DNA repair career. A serendipitous partnering with Mario Delmar, MD, PhD, mechanisms function poorly, cancer cells professor of medicine in the Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology, take advantage and develop resistance to at a faculty lunch in 2010 soon led to an unexpectedly fruitful cancer therapies,” explains Dr. Rothenberg. collaboration. Using single-molecule ¥uorescence microscopy, a tool capable of nanometer resolution, the two have discovered Dr. Rothenberg believes the interdisciplinary that slight changes in proteins situated between cardiac cells can culture of NYU Langone Medical Center has allowed him to ask deeper, more meaningful questions about his work. “Communication is so important,” he says. “ The interdisciplinary With the right questions in hand, he’s culture of NYU unafraid to venture o the beaten path and innovate new methods to nd the right Langone has allowed answers. “I never do anything by the book,” says Dr. Rothenberg. “It’s more fun to write me to ask deeper, more the book yourself.” meaningful questions about my work.”

ELI ROTHENBERG, PhD

18 2015 RESEARCH REPORT MICROSCOPY

ELI ROTHENBERG, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

19 The laboratory of Dr. Eli Rothenberg houses a suite of custom-built microscopes designed to visualize individual molecules. Laser light, seen here guided by jigs, reects o¬ uorescent tags expressed within a single cell, revealing a level of detail that would be impossible to see with a conventional light microscope.

20 2015 RESEARCH REPORT Yandong Yin, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Rothenberg’s lab, using a single-molecule microscopy system to acquire a remarkably clear image of proteins linked to cancer inside the nucleus of an individual cell, as seen on the computer monitor.

TURNING POINTS 21 PUBLIC HEALTH

DONNA SHELLEY, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine and Population Health; Vice Chair for Research and¨ Codirector of the Section on Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drug Use in the Department of Population and Medicine Health

22 Changing the System

A public-health expert discovers that often aects patient outcomes,” Dr. Shelley explains. “We’re looking at work the best way to improve patient care is to ¥ow, patient visits, educators, dashboards, registries, electronic improve the systems that deliver it. health records—everything.”

Among the puzzle pieces, Dr. Shelley believes electronic health records may Donna Shelley, MD, MPH, “Not just for tobacco use but for other be the most important. “Electronic spent years investigating cardiovascular risk factors, such as health records have changed the whole hypertension, cholesterol, and diabetes.” landscape of this work,” she notes. Part how physicians could best of her research is to gure out how to help their patients quit Dr. Shelley’s pioneering work in this improve the technology and leverage the smoking. The more she emerging eld has attracted national data to make the delivery of quality care attention. Last June, her team at more ecient. scrutinized how doctors were NYU Langone Medical Center became attempting to implement the one of only seven nationwide chosen NYU Langone, in particular, is well poised latest smoking-cessation to participate in a $15 million, three-year to help. Last year, the Medical Center’s study, funded by the federal Clinical and Translational Science guidelines, the more she government’s Agency for Healthcare Institute debuted an on-site data- realized that it wasn’t the Research and Quality (AHRQ), to help management service called DataCore primary care practices implement the (see page 27). For Dr. Shelley, the doctors who needed the most latest interventions to improve heart resource has been transformative—a help, but rather the systems health across America. “External true turning point in her research. Based in which they worked. support is a vague term,” says in the Medical Center’s IT Department, Dr. Shelley. “How do you dene it, test it, DataCore helps researchers collect, prove that it works, and scale it up? The process, and manage the torrents of AHRQ is making a signicant investment data that so often threaten to overwhelm “We advise doctors on best practices for to nd out.” research projects. In Dr. Shelley’s case, improving quality and patient outcomes, but the service is helping her team manage what we nd is that they don’t always have As part of the study, Dr. Shelley and her the electronic health records of over the tools or expertise to implement them,” team are examining dozens of factors 100,000 patients from 250 small to says Dr. Shelley, associate professor and that in¥uence care providers’ ability to medium-size primary care practices in vice chair for research in the Department of successfully implement federal the AHRQ study. “Before DataCore we Population Health and codirector of the guidelines for reducing cardiovascular would often have to outsource all of our department’s Section on Tobacco, Alcohol, risks. “We’re addressing every management,” notes Dr. Shelley. “Now and Drug Use. component of clinical practice that we have a resource right here on campus. It’s helping us measure That insight sparked Dr. Shelley’s outcomes more eciently.” long-standing fascination with the “science of implementation,” a eld more commonly “ NYU Langone’s With the help of DataCore, Dr. Shelley’s applied in the corporate world that examines data-management research will also shed light on ways to how organizational change can impact the make electronic health records more delivery of quality—in the case of medicine, resources have been physician friendly. “We want to make quality of care. “I wanted a deeper providers’ jobs easier, not harder, and understanding of the multilevel factors that a transformative part we can do that by helping them do what impact quality of care, including patients, of my research.” they really want to do,” says Dr. Shelley, providers, and systems,” Dr. Shelley says. “which is provide excellent care.”

DONNA SHELLEY, MD

TURNING POINTS 23 Rethinking Oxytocin

ago, his laboratory was one of just two A neuroscientist sees the teams selected from 32 applicants to receive the NYU Grand Challenge’s “hug hormone” in a whole new light. $250,000 prize, seed money that is now helping the researchers bring such brain implants to the clinic. “The clinical Robert Froemke, PhD, has In recent decades, oxytocin has earned a potential of neural implants is quite long been fascinated by the reputation as a “hug hormone” or “love astounding,” says Dr. Froemke. drug” for its well-documented role in human brain’s capacity to infant bonding and facilitating trust While some researchers might limit their learn and change. “The between humans. Now, Dr. Froemke and questions to the resources immediately concept of brain plasticity is his team of investigators are challenging available to answer them, Dr. Froemke that stereotype, bringing about a major innovates new tools when existing ones one of civilization’s most turning point in our understanding of fall short. When he and his team wanted amazing ideas,” says Dr. oxytocin. “Increasingly, evidence shows to know exactly where oxytocin is Froemke, assistant professor that it’s neither a hug hormone nor a love released in the auditory cortex, for drug,” Dr. Froemke says. instance, they developed a novel of otolaryngology, and antibody that binds to and illuminates neuroscience and physiology, In an in¥uential paper published last April oxytocin receptors. Their ndings in Nature, Dr. Froemke showed how revealed that oxytocin receptors and a member of the Skirball oxytocin acts on neurons in the left concentrate in the left side of the Institute of Biomolecular auditory cortex of new rodent mothers auditory cortex, suggesting that this Medicine at NYU Langone to help them respond to the ultrasonic brain region traditionally associated with distress calls of lost pups. The hormone language processing may also underlie Medical Center. “The even sensitized mice without ospring our ability to process social information. decisions we make, the that would have otherwise ignored the experiences we have, the plaintive cries. Oxytocin, the research For Dr. Froemke, the power to heal is a found, amplies the neuronal circuits powerful motivator, but so, too, is the things we ingest, the lives we and molecular cues that control vocal ability to help everyone, young and old, lead—it can all change our communication between rodent mothers become better learners. “The brain never neural circuits.” Dr. Froemke and their ospring. “Oxytocin is more stops changing,” he says. “It’s true that like a chemical volume control,” explains it’s easier to learn certain things when is particularly interested in Dr. Froemke. “Turning it up allows us to you’re younger, but we learn our whole how the potent hormone pay more attention to relevant social lives. Our lab wants to know what it takes cues.” The study is among the rst to to engage the neural mechanisms that oxytocin shapes the brain elucidate the cellular underpinnings of make that possible.” during motherhood, a time of maternal bonding. tremendous neurochemical Dr. Froemke’s explorations of upheaval. “We’re not talking neurochemical changes in the auditory about a protracted learning cortex—a brain region that governs “The decisions we process,” Dr. Froemke says. auditory perception and language processing—hold important clinical make, the experiences “Motherhood unleashes a implications. A sharper understanding we have, the things major transformation that of the rules and mechanisms that govern these changes stands to inspire a new we ingest, the lives we takes place in a very short wave of therapies for a wide range of lead—it can all change span of time.” disorders from social anxiety to schizophrenia. It will also help our neural circuits.” Dr. Froemke advance his eorts to build so-called neuroprosthetics to bridge ROBERT C. FROEMKE, PhD damaged areas in the brain. Two years

24 2015 RESEARCH REPORT NEUROSCIENCE

ROBERT C. FROEMKE, PhD

Assistant Professor, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine; Neuroscience Institute, Departments of Otolaryngology and Neuroscience/Physiology

25 Growth and Expansion: Creating a Turning Point for Biomedical Infrastructure Conducting world-class biomedical research demands not only world-class talent, but also world-class infrastructure. On the following pages you will read about some of our eorts to forge strategic partnerships, introduce powerful core resources and dramatically expand laboratory space.

26 2015 RESEARCH REPORT DataCore

Empowering clinical research 150 medical centers in the U.S. and hundreds more abroad. “It takes a huge infrastructure to run a large multicenter clinical with the tools of big data. trial,” she says.

At NYU Langone, DataCore serves a critical part of that Biomedical research is increasingly infrastructure by oering researchers a suite of IT tools and dominated by data. The explosion in services to collect, store, track, and analyze vast collections of data. Alexander Bragat, director of DataCore, likens the resource omics—genomics, proteomics, to GPS, an analogy that applies to nding and routing data to and metabolomics—combined with an from researchers. “We help the investigators decide how best to avalanche of demographic data from capture clinical data and guide them through the complex electronic medical record structure to extract it,” Bragat says. electronic health records and social media have brought an unprecedented level of Since it launched last year, DataCore has helped more than two complexity to data management. dozen investigators develop grant applications for clinical trials. Services range from helping to prepare budgets for the data- management portion of a project to coordinating the transfer of If science is to mine insight and meaning from large data sets, data between trial sites. Among these projects is a three-year it must posses the tools to store, organize and analyze them. study run by Donna Shelley, MD, MPH, associate professor of That’s precisely the mission of DataCore, a recent Research IT medicine and population health, to investigate factors that initiative in partnership with the Clinical and Translational in¥uence care providers’ ability to successfully implement Science Institute and the Oce of Science and Research. federal guidelines for reducing cardiovascular risks (see page 23). Dr. Shelley’s study, supported by a $15 million federal grant, “DataCore oers technical support for the entire spectrum of involves 200,000 patient records from the NYC Department of clinical research happening at NYU Langone, from very small Health’s Primary Care Improvement Project and the Community single-center observational studies to large multicenter clinical Health Care Association of New York State practice networks trials where people all over the world are entering data,” explains that feed directly into DataCore. Judith Hochman, MD, MA, the Harold Snyder Family Professor of Cardiology and senior associate dean for clinical sciences. Michael Cantor, MD, director of Clinical Research Informatics, sees such a robust data-management resource as a true turning Dr. Hochman, a chief architect of DataCore, understands the point in NYU Langone’s ability to rise to the challenges of 21st value of expert data management. She has been running century biomedical research. For one, it’s a powerful draw for data-intense clinical trials for two decades. Her latest study, top-tier investigators whose work depends on cutting-edge data funded by an $84 million grant from the National Institutes management. Says Dr. Cantor, “DataCore gives us a strong of Health, compares two treatment strategies for coronary institutional strategy for making the most of our research data.” artery disease in over 8,000 patients. It involves more than

TURNING POINTS 27 Center for Large-Scale Clinical Studies

A new resource aims to put “The National Institutes of Health wants to know you have the infrastructure to lead large national clinical trials,” says NYU Langone at the forefront Jacqueline Arciniega, director of the Oce of Science Research’s Strategic Initiatives and Programs. “The CLCS helps us prove of clinical research. that administratively we have what it takes.”

Patricia Corby, DDS, MS, the CLCS’s director, has a keen Planning and running a major clinical trial understanding of the demands of clinical trials. She has spent is a daunting task that often involves nearly two decades running her own clinical trials, as well as those of other investigators, most recently at the NYU College of hundreds of steps, years of planning, and Dentistry’s Bluestone Center for Clinical Research. Dr. Corby’s spiraling costs. For researchers, the experience as a principal investigator and research administrator logistical burden can be overwhelming. helps her understand both sides of the process required to succeed when developing new ideas. NYU Langone Medical Center’s new Center for Large-Scale Clinical Studies, or CLCS, “By oering a new level of support and resources, we hope to aims to streamline the process, oering inspire our investigators to pursue larger and more in¥uential clinical trials,” Dr. Corby says. “And once we attract funding for researchers centralized support for those trials, we hope to help our investigators succeed in running multicenter trials. them by ensuring a seamless, less burdensome process.”

In the last year, the CLCS has helped organize and submit The brainchild of Judith Hochman, MD, MA, the Harold Snyder funding applications for several large multicenter clinical trials Family Professor of Cardiology and senior associate dean for that, if funded, will investigate everything from shingles clinical sciences, the CLCS performs a wide range of services, infections in the eye to post-traumatic psychopathology. from assisting investigators with protocol development and grant applications to identifying clinical sites, training sta, and As a core resource, CLCS supports NYU Langone’s broader overseeing all institutional and federal regulatory approvals mission of advancing excellence in clinical research. “NYU involved in clinical trials. Langone is very much at the forefront of clinical research,” Dr. Hochman says, “and running multicenter trials is one way of saying we’re recognized as a leader in clinical research.”

28 2015 RESEARCH REPORT Crossing Borders

An international partnership Among the research projects supported by the partnership is a novel approach to targeting melanoma tumors that have spread marks a turning point in to the brain, the leading cause of death among patients with malignant melanoma. Led by Dr. Hernando-Monge, associate NYU Langone’s strategic professor of pathology and a member of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, and Marcelle Machluf, PhD, a professor approach to cancer research. of biotechnology at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the study will explore the use of nanotechnology to target brain tumors with therapeutic micro-RNAs, molecules that modulate NYU Langone’s dedication to protein levels in the body and can suppress metastatic cancer. interdisciplinary collaboration extends The inability of most therapeutic agents to penetrate the blood far beyond its bustling New York City brain barrier represents a major hurdle in the treatment of brain campus. Last February, the Medical Center tumors. And even when therapeutic micro-RNAs do manage to announced an ambitious new collaboration pass this formidable barrier, the therapy is often too diluted by the time it reaches tumor cells. It can also accumulate in the liver, with the Technion-Israel Institute of creating dangerous toxicity. Technology to advance cancer research. Dr. Hernando-Monge combines her expertise in microRNAs and metastatic melanoma (see page 15) with Dr. Machluf’s expertise The intercontinental partnership, funded by a $9 million gift in nanotechnology-delivery systems. “Bringing together the from philanthropists and NYU Langone trustees Laura and unique expertise of researchers from both NYU Langone and the Isaac Perlmutter, bridges two world-class academic research Technion will hopefully enable us to overcome some of the most institutions. “NYU Langone and the Technion have a shared, dicult challenges in treating cancer patients,” said Technion long-standing commitment to advancing cancer research,” says Distinguished Professor Aaron Ciechanover, MD, the Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, senior vice president and vice dean for 2004 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, and Distinguished science at NYU Langone, chief science ocer at NYU School of Research Professor and head of the David and Janet Polak Medicine, and a principal architect of the NYU Langone- Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center at the Technion Technion collaboration. “This partnership marks an exciting Faculty of Medicine. turning point in our approach to cancer research as it deepens our expertise in elds like engineering and physics and allows us to explore cancer from new vantage points.”

TURNING POINTS 29 The Office of Therapeutics Alliances Pioneering a New Model of Academic Drug Discovery

30 2015 RESEARCH REPORT For years, Robert Schneider, NYU Langone’s Oce of Therapeutics In the past two years, OTA has developed PhD, had been struck by a Alliances, or OTA, an academic “virtual a robust pipeline of more than 17 new biotech” drug discovery program. drug discovery and development startling trend in the projects in oncology, in¥ammation, pharmaceutical industry. OTA’s approach to drug development metabolic diseases, and Funding for the research and breaks new ground. Unlike most other neurodegenerative diseases. Among academic medical centers, which them is an early-stage drug that could development of new attempt to develop new drugs in house, lead to a new treatment for multiple medications had jumped from OTA focuses exclusively on translating sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder that $15 billion to a staggering $50 the earliest stages of basic research, attacks myelin, the fatty substance where NYU Langone scientists thrive, to insulating nerve bers. The molecule, billion annually over the past early-stage drug discovery in the same advanced with James Salzer, MD, PhD, three decades, and yet the way that much of Big Pharma now does. professor of cell biology, and neurology “By outsourcing drug development to and neuroscience, helps repair damaged number of new FDA-approved CROs and painstakingly evaluating myelin and provides clinical benet in drugs had ¥atlined. “Big research projects for their commercial relevant animal models. “Other drugs Pharma was investing nearly potential, we save time and money, and tamp down the immune system and slow reduce risk,” says Dr. Shohdy. the progression of the disease, but twice as much as the annual there’s nothing that actually restores budget for the National The average drug takes about a decade function to the nervous system,” says Institutes of Health and had to develop, fails 90 percent of the time, Dr. Schneider. and can cost up to $1 billion by the time very little to show for it,” says it reaches FDA approval. “Our model is Meanwhile, OTA has also attracted Dr. Schneider, the Albert entirely dierent,” adds Dr. Schneider. signicant extra funding for NYU Sabin Professor of Molecular “Our goal is to reduce the risk in drug Langone researchers. Among those discovery, make a project much more eorts, it helped secure a $2 million Pathogenesis in the attractive for partnership, and then grant from the National Institutes of Department of Microbiology hand it o to industry to take to FDA Health to help Ann Marie Schmidt, MD, approval while focusing on the rest of PhD, the Iven Young Professor of and Professor of Radiation our existing portfolio.” Endocrinology and director of the Oncology at NYU Langone Diabetes Research Program, develop Medical Center. A growing team, OTA evaluates research drug candidates targeting a cell receptor projects at the Medical Center for their known as RAGE, or Receptor for therapeutic potential. It also works with Advanced Glycation End Products, which To save time and money, the pharmaceutical OIL to develop funding partnerships with is a key driver of vascular complications industry began shifting its investments in venture capital rms, disease in diabetes such as nephropathy, basic research and early drug discovery to foundations, pharmaceutical companies, retinopathy, and neuropathy. the later stages of drug development, and other funding sources to advance leaving hundreds of industry scientists out the science from basic research to the “What makes the OTA model so of work. In a twist that would ultimately translation phase, a traditionally satisfying is that it allows researchers favor NYU Langone, newly unemployed underserved stage of development to capitalize on a lifetime of research chemists skilled at developing drugs then dubbed the Valley of Death. “We are and see their work benet patients,” formed small companies known as contract building an engine to increase our share says Dr. Schneider. “It’s what research organizations, or CROs, and sold of potential revenue and maximize our researchers live for.” their services right back to pharmaceutical success rate,” says Dr. Shohdy. companies. For Dr. Schneider, the reorganization represented a prime opportunity. “The rise of chemistry CROs leveled our playing eld,” he explains. “It meant that we could also outsource drug discovery.”

Nadim Shohdy, PhD, then in NYU Langone’s Oce of Industrial Liaison, or OIL, The OTA team meanwhile had a similar insight. In 2013, he (left to right): and Dr. Schneider partnered to found Anne Koralova, PhD, Robert Schneider, PhD, and Nadim Shohdy, PhD

TURNING POINTS 31 Illustrations: Ennead Architects. Photograph: Rene Perez.

2 Building for the Future The Dramatic Expansion of Laboratory Space Marks a Decisive Turning Point in NYU Langone’s History

1 New lab space in the West Tower of the Alexandria Center. 2 Artist’s rendering of the new biomedical research building set to open in 2017. 3 The building will feature spacious, state-of-the-art lecture halls and 4 a light-ªlled lobby with ample seating.

32 2015 RESEARCH REPORT The signs of growth are hard to ignore on the southeast corner of the NYU Langone Medical Center campus. There, along East 30th Street and the FDR Drive Service Road, the steady thrum of construction work signals progress on one of our newest additions: a 16-story facility for biomedical research. Set to open in 2017, the expansive 365,000-square-foot building is part of a historic campus transformation set to dramatically reshape biomedical research and clinical care at NYU Langone over the coming years.

Combined with 120,000 square feet of gleaming new laboratory The new building will support all aspects of biomedical research. space in the West Tower of the Alexandria Center for Life Science, A state-of-the-art vivarium will occupy a ¥oor and a half. Another the new construction will house 160 principal investigators and their two ¥oors will be devoted to seminar rooms, multipurpose research teams, boosting laboratory capacity at the Medical Center classrooms, conference rooms, and other facilities that support by 25 percent. “It’s all part of our goal of becoming among the top academic programming at the Medical Center. Meanwhile, the ve research institutions in the nation,” says Laura Ahlborn, vice building will also house the NYU Neuroscience Institute. Led president for science strategy. by Dr. Richard Tsien, DPhil, the Druckenmiller Professor of Neuroscience, and Chair of the Department of Physiology and The opening of the new research building coincides with the Neuroscience, the Neuroscience Institute brings together more completion of the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Pavilion, an than 250 basic and translational scientists with clinicians to 800,000-square-foot facility that will connect to the fully tackle some of the most pressing challenges in neuroscience, refurbished Tisch Hospital. The Kimmel Pavilion will add 374 private from Alzheimer’s disease to epilepsy to multiple sclerosis and inpatient rooms, 30 procedure rooms, and the Hassenfeld malignant brain tumors. Children’s Hospital, the only one of its kind in New York City to oer all private rooms. With LEED Gold certication from the U.S. Green Building Council, the new building will showcase the Medical Center’s In many ways, the design of the research facility mirrors the culture commitment to sustainable infrastructure. The facility will draw of research at NYU Langone: inventive, forward thinking, and most of its energy from a new cogeneration plant on campus, collaborative. The building completes the Medical Center’s research known as the Energy Building. A glass curtain wall with louvered quad, connecting the Smilow Research Center and the Medical sunshades will cut glare in the laboratories while reducing Science Building. This integration, core to the design, facilitates the thermal heat and conserving energy. A highly ecient HVAC physical interaction of researchers, clinicians, and students. Each system will dramatically reduce energy costs, while a graywater of the 10 ¥oors of wet-bench laboratories will feature shared space system will harvest rainwater for ¥ushing xtures. and equipment, and a bridge will unite conference centers in the new research building and Smilow. “The idea is to encourage the Finally, the new building’s dramatic double-height lobby, ¥ooded spontaneous interactions and interdisciplinary collaborations with natural light, will provide an attractive new entrance to NYU that so often seed scientic discovery,” says Vicki Match Suna, School of Medicine, which welcomes the space as a means to senior vice president and vice dean for real estate development accommodate a growing number of recruits and projected and facilities. growth in funded research.

TURNING POINTS 33 FACTS AND FIGURES

HONORS STUDENTS

7 79 Howard Hughes MD/PhD Medical Institute Investigators 272 PhD 10 Institute of Medicine Members 25 PhD Recipients in 2015 11 National Academy of Sciences RESEARCHERS Members

9 400 American Academy Research Faculty of Arts and Sciences Members

38 New Faculty 17 in Calendar Year 2014 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows 400 Postdoctoral Fellows

34 2015 RESEARCH REPORT FACILITIES AND PEOPLE PUBLISHED RESEARCH

550,500 4,053 Square Feet Original Research Papers of Research Space That Appeared in Science and Medical Literature in Calendar Year 2014 220 Laboratories 339 Publications That Had an Impact Factor of at Least 10 55 Countries Represented in Research Labs

OFFICE OF INDUSTRIAL LIAISON

NYU School of Medicine Figures*

+$1B 705 Total Amount Raised Patents Issued by Startups

52 #1 Startups in License Income Formed

24 58% Biomedical Products Increase in School of Medicine Licenses brought to Market in FY14

* These numbers are cumulative and do not include activities from other NYU Schools.

TURNING POINTS 35 FUNDING

FY2014 GRANT REVENUE $284,463,000

FY2014 AWARDS BY SOURCE FY2014 NIH AWARDS

1,452 Total Number of Awards 603 Total Number of Awards

H L I A G K J B F B C E D D I E C F G

A H

A NIH: Non–Sandy Relief 40.8%* A Career Development 2.2%

B NIH: Sandy Relief 27.6% B Construction 13.1%

C NIH: Subcontract 4.2% C Contract 0.2%

D Federal: Non-NIH 7.5% D Cooperative Agreements 10.7%

E Federal Non-NIH: Subcontract 2.4% E Institutional Training and Director Program Projects 1.2%

F Foundation/Not-For-Prot 11.4% F International Research Training Grants 0.4%

G Industry/For-Prot 2.0% G Program Project/Center Grants (P Series) 10.3%

H State Government 2.7% H Research Development Center 0.1%

I Nonfederal: Subcontract 1.5% I Research Grants 52.8%

* Percentages by dollar amounts J Research-Related Programs 1.0%

K Resource Grants/Programs 4.9%

L Training and Fellowships 3.2%

36 2015 RESEARCH REPORT OUR PHILANTHROPIC LEADERSHIP

New Nonfederal Funding of $100,000 and Above* A special thank you to Judith and Stewart Colton, Alexandra and Steven Cohen, Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller, Helen L. Kimmel, Laura and Isaac Perlmutter, The Skirball Foundation, Joan and Joel Smilow, and Marica Vilcek and Jan Vilcek, MD, PhD, for their ongoing philanthropic investments in research.

Aetna Foundation Robert A. Day Estate of Estelle A. Manning Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Doris Duke Charitable Foundation March of Dimes Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Dysautonomia Foundation, Inc. Maria Teresa Mata Alzheimer’s Association The Ellison Medical Foundation G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers American Association for Cancer Research The Enoch Foundation Charitable Foundation American Brain Foundation Epilepsy Foundation The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience American Cancer Society Gertrude & Louis Feil Family Janet and Thomas Montag American Heart Association The Ralph S. French Charitable Trust in myFace American Medical Association Memory of Ralph S. French and Louis and Herbert French National Multiple Sclerosis Society American Society of Hematology Miriam Goldman Orthosensor, Inc. Amie’s Place Foundation Estate of Jocelyn A. Greenidge The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Timur Artemyev Thierry Guetta Pediatric Cancer Foundation Arthritis Foundation The Irma T. Hirschl Trust The Pew Charitable Trusts Avon Foundation for Women Howard Hughes Medical Institute Purjes Foundation Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Human Frontier Science Program Susan and H. Lewis Rapaport Diane Belfer Hyundai Hope On Wheels Rheumatology Research Foundation Denise and Robert† Benmosche Marc Jacobs International, LLC Florence and Joseph P. Ritorto James R. & Frances H. Berger Foundation JDRF Estate of Benjamin Rogala The Honorable and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady Elizabeth B. Dater Jennings and Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission The Breast Cancer Research Foundation William M. Jennings, Jr. The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Nancy E. Bronstein Kellar Family Foundation William and Sylvia Silberstein Foundation Burroughs Wellcome Fund Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Society of Surgical Oncology Marion B. Carstairs Trust Cancer Research Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Annie E. Casey Foundation The Klarman Family Foundation Program Charitable Trust in Eating Disorders Research The Chemotherapy Foundation, Inc. Stony Wold-Herbert Fund The Knapp Family Foundation Coalition for Asian American Children The Stringer Foundation and Families Estate of Pauline Kyle SV Urology Associates Research Fund Colton Family Foundation The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Tomorrow Foundation, Inc. Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation Adam K. Levin Claudia and Carey Turnbull Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers The Philip & Janice Levin Foundation Marica and Jan Vilcek Lauren Tessler Corrigan, Esq. and Estate of Frederick J. Lueders The Warner Foundation, Inc. Patton Corrigan The Lustgarten Foundation J. Weinstein Foundation, Inc. Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Making Headway Foundation, Inc. of America Welcome Back Veterans, an initiative Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Dalessandro Foundation of Major League Baseball and the Estate of Irwin D. Mandel McCormick Foundation The Manhasset Women’s Coalition Anonymous (1) Against Breast Cancer

† Deceased *New gifts and pledges made or recommended in fiscal year 2014: September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2014.

TURNING POINTS 37 LEADERSHIP

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

MARTIN LIPTON, ESQ JOHN SEXTON, PHD ROBERT BERNE, PHD Chairman, Board of Trustees President Executive Vice President for Health

NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER

KENNETH G. LANGONE ROBERT I. GROSSMAN, MD Chairman, Board of Trustees The Saul J. Farber Dean and Chief Executive Ocer

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

STEVEN B. ABRAMSON, MD MICHAEL T. BURKE JOSEPH LHOTA Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Education, Faculty, and Academic Aairs Corporate Chief Financial Ocer Chief of Sta

DAFNA BAR-SAGI, PHD RICHARD DONOGHUE VICKI MATCH SUNA, AIA Senior Vice President and Vice Dean Senior Vice President for Strategy, Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for for Science, Chief Scientic Ocer Planning and Business Development Real Estate Development and Facilities

BERNARD A. BIRNBAUM, MD ANNETTE JOHNSON, JD, PHD NADER MHERABI Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Chief of Hospital Operations General Counsel Chief Information Ocer

ANDREW W. BROTMAN, MD GRACE KO NANCY SANCHEZ Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Senior Vice President for Development and Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Clinical Aairs and Strategy, Alumni Aairs Human Resources and Organizational Chief Clinical Ocer Development and Learning KATHY LEWIS Senior Vice President for Communications and Marketing

SCIENCE & RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION

LAURA AHLBORN GREGG FROMELL, MD ROBERT SCHNEIDER, PHD Vice President for Science Strategy Vice President for Science Operations and Associate Dean for Transformation Oce of Therapeutics Alliances BRUCE CRONSTEIN, MD Codirector, NYU-HHC Clinical and JUDITH HOCHMAN, MD NAOKO TANESE, PHD Translational Science Institute Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Sciences; Associate Dean for Biomedical Sciences; Codirector, NYU-HHC Clinical and Director, Sackler Institute of Graduate ANNY FERNÁNDEZ Translational Science Institute Biomedical Sciences Senior Director for Financial Aairs and Administration DAVID LEVY, PHD ANGUS WILSON, PHD Associate Dean for Collaborative Science Assistant Dean for Research Laboratory Operations and Facilities KEITH MICOLI, PHD Director, Postdoctoral Program

38 2015 RESEARCH REPORT

2015 RESEARCH REPORT RESEARCH 2015

TURNING POINTS

MED.NYU.EDU MEDICINE OF SCHOOL NYU 2015 RESEARCH REPORT

CREDITS

2015 Research Report of NYU Langone Medical Center Produced by the Oce of Communications and Marketing

MED.NYU.EDU MEDICINE OF SCHOOL NYU 2015 RESEARCH REPORT

CREDITS

2015 Research Report of NYU Langone Medical Center Produced by the Oce of Communications and Marketing