About Us

The Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences leverages a legacy of excellence, a team of world-class geneticists and researchers, and access to one-of-a-kind resources and collaborations to bring pioneering ideas to life.

The Department consistently ranks in top 5 in the country in NIH funding in genetics research with specialty research programs including rare and metabolic diseases, cancer genomics, genomics of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, experimental and AI approaches to drug discovery, functional genomics, single cell sequencing, experimental biology, immunogenomics, microbiome, and genomics of infectious diseases. The Department’s faculty is composed of basic and translational research scientists, data scientists, technology innovators, and experts in key diseases working together with the shared goal of leveraging large-scale data, coupled with applications of advanced multi-omics technologies, to predict, test, and translate novel therapies faster and more effectively.

Patient Care

We are home to the Division of Medical Genetics and Genomics, a National Organization for Rare Diseases Center of Excellence, specializing in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of adult and pediatric patients with or suspected of having genetic diseases, birth defects, reproductive complications, or cancer risks. The Division offers 12 specialty programs and clinics and is highly engaged in training the next generation of genetics and genomics professionals through its residency and fellowship programs. The Division’s home within the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and collaborations throughout the Mount Sinai Health System helps medical faculty and physician scientists provide patients access to cutting-edge research that will shed light on how genetic and genomic variation contributes to human disease and bring hope for new treatment options to patients.

Clinical Trials

The Department’s faculty has a substantial history of translational work and conducting clinical trials for patients with rare genetic disorders and has a dedicated Genetics Clinical Trials Office. To date, the department has performed more than 50 industry, National Institutes of Health, and investigator-initiated studies including groundbreaking DNA, RNA, and enzyme-based therapies.

Education and Training

The Department’s extensive education and training programs include a PhD concentration in Genetics and Genomic Sciences, a Masters of Science program in Genetic Counseling, Clinical and Research Training Fellowships in Medical Genetics, a Clinical Genetics Laboratory Training Program, and two T32 training grants.

The Icahn Genomics Institute (IGI) is dedicated to the development of new DNA and RNA based therapies. The success of the mRNA vaccines for treating COVID-19 has had a profound effect on the world—yet this is only the tip of the iceberg of gene medicine. The IGI is working on the next generation of advances in gene therapy, including identifying new genetic targets that drive disease, developing delivery mechanisms to modify or influence them, and pioneering treatments for diseases that have defied conventional treatment by traditional drugs. Our exploration of gene and cell therapy, RNA vaccines and therapeutics, and DNA-based drugs will have a profound effect on the way medicine is practiced.

Director: Brian D. Brown, PhD

Learn more about the Icahn Genomics Insitute

The rapid pace of technological advancement in genome sequencing has created endless opportunity for novel discoveries across basic and translational sciences. To pioneer this data transformation, the Center for Advanced Genomics Technology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has built an extensive technology toolbox with unprecedented access to and application of novel and existing methods in a multitude of genomics technologies. These capabilities span bulk, single-cell, spatial, and in situ genomic sequencing methods, all of which are leveraged to generate complementary cross-platform, orthogonally validated datasets to foster novel discovery and advance clinical applicability using human cohorts and model systems.

Director: Robert Sebra, PhD

Learn More About the Center for Advanced Genomics Technology

 

The Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling aims to develop novel insights on critical biological networks underlying the onset and/or progression of complex, multifactorial diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases. Center goals include to build upon these novel insights and accelerate the development of next-generation therapeutics and to use a number of research directions to support and facilitate multiscale network inference. The Center has assembled a team of computational and laboratory research scientists to develop novel tools, reagents, methodologies, and strategies towards the integration of critical disease-related biological networks and network drivers into therapeutics discovery.

Director: Bin Zhang, PhD

Learn More About the Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling

The Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease is instrumental in the Mount Sinai Health System’s commitment to advancing the research, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of this insidious disease. The Center’s work spans a multisite network of clinics and practices that treat more than 3,000 patients every year, and includes translational research programs that have been awarded more than $200 million from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies. The Center’s mission is to develop state-of-the-art Alzheimer's disease treatment using breakthroughs in genomics, neurobiology, stem cell engineering, and other disciplines.

Director: Alison Goate, DPhil

Learn more about the Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease

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