Institutes

BMEII Website

What

The BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute – BMEII (formally TMII) will develop novel medical inventions in the fields of imaging, nanomedicine, artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors, medical devices and computer vision technologies such virtual real, augmented and extended reality. BMEII provides support for all in vivo imaging research including neuroimaging, cardiovascular imaging, cancer imaging, nanomedicine (molecular imaging and drug delivery), and image processing in the preclinical and clinical settings. BMEII instrumentation and services include:

• Human Imaging (MRI, MR/PET, CT)
• Human Mock MRI
• Human and Animal Imaging Peripherals
• Human and Animal Anesthesia and Monitoring
• Large Animal Imaging (MRI, MR/PET)
• Small Animal MRI
• Small Animal PET/CT
• Small Animal Optical Imaging (Fluorescence, Bioluminescence, Near-infrared)
• Staff-Assisted Imaging
• Imaging Processing and Data Analysis
• Training
• Consultations

Fees

• Industry Sponsored Fees/rates – contact the BMEII Director, Zahi A. Fayad, PhD – zahi.fayad@mssm.edu
• Federal/Non-Profit rates – Resource Fees

When

BMEII encourages study teams to reach out early on when they are assessing study feasibility, completing site selection paperwork and during the budgeting and contracting stages to ensure appropriate resources/infrastructure are available to support the study. A project consultation with the BMEII technical director must be conducted prior to budgeting, contracting and IRB submission.

How

New projects first require a consultation with the technical director to discuss the intended project, protocol feasibility, and any other technical or operational issues. Subsequent review and approval of a formally submitted project proposal by the Imaging Resources Management Committee (IRMC) is required. For additional information visit the BMEII Starting a Study page.

Questions – Contact Christopher.Cannistraci@mssm.edu

Mandatory Memorandum

A signed memorandum (SOP105) from the BMEII Director is required to be included in the Internal Documents tab of the InfoEd application. Research applications with an imaging component that fail to include this memorandum will be unable to submit their applications through InfoEd.

Training

Researchers requiring access to the MRI suites must receive MRI Safety Training.

Internal IT Systems

• Calpendo
• Mount Sinai Imaging Research Warehouse (MS-IRW)
• BMEII XNAT

Animal Resources Biomedical Engineering Imaging Translational Research

 

Last Updated: August 2023

Black Family Stem Cell Institute

Researchers at the Black Family Stem Cell Institute advance stem cell biology by harnessing the potential embryonic, adult and induced pluripotent stem cells. This promising field presents tremendous opportunities for scientific breakthroughs that translate into medical treatments capable of replacing damaged or malignant cells with healthy stem cells, differentiated cell derivatives, or bioengineered tissues. These advances are essential for providing the foundation for regenerative therapies in diseases such as blood and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, eye, skin and liver-related diseases, Parkinson’s and neurodegenerative diseases, and certain cancers.

Resources

• Stem Cell Engineering Core
  • Derivation of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) from patient blood samples
  • Lung and airway epithelia derived from human pluripotent stem cells for COVID-19 studies
  • Directed Differentiation into specific cell types
  • Genome Editing
  • Training – iPSC culture techniques
• Flow Cytometry
• Microscopy
• Mouse Genetics and Gene Targeting

Stem Cell

Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine Website

The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine (CBIPM) is driving innovation in the data-driven and genomic-based individualization of health care. CBIPM brings together a group of experts in the clinical and biological data sciences committed to exploring the nature of human disease through cohort studies. The Institute has led the creation of 2 major cohort studies – The Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program and the BioMe BioBank Program to support genome-informed personalized medicine. Mount Sinai Million aims to enroll and genetically sequence one million Mount Sinai patients and integrate health and research data to promote medical discoveries. This is an expansion of the BioMe BioBank– an electronic medical record-linked biobank which serves as a rich resource for biomedical and genetic research.

To gain access to phenotypic and genotypic data for Mount Sinai Million and BioMe, please submit an inquiry here.

Resources

• DNA and Plasma samples
• Phenotypic data
• Genotypic data
• DNA or Plasma extraction services (for non-clinical research samples)
• Re-contacting services for prospective studies
• Cohort studies at scale

Biorepository and Biospecimen

Last Updated: September 2023

ConduITS Website

Resources

• Community Engagement
• BERD
• Team Science
• LabVantage Biorepository Management System
• InCHOIR
• Research Information Technology

Clinical Research

DDI Website

The Drug Discovery Institute is a hub for the development of new drugs that result from basic and clinical research programs throughout the Mount Sinai Healthy System. The Drug Discovery Institute provides state-of-the-art facilities, multidisciplinary expertise and services. Resources include:

Medicinal Chemistry

Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory 

• Fully equipped synthetic chemistry laboratories
• Major instrumentation such as chromatography, HPLC, NMR, LC-MS (SCB)
• Evaluation of high throughput and virtual screens
• Hit validation and follow-up
• Lead identification
• Chemical tools for in vivo studies in preclinical animal models of disease
• Lead optimization to identify candidates for clinical studies

Therapeutic Antibodies

Center for Therapeutic Antibody Development (CTAD)

• Design and development of projects to produce monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with therapeutic applications
• Partnerships with Regeneron and others companies to produce humanized mAb
• CTAD has expertise in the generation of protein immunogens using a number of expression systems.
• High throughput systems for screening and analysis of antibodies
• CTAD excels in the generation of antibodies to challenging targets.

Structure Based Drug Discovery

Structured Based Drug Discovery

• Computational approach to understand target structures and interactions with ligands. Access to Schrodinger platform.
• Medicinal Chemistry: an efficient, economical way to identify compounds to generate and optimize lead small molecule drugs
• Antibodies: techniques are used to map and define lead antibodies for IP filing
• Virtual Screening, Protein Structure Modeling, Ligand Binding Site Identification
• Cheminformatics, Molecular Graphics

Assay Development and Screening

Assay Development and Screening Core Facility

Our core also provides extensive consultation and technical assistance for user-initiated and executed projects, including support for assay design, automation and data analysis.

Our integrated resources include:

• A 50k compound diverse library.
• Both human and mouse Mission siRNA/shRNA libraries from Sigma-Aldrich.
• Two automatic liquid handling systems, Janus Integrator Platform and hp D300 Dispenser, which are able to handle liquid samples from milliliters to picoliters.
• Two plate readers, FLIPR^tetra plus with 384-channel head and Envision with whole sets of filters for reading different plates.
• ImageXpress Ultra system, which is able to perform medium to high throughput of high content screens.

Assay Development Drug Discovery High Throughput Screening (HTS) Monoclonal Antibody Production

ITCT Website

The Mount Sinai Institute for Transformative Clinical Trials (ITCT) provides expertise to ISMMS investigators conducting multi-center clinical trials.

Resources

• Study Design Expertise
• Recruitment Expertise
• Regulatory Management & Compliance (including international agencies)
• Database Design & Management
• Trial Management
• Quality Assurance & Data Monitoring
• Trial Analysis

Clinical Research

ITE Website

The Institute for Translational Epidemiology (ITE) is committed to expanding the role of epidemiology in clinical research. ITE provides expertise and resources to support Mount Sinai researchers, through collaborations, consultations, and training courses.

Resources

• The Center for Cancer and Aging
• Center for Disaster Health, Trauma and Resilience
• The General Thoracic Surgery Database of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is a record of all thoracic surgical cases performed at the Mount Sinai Hospital since March 2012. This database of over 2000 cases contains information on demographics, surgery performed, pre-operative evaluations (height, weight, comorbidities, smoking status, performance scores), clinical information (staging, surgery date, procedure start/end time), post-operative complications, and each primary diagnosis for each procedure. This database is enhanced through a linkage with Pathology providing unstained sections, curls, H&E stained slides, and curls of normal tissue, as well as pathology reports for studies on molecular markers. Patient records in the STS database were identified in EPIC in order to provide additional information on a case-by-case basis as needed. A linkage of STS data has been performed with the BioMe Biobank Program, which has stored DNA and plasma samples, clinical medical record and questionnaire data, and large-scale genome-wide genotype and exome-chip data. Furthermore, the STS database has been linked with a warehouse dataset curated by SEMA4, providing genetic information on each patient including any variants present (deletions, insertions, fusions, single nucleotide variants), with additional information about codon and exon location. This enhanced resource can be utilized to investigate the prevalence of various molecular markers in thoracic cancers and their relationship to exposure, cancer etiology and outcomes, utilizing both clinical and tissue data. Taken together this novel tool represents an innovative way to identify and observe the effects of environmental exposures and cancer development.
• Training courses:
  • Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods (Mount Sinai)
  • Introduction to the Use of Healthcare Database for Population Health Research (Mount Sinai)
  • Healthcare Data Science Course (University of Brescia, Italy)
• World Trade Center (WTC) Biorepository of human and animal tissue samples

Expertise

• Large datasets
• Epidemiological methods
• Chronic disease epidemiology
• Cancer Epidemiology
• Environmental Epidemiology
• Genetic Epidemiology
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology
• Mental Health
• Disparities Research

Animal Resources Biorepository and Biospecimen Clinical Research Datasets

Transplant Research Program Website

The Microvasular Surgery facility, within the Translational Transplant Research Center (P. Heeger, MD, Director), offers established microsurgical procedures and techniques predominantly in mouse models of transplantation.  Additional procedures can be optimized in rats as required.

Routine Procedures

• Heterotopic heart transplatation
• Kidney transplantation
• Skin grafting
• Intra ocular injection
• Renal subcapsular injections
• Catheter placement
• Coronary artery ligation
• Partial hepatectomy
• Thymectomy, splenectomy, nephrectomy

We will provide training on basic microsurgical skills and develop new surgical models as needed.

All procedures and surgical time are fee for service.

Scientific Director
Peter Heeger, MD
Peter.heeger@mssm.edu

Facility Manager
Vasile Pavlov, MD
Vasile.pavlov@mssm.edu

Animal Resources

PrIISM Website

The Precision Immunology Institute encompasses and integrates disease-focused immunological research programs and cutting-technology centers.

Resources

• Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC) combines cutting edge technology with deep immunological expertise to provide comprehensive immune monitoring for clinical and translational studies. HIMC offers:
  • Study Design and Consultation
  • Biospecimen Processing and Sample Management
  • Soluble Factor Profiling
  • Phenotypic and Functional Immune Cell Characterization
  • Immunogenomics and single Cell Transriptomics
  • Multiplexed Tissue Imaging
  • Data Management and Analysis
• Microbiome Translational Center

Immune Monitoring

For a list of Institutes at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, click here.