We strive to provide the highest quality healthcare education, and this begins with the ability to help our students afford tuition, ultimately lessening their financial burden upon graduation. NYMC will host our annual “Days of Giving” fundraising campaign to raise money for student scholarships in SOM, GSBMS and SHSP. You can support this important initiative by making your gift early or by joining us during March 28 and 29.

Launched by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion earlier this year, the Diversity in Research Study Group has received an extremely enthusiastic response from medical students at NYMC, and even from other medical schools, with 50 students already engaged in the group and numerous research projects underway focused on health care disparities and other important health and medical education topics. Read the full article on the study group.

Augustine Moscatello, M.D., M.S., second from right, professor of clinical otolaryngology and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at NYMC and director of otolaryngology at Westchester Medical Center, and Manoj T. Abraham, M.D., F.A.C.S, second from left, clinical associate professor of otolaryngology, treated patients in Western Ukraine at a regional hospital in Ivanko-Frankivsk as war devastates the country. Drs. Moscatello and Abraham collaborated with 15 current and retired medical professionals on a mission trip in September to treat more than 30 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians—the youngest approximately five years old. Read the full article on the Ukraine mission trip.

Residency recruitment was one of many areas disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with traditional in-person interviews forced to change to a virtual format. In a nationwide study of fourth-year medical students, recently published in Family Medicine, NYMC faculty and students found that while the change in format offered financial and time-saving benefits due to the lack of need for travel, it proved challenging for students to assess their fit into the program. An earlier survey of residency program directors, published in Academic Medicine, reported similar findings with the benefit of convenience but the difficulty of gauging an applicant’s fit or genuine interest through a virtual format. Read the full story on the virtual residency interviews.

Nearly 100 SOM students filled the halls of the Medical Education Center and Basic Sciences Building to present their research on a wide range of basic and clinical science topics on January 5 for the 27^th Annual Medical Student Research Forum. Planned exclusively by SOM students, the forum, which was held in-person for the first time since before the pandemic, included oral and poster presentations by medical students, as well as a keynote address by Joseph T. English, M.D., chair emeritus and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Read the full article on the MSRF and view the photo gallery.

The NYMC community gathered to view the documentary, Aftershock, and engaged in in-depth discussion on the U.S. maternal health crisis on February 9, in recognition of Black History Month. The documentary examined the preventable deaths of two young Black women in New York City due to childbirth complications and followed their bereaved families who fought for justice and galvanized activists, birth workers and physicians to reckon with the U.S. maternal health crisis. The event was hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Christian Medical and Dental Association, Obstetrics and Gynecology Student Interest Group, Student National Medical Association and the Universal Health Club. Read the full article on the movie screening and discussion.

Blunt thoracic trauma is responsible for 35 percent of trauma-related deaths in the United States and significantly contributes to morbidity and health care-related financial strain. A newly published study conducted by Guy Elgar, SOM Class of 2025, and Abbas Smiley, M.D., research assistant professor of surgery, found that comorbidities were a greater factor influencing mortality in emergently admitted patients with blunt chest wall trauma than advanced age, as had been reported in previous studies. Read the full article on blunt thoracic trauma.

Traumatic brain injury accounts for 50,000 pediatric hospitalizations annually in the United States and remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality among pediatric and adolescent patients. A nationwide survey conducted by a group of NYMC students and faculty and physicians at Westchester Medical Center demonstrated those with poor socioeconomic status suffered worse outcomes, including increased mortality, more complicated courses of treatment and longer hospital stays. Read the full article on the research.

Study Identifies Pathway That Processes Emotional Information in Brain

Emotional facial expressions convey a wealth of non-verbal information, including an individual’s mood, state of mind and intention, making them critically important for social communication. While viewing emotional expressions evokes an enhanced neural response in the amygdala and throughout the visual cortex, including the primary visual cortex (V1), the effect of facial valence (emotional content of the face) in V1 is surprising as the early visual cortex is not typically thought to process emotional aspects from stimuli. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, Jason Fu, SOM Class of 2025, helped uncover the functional pathways by which emotional information is transmitted from the amygdala to V1. Read the full article on emotional processing in the brain.

New York Medical College Proudly Displays Donated Portrait of William Cullen Bryant

NYMC co-founder and revolutionary William Cullen Bryant is back at the College—in oil painting form. The portrait of the long, gray-bearded founding father is hung prominently in the Blanche and Albert Willner, M.D. '43 Atrium and Lobby in the Medical Education Center, where hundreds of students pass each day and can now be inspired by the man who laid the College’s foundation. Jay D. Tartell, M.D. '82, gifted the College “Portrait of William Cullen Bryant,” which was painted by Ferdinand Danton Sr., in 1877. Read the full article on the portrait.

NYMC Forms Academic Affiliation with St. Mary’s General Hospital and Saint Clare’s Hospitals

NYMC formed a new academic affiliation with New Jersey hospitals St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic and Saint Clare’s Hospitals in Denville and Dover, which designates the hospitals as primary clinical sites for the education of NYMC residents. The NYMC sponsorship includes residency programs in internal medicine and psychiatry and further enhances NYMC’s extensive network of affiliated hospitals and clinical sites that encompasses more than 25 affiliates, across four states—New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Read the full article on the new academic affiliation.

Sachin Gupte, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, received a $2,773,836, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop new personalized treatments to reduce vascular disease. “Vascular diseases continue to be a major cause of death in the U.S. and worldwide,” said Dr. Gupte. “The goal of our research is to develop new therapies for three human diseases – pulmonary arterial hypertension, PAH-induced heart failure and metabolic syndrome-associated coronary artery disease.” Read the full article on Dr. Gupte’s grant.

Wen-Hui Wang, M.D., professor of pharmacology, has been awarded a $2.7 million, four-year grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health for research on the role of the Kir4.1 potassium channel in the regulation of hypertension and potassium excretion in the kidney. Read the full article on Dr. Wang's grant.

Debra Bessen, Ph.D., professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology, has been awarded a five-year $2,931,474 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health to support the discovery and design of a vaccine to prevent Group A streptococci (Strep A) infection, which annually causes more than 750 million infections and over 500,000 deaths throughout the world. Read the full article on Dr. Bessen’s grant.

Supriya Jain, M.D., clinical associate professor of pediatrics and of radiology and clinical education liaison, has been awarded a Broad Agency Agreement of $1,997,031 over five years by the FDA to support groundbreaking research on COVID-19 vaccine-associated myocarditis using advanced cardiovascular imaging, including cardiac MRI (CMR). Dr. Jain will lead a collaborative research network of clinical investigators spanning more than 30 U.S. medical institutions. Read the full article on Dr. Jain's award.

Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., professor of pediatrics, medicine, pathology, microbiology and immunology and cell biology and anatomy, and associate chair of the Department of Pediatrics, was awarded a $100,000 research grant by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s Jack’s Pack - We Still Have His Back Hero Fund to develop immunotherapeutic agents to enhance the function of natural killer cells to destroy Burkitt lymphoma. Read the full article on Dr. Cairo’s St. Baldrick’s Foundation award.

Two innovative programs are on the horizon at NYMC thanks to recent federal funding. A $1,900,000 award from the Community Project Fund will support “Equity and Compassion in Medical Education Through Advanced Real-Time Simulations” and $825,000 of Congressionally directed spending will help launch the Women’s Institute for Science Entrepreneurship. Read the full article on the new programs.

Carl Edouard Jn Pierre, M.D. '22, Aided Haitians During the 2010 Earthquake and Gained a New Interest in Medicine

Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Carl Edouard Jn Pierre, M.D. '22, grew up knowing his future would be in medicine. However, his plans to complete medical school in Haiti were derailed after his best friend was kidnapped from the car they were driving in together.  Fearing for their son’s safety, Dr. Jn Pierre’s parents arranged for him to go to the United States while he was in his first year of medical school at Universite of Notre Dame d’Haiti. Read the full article on Dr. Jn Pierre.

Ninety Minutes: The Medical Magazine of the Web

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

12:00 p.m.

Register on Zoom

NYMC Golf Tournament and Reception



Monday, June 26, 2023

11:00 a.m.

Saint Andrew's Golf Course

Hastings-on-Hudson, NY

Founder's Dinner 2023

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Marina Del Ray

Bronx, NY

Proceeds go towards scholarships and important initiatives, and furthers NYMC’s mission to educate the next generation of physicians and healthcare providers, and support life-saving biomedical research.

Join Us On NYMCConnect

Be sure to join the NYMC alumni platform interactive site that provides opportunities for direct communication between NYMC alumni and students, faculty and staff who wish to engage in career counseling, professional guidance and much more. Alumni can also request transcripts, licensure and diploma copies. More than 1,500 members of the NYMC community are registered and we hope that you will join today. 

Call for Alumni Milestones

We would love to share your most recent news and accomplishments in our next issue of Chironian. If you have any accomplishments or developments, published a book, or have any family news to share we would love to hear from you. Please share your updates with us to be included in our class notes.