Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are partnering in the creation of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine (CEPM) in New York City, one of the first centers in the nation to bridge engineering and engineering science with medicine.
The partnership will build on a wealth of shared basic research discoveries, explore unique therapeutic innovations in cancer, Alzheimer’s and a myriad of infectious diseases; educate a new generation of biomedical leaders; and develop new technologies and processes that enhance patient outcomes in unprecedented ways. CEPM represents an evolution in the successful partnership between Mount Sinai and RPI, one that has secured over $70 million in shared research funding since 2013 with 90 percent of that provided by the National Institutes of Health.
The joint center will be located at 619 West 54th Street in Manhattan, with research also occurring at the Rensselaer campus in Troy in upstate NY. The center will drive advances in point-of-care and point-of-use devices and diagnostics; microphysiological platforms for discovery and diagnosis; robotic surgery; biomedical imaging; therapeutics biomanufacturing; and artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to biomedical data. These engineering advances will improve patients’ quality of life by synergizing state-of-the-art expertise in research and education at the nexus of engineering and medicine.
The CEPM will focus on three critical research areas at the interface of engineering and medicine:
- Neuroengineering, which exploits minimally invasive control and regulation of neural circuitry to target neurodegenerative diseases; brain-computer/network analysis; neuro-diagnostics; and computational neurobiology
- Immunoengineering, which focuses on developing designer immune cells; microbiome engineering; on-demand anti-infectives; and synthetic vaccines to help our bodies fight cancer and infectious disease
- Regenerative and reparative medicine, which encompasses on-demand personalized tissue repair and regeneration; organoids (3D tissue culture that mimics simplified organ function); and cellular reprogramming
To foster innovation, CEPM will develop a five-year joint PhD in engineering and precision medicine that will equip a new generation of researchers with the fundamental biological sciences, data analytics, and engineering knowledge and skills to pursue breakthroughs in medical science. The development of master’s degrees and certificate programs will broaden the CEPM’s academic mission and facilitate research that spans all aspects of disease mechanisms, data, and technologies from molecular to human dimensions. These programs include a joint PhD in engineering and precision medicine, a PhD in the School of Engineering or School of Science at Rensselaer with a concentration in engineering and precision medicine, and a PhD with a combined master’s degree or certificate in entrepreneurship.
“This transformative partnership between Rensselaer and Icahn Mount Sinai recognizes that engineering and engineering science is fundamental to the understanding of biomedical phenomena and is essential to the development of the next generation of precision diagnostics and therapeutics, human health and well-being, and to the training of advanced researchers and physicians,” said Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Innovative research is a foundation of Rensselaer, as our students, faculty, and graduates continue to change the world through scientific and technological advances. This center will continue to fuel medical and scientific discoveries with life-changing impacts across the globe.”
“From highly sensitive and accurate bioimaging systems to new drug target discoveries, the major inventions that have shaped modern medicine were born out of close collaboration between engineers and clinicians,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “The CEPM presents a bold new paradigm for that collaboration to continue that we believe will result in unprecedented advances in science, medicine, and human health. In addition, the PhD program will enable us to attract and equip a new generation of researchers with the interdisciplinary engineering and clinical skills to pursue more groundbreaking, impactful research.”
The Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine grew out of the historically collaborative work by Rensselaer and Icahn Mount Sinai researchers in the field of precision medicine, a personalized approach to disease treatment and prevention based on individuals’ biological, environmental, and lifestyle differences. Precision medicine is already transforming medical practice in areas such as cancer immunology, infectious disease, neuroinflammation and disease, and regenerative and reparative medicine. The CEPM will accelerate this transformation and develop new technologies that will revolutionize the way patient care is delivered.
“Engineering is the driving force for an increasing number of important medical breakthroughs,” said Jonathan Dordick, PhD, Institute Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer and Co-Director of CEPM. “The joint Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine is ideally positioned to integrate engineering research and education with medicine to develop new diagnostics and treatments at the individual level, making a real difference in people’s lives.”
“Ultimately, the outcome of CEPM will be new, transformative research projects and innovative technologies that shift clinical paradigms,” said Priti Balchandani, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai and Co-Director of CEPM. “And we believe this collaboration will generate new start-ups and attract commercial partners who transform the technologies we pioneer into therapeutic solutions that improve health care and have life-changing outcomes for our patients and for society as a whole.”
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first and one of the most renowned technological research universities in the nation. Rensselaer researchers are internationally recognized for their expertise in biotechnology and biomanufacturing; neuromodulation; tissue engineering, biocomputation, robotics, devices and microfabrication; and artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high-performance computing.
Icahn Mount Sinai is the academic arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which offers premier medical and research training and education, runs clinical trials with data available from nearly 4 million patients, and translates basic and biomedical research into commercial products.
