THE NEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Scientists leading their generation in stem cell research
2021 - 2022
Cover : Valentina Fossati, PhD, 2009 NYSCF – Druckenmiller Fellow Alumna
The New York Stem Cell Foundation is accelerating cures for the major diseases of our time through stem cell research.
N Y S C F I N N O V AT O R C O M M U N I T Y A global community of over 200 scientists leading their generation in cutting-edge research
The NYSCF Research Institute conducts advanced human stem cell research and develops pioneering technologies for the field. Independent and privately funded, NYSCF takes a “team science” approach to advance cures, collaborating with leading global partners to unravel the root causes of disease through the power of stem cells.
The NYSCF Investigator Program supports early career scientists, creating and promoting a global community of leading stem cell and neuroscience researchers. The Program provides support for: • NYSCF – Robertson Investigators • NYSCF – Robertson Stem Cell Prize Recipients
The NYSCF Fellowship Program supports postdoctoral scientists at an early stage in their careers. These young researchers hold the potential to accelerate treatments and cures. The Program provides support for: • NYSCF – Druckenmiller Fellows
NYSCF F E L L OW S H I P PROGRAM The New York Stem Cell Foundation Fellowship Program supports the most talented young postdoctoral scientists at critical junctures in their careers in the pursuit of innovative and groundbreaking stem cell research. The Program provides support for the NYSCF – Druckenmiller Fellowship Awards. Fellows are based at premier academic and medical institutions. All fellows receive an annual stipend and additional support. NYSCF fosters its community of young scientists through scientific retreats, an annual conference, career development training, and other events.
Support for the program is provided by Fiona and Stan Druckenmiller.
NYSCF FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Creating a global community of scientists leading their generation in stem cell research
I N S T I T U T I O N S O F C U R R E N T F E L L OW S Columbia University Harvard University Stanford University The NYSCF Research Institute The Rockefeller University Weill Cornell Medical College Yale University
C U R R E N T I N S T I T U T I O N S O F A L U M N I F E L L OW S A*STAR-IMCB, Singapore Albert Einstein College of Medicine Angelini, Italy AstraZeneca, Sweden Bar-Ilan University, Israel Beam Therapeutics BlueRock Therapeutics Case Western Reserve University Columbia University Hackensack University Medical Center Harvard University Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Inanna Diagnostics
Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia, Spain Ionis Pharmaceuticals Johns Hopkins University Kite Pharma Ludwig Botzmann Institute, Austria Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany Mayo Clinic Medeze, Singapore Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies, Italy Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Michigan State University National Institute of Biological Sciences, China New York Blood Center
New York University School of Medicine Niigata University, Japan Northwestern University Oregon Health & Science University Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Rutgers University Sheba Tel HaShomer City of Health, Israel Sidra Medical and Research Center, Qatar Soonchunhyang University, South Korea Takeda, Spain Tara Biosystems The George Washington University The NYSCF Research Institute
The Rockefeller University The San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany University of Calgary, Canada University of Illinois at Chicago University of Padova, Italy University of Palermo, Italy University of Pennsylvania University of Southern California University of Texas Health Science Center VUmc Cancer Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands Weill Cornell Medical College Yale University
NYSCF – D RU C K E N M I L L E R F E L L OW S The New York Stem Cell Foundation – Druckenmiller Fellows are the leading young scientists in the field, advancing the most promising research in the pursuit of treatments and cures for the major diseases of our time. Through the Program, they are developing the scientific and leadership skills to advance their research and careers. The Program’s Alumni are an active and vibrant community, building the next generation of scientific leaders.
2021
NYSCF – DRUCKENMILLER FELLOWS
Julian Meyer Berger, PhD | Columbia University
Faculty Sponsor: Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD Characterizing a New Role for Bone Cells in Hormone Regulation
Bone provides structural support for the body, but more recently, scientists have found that it also has important endocrine functions, producing hormones to help regulate bodily processes. Dr. Berger is identifying new hormones derived from bone, finding the cells that generate hormones within bone and designing novel therapeutics to enhance the bone endocrine system. This work may have widespread implications for diseases affected by the bone endocrine system, such as psychiatric diseases, neuromuscular junction disorders and metabolic syndromes.
Peter M.J. Quinn, PhD | Columbia University Faculty Sponsor: Stephen H. Tsang, MD Understanding Drivers of Retinal Eye Diseases
Dr. Quinn studies two disabling eye diseases, retinitis pigmentosa and Lebers congenital amaurosis, which damage the retina and lead to visual impairment from early childhood and birth. Using retinal organoids – 3D models of retinal eye tissue made from stem cells – Dr. Quinn is examining how variations in a gene called CRB1 may drive these diseases, opening the door for new treatment strategies.
Yulia Shwartz, PhD | Harvard University
Faculty Sponsor: Ya-Chieh Hsu, PhD Exploring and Optimizing Wound Healing in Aging Skin Dr. Shwartz uses stem cells to explore why our bodies become less efficient at wound healing as we age. She is creating tools to explore how different genes influence wound healing over time, aiming to identify methods for rejuvenating aged stem cells, which could help to address non-healing and chronic wounds.
2020
NYSCF – DRUCKENMILLER FELLOWS
Katie Cockburn, PhD | Yale University
Faculty Sponsor: Valentina Greco, PhD Understanding Where and When Stem Cells Become Skin Cells Dr. Cockburn is studying the process by which the human body replaces cells to keep its tissues working normally. Stem cells are the key to fueling cell replacement, and through a new technique she developed, Dr. Cockburn will visualize all stem cells in the skin of living adult mice to identify exactly when stem cells start to become skin cells. With this approach, she is aiming to shed light on the causes of skin diseases and cancer, as well as the development of novel regenerative medicine and therapies.
Katherine Stewart, PhD | The Rockefeller University Faculty Sponsor: Elaine Fuchs, PhD Understanding Why Stem Cells Clear Up Dying Cells Dr. Stewart aims to understand how the body clears dying cells to make way for fresh, healthy cells. She has recently discovered that the stem cells that replace hair, usually primarily associated with replenishing and repairing cells, also are involved in removing dying neighbor cells – an ability that has never been linked to any type of stem cell before. She is planning to further research why stem cells engage in this behavior, which could advance insight into skin regeneration.
Yongjin Yoo, PhD | Stanford University Faculty Sponsor: Marius Wernig, MD, PhD Developing Safe Therapies for Brain Disease and Degeneration Dr. Yoo is researching cell therapies for brain disorders. He and his colleagues have developed a highly efficient method to replace virtually all microglia, the immune cells of the brain, with cells derived from bone marrow. Currently, the replacement method can only be carried out through chemotherapy, which can cause life threatening side effects and limits the ability to introduce genetically engineered cells. He is aiming to develop solutions to these limitations to develop a non-invasive and safe microglia replacement protocol.
2019
NYSCF – DRUCKENMILLER FELLOWS
Filippo Cipriani, PhD | The NYSCF Research Institute
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Noggle, PhD Modeling Diabetes in Patient Populations with Stem Cell-Derived Pancreatic Cells
Dr. Cipriani’s research is focused on using stem cells to develop robust models of diabetes on a large scale, to capture how the disease affects diverse patient populations. By leveraging the NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array®, the NYSCF Research Institute’s automated platform for stem cell production, he will develop a fully automated approach for the generation of patient-specific, stem-cell-derived pancreatic cells, minimizing experimental variation. This population-based disease modeling of diabetes will help scientists understand how the disease varies across patients.
Jesus M. Gomez Salinero, PhD | Weill Cornell Medical College Faculty Sponsor: Shahin Rafii, MD Engineering Liver Cells from Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine
Dr. Gomez Salinero is interested in curing end-stage liver disease. His research focuses on creating liver cells from stem cells that can be effectively integrated into their new home: the injured liver. To overcome challenges in making these cells functional and long-lived, he is creating liver scaffolds that mimic the environment of developing liver cells. This research will inform the development of liver regeneration therapies which could serve as an advantageous alternative to transplants for patients with liver failure.
Tatiana Volpari, PhD | The NYSCF Research Institute
Faculty Sponsor: Laura Andres-Martin, PhD Building a Biobank to Advance Precision Medicine in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Volpari is creating a ‘living biobank’ of patient-specific ovarian cancer tumor samples to advance research and treatments as part of the NYSCF Women’s Reproductive Cancers Initiative. Building on the self-renewing properties of tumors, she will create ‘organoid’ models of tumors from hundreds of patients; these organoids provide an unlimited supply of tumor tissue for research and testing therapies. This research will lay the groundwork for clinical strategies to select which therapies are most likely to be effective for each patient, addressing a major unmet need for this type of cancer.
N Y S C F F E L L O W S H I P
Alumni Y EA R
N AM E & CUR R ENT T I T L E
CURRENT I N S T I T U T I ON
F E L L OW S H I P H E L D AT:
2020
Hiroko Nobuta Assistant Professor
Rutgers University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
2019
Stephanie Ellis Postdoctoral Associate
The Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Tianchi Xin Postdoctoral Associate
Yale University
Yale University
Ly-sha Ee Postdoctoral Associate
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College
Ana Freire Postdoctoral Associate
Hackensack University Medical Center
Hackensack University Medical Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Columbia University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Sangbum Park Assistant Professor
Michigan State University
Yale University
Julia TCW Instructor
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Tae Wan Kim Research Fellow
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Benjamin Lin Postdoctoral Associate
NYU School of Medicine
NYU School of Medicine
Ying Liu Postdoctoral Associate
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College
Marissa Scavuzzo Postdoctoral Fellow
2018
Kosuke Funato Senior Research Scientist Alexandros Strikoudis Scientist Samuel Taylor Postdoctoral Associate
2017
Raphael Lis Assistant Professor Maria Maryanovich Associate Faculty
2016
2015
Laura Andres-Martin Research Investigator
The NYSCF Research Institute
Weill Cornell Medical College
Dafne Campigli Di Giammartino Research Associate
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College
Ionis Pharmaceuticals
The Rockefeller University
The George Washington University
Yale University
Sjoukje van der Stegen Research Associate
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Zhongwei Cao Assistant Professor
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Weill Cornell Medical College
Panos Douvaras Senior Scientist
BlueRock Therapeutics
The NYSCF Research Institute
Bjarki Johannesson Associate Director
AstraZeneca, Sweden
The NYSCF Research Institute
Mayo Clinic
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Takeda, Spain
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany
The Rockefeller University
Maria Themeli Assistant Professor
VUmc Cancer Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Raffaella Di Micco Principal Investigator
The San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy
NYU School of Medicine
Larry Luchsinger Principal Investigator
New York Blood Center
Columbia University
University of Illinois at Chicago
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Pantelis Rompolas Assistant Professor
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Samantha England Research Technician
University of Calgary, Canada
University of Rochester Medical Center
BlueRock Therapeutics
The Rockefeller University
A*STAR-IMCB, Singapore
NYU School of Medicine
Beam Therapeutics
Harvard University
Hongda Li Assistant Director Brett Shook Assistant Professor
2014
Alexandre Gaspar Maia Assistant Professor Maitane Ortiz-Virumbrales Senior Scientist Dominik Paquet Professor
2013
Sandra Pinho Assistant Professor
2012
Fabien Lafaille Senior Scientist Wee-Wei Tee Principal Investigator Yingying Zhang Principal Scientist
Y EA R
2011
N AM E & CUR R ENT T I T L E
CURRENT I N S T I T U T I ON
F E L L OW S H I P H E L D AT:
Dilek Colak Assistant Professor
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College
Bi-Sen Ding Assistant Professor
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Weill Cornell Medical College
Tamar Hermesh Pyschiatry Resident
Sheba Tel HaShomer City of Health, Israel
The Rockefeller University
Ya-Chieh Hsu Associate Professor
Harvard University
The Rockefeller University
University of Texas Health Science Center
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Northwestern University
Harvard University
Sidra Medical and Research Center, Qatar
Weill Cornell Medical College, Qatar
Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies, Italy
Yale University
University of Padova, Italy
Columbia University
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Harvard University
Ian Martin Assistant Professor
Oregon Health & Science University
Johns Hopkins University
Jae-won Shim Associate Professor
Soonchunhyang University, South Korea
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Medeze, Singapore
Columbia University
Inanna Diagnostics
The Rockefeller University
Tara Biosystems
Columbia University
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Sarah Xuelian Huang Assistant Professor Evangelos Kiskinis Assistant Professor Christophe Raynaud Senior Staff Scientist Giovanni Zito Researcher
2010
Elisa Cimetta Associate Professor Natalie Kim Senior Scientist
Shivatra Noi Talchai Chief Scientific Officer Maya Tevlin Founder and CEO George Kai Wang Research Scientist Oren Ziv Lab Manager
2009
Nuria Flames Principal Investigator Valentina Fossati Senior Research Investigator
2008
2007
The NYSCF Research Institute
Columbia University Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/ The NYSCF Research Institute
Dung-Fang Lee Assistant Professor
University of Texas Health Science Center
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Gabsang Lee Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
National Institute of Biological Sciences, China
The Rockefeller University
Dieter Egli Assistant Professor
Columbia University
The NYSCF Research Institute
Marco Seandel Associate Professor
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College/ Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Sriram Bandi Associate Director
Kite Pharma
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Francesco Paolo Di Giorgio Global Head of Research and Development
Angelini, Italy
The Salk Institute/ Harvard University
Justin Ichida Associate Professor
University of Southern California
Harvard University
Keiichi Inoue Assistant Professor
Niigata University, Japan
Columbia University
Daylon James Assistant Professor
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College
Ludwig Botzmann Institute, Austria
Columbia University
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Rockefeller University
Ting Chen Associate Investigator
Darja Marolt Group Leader
2006
Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia, Spain
Elena Ezhkova Professor
Impact
SINCE THE PROGRAM’S INCEPTION 80
77
70
OUTSTANDING FELLOWS SUPPORTED
NUMBER OF FELLOWS
60
50 NEWLY AWARDED FELLOWS 40
30
20
10
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
YEAR
59%
OF ALUMNI HOLD LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN SCIENCE
Over
1400
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS
97%
OF ALUMNI ARE ACTIVELY PURSUING THEIR SCIENTIFIC CAREERS
Research Areas by the Numbers
10% 3%
17% 26%
STEM CELL RESEARCH AREAS
4%
26% 1%
8% 5%
AREAS OF STUDY Autoimmune Diseases
Cancer & Blood Diseases
Cardiovascular Diseases
Diabetes
Liver Diseases
Lung Diseases
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Stem Cell Biology
Tissue Engineering
NYSCF thanks Fiona and Stan Druckenmiller for their pioneering and long-standing support of this program.
Top row from left: Dr. Ana Freire; Dr. Jesus Gomez Salinero; Dr. Marissa Scavuzzo; Drs. Ying Liu and Ly-sha Ee
NYSCF Innovator Retreat A Virtual Week of Scientific Discourse and Continued Camaraderie | May, 2021
Bottom: NYSCF Innovators
N Y S C F – RO B E RT S O N STEM CELL INVESTIGATORS Maria Barna Raffaella Di Micco Ya-Chieh Hsu Vikram Khurana Evangelos Kiskinis Florian Merkle Samantha Morris José Ordovás-Montañés Malin Parmar Sergiu Pasca Vijay Sankaran Takanori Takebe Louis Vermeulen Brian Wainger Kevin C. Wang
N Y S C F – RO B E RT S O N STEM CELL PRIZE RECIPIENTS Peter J. Coffey Franziska Michor Kazutoshi Takahashi Paul J. Tesar Amy J. Wagers Marius Wernig Feng Zhang
NYSCF RESEARCH INSTITUTE I N V E S T I G ATO R S Laura Andres-Martin Gist Croft Valentina Fossati Scott Noggle Daniel Paull
NYSCF – RALPH LAUREN I N V E S T I G ATO R Giuseppe Maria de Peppo
NYSCF – HELMSLEY STEM CELL INVESTIGATOR ALUMNI Valentina Fossati Darja Marolt
N Y S C F – RO B E RT S O N NEUROSCIENCE INVESTIGATORS Dmitriy Aronov Nicholas Bellono Stephen Brohawn Jiami Guo Elaine Y. Hsiao Maria Lehtinen Carolyn (Lindy) McBride Lauren O’Connell Yuki Oka Gregory Scherrer David Schneider John Tuthill Ilana Witten Claire Wyart Michael Yartsev
N Y S C F – RO B E RT S O N I N V E S T I G ATO R A L U M N I Hillel Adesnik Paola Arlotta Deepta Bhattacharya Ed Boyden Kristen Brennand Edward Chang Shuibing Chen Dieter Egli Winrich Freiwald Lisa Giocomo Valentina Greco Christopher Gregg Mitchell Guttman Jacob Hanna Christopher Harvey Daniel Huber Justin Ichida Zachary Knight Takaki Komiyama Gabsang Lee Michael A. Long Gaby Maimon Ravi Majeti Alexander Meissner Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins Jay Rajagopal Kristy Red-Horse Dragana Rogulja Derrick Rossi Vanessa Ruta Paul J. Tesar Kay M. Tye Melissa Warden Marius Wernig Feng Zhang
N YS C F – D RU C K E N M I L L E R F E L L OW S Peter M.J. Quinn Jesus M. Gomez Salinero Yulia Shwartz
Julian Meyer Berger Filippo Cipriani Katie Cockburn
Katherine Stewart Tatiana Volpari Yongjin Yoo
N YS C F – D RU C K E N M I L L E R F E L L OW S H I P A L U M N I Laura Andres-Martin Sriram Bandi Dafne Campigli Di Giammartino Zhongwei Cao Ting Chen Elisa Cimetta Dilek Colak Francesco Paolo Di Giorgio Raffaella Di Micco Bi-Sen Ding Panos Douvaras Ly-sha Ee Dieter Egli Stephanie Ellis Samantha England Elena Ezhkova Nuria Flames Valentina Fossati Ana G. Freire Kosuke Funato Alexandre Gaspar Maia Tamar Hermesh
Dominik Paquet Sangbum Park Sandra Pinho Christophe Raynaud Pantelis Rompolas Marissa A. Scavuzzo Marco Seandel Jae-won Shim Brett Shook Alexandros Strikoudis Shivatra Noi Talchai Samuel Taylor Julia TCW Wee-Wei Tee Maya Tevlin Maria Themeli Sjoukje van der Stegen George Kai Wang Tianchi Xin Yingying Zhang Giovanni Zito Oren Ziv
Ya-Chieh Hsu Sarah X.L. Huang Justin Ichida Keiichi Inoue Daylon James Bjarki Johanesson Natalie Kim Tae Wan Kim Evangelos Kiskinis Fabien Lafaille Dung-Fang Lee Gabsang Lee Hongda Li Benjamin Lin Raphael Lis Ying Liu Larry Luchsinger Darja Marolt Ian Martin Maria Maryanovich Hiroko Nobuta Maitane Ortiz-Virumbrales
NYSCF RESEARCH INSTITUTE SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS Paula Alonso-Guallart Alexander Anneling Zefe Baez Lauren Bauer Margaux Berliss Geoff Buckley-Herd Kolawole Campbell John Cerrone Yu-Ren Chen Filippo Cipriani Nathan Dale Drew Daly Sean DesMarteau Oriana Di Caro Ally Duren-Lubanski Brodie Fischbacher Camille Fulmore Tiffany Gibson
Jordan Goldberg Ankush Goyal Jenna Hall Jax Hebner Lilian Ho Grayson Horn Christopher Hunter Dillion Hutson Laraib Ijaz Selwyn Jacob Harshad Joshi Kriti Kalpana Howard Kim Manisha Kintali Ilya Kruglikov David Labib Davide Marotta Hector Martinez Barry Mc Carthy
Paul McCoy Dayna McKenzie Connor McKnight Bianca Migliori Andrew Mikosz Rhoda Mondeh-Lowor Rick Monsma Dorota Moroziewicz Humayun Munir Manali Nikte Enya O’Connor Reid Otto Brandon Pearl Victor Ramirez Kiran Ramnarine Chandrika Rao Katie Reggio Andrew Reiter
Madelin Rivera Tomasz Rusielewicz Michael Santos Maria Sapar Jacob Simon Marta Skowronska Martina Sladkova Cecile Terrenoire Regine Tipon Tatiana Volpari Yinan Wang Josephine Wesely Daniel White Caroline Wilson James Woods Ming-ming Zhou Matthew Zimmer
N Y S C F I N N O V AT O R S
N Y S C F L E A D E R S H I P
B OA R D O F D I R E C TO RS
NYSCF’S Board of Directors are leaders in medicine, the arts, and business. Their talents and experience, combined with an unwavering commitment to advancing stem cell research, guide NYSCF in realizing its mission. Roy Geronemus, MD, Chairman Susan L. Solomon, CEO Margo Alexander Marilyn G. Breslow Peggy Brim Karen E. Burke, MD, PhD Francesco Clark Paul Goldberger George Lazarus, MD Richard J. Massey, PhD Paul M. Meister Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil Stephen M. Ross Derrick Rossi, PhD Stephen M. Scherr Kay Unger Clyde Williams LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
NYSCF’S Leadership Council members are valued ambassadors who are committed to funding and promoting NYSCF’s mission to accelerate cures through stem cell research. Katherine Bristor & William Priest David A. Carmel Russell L. Carson Chuck Close Alan M. Cohen Shirley Cook Fiona Druckenmiller Jodie & John Eastman Frank Gehry Lawrence E. Golub & Karen Finerman April Gornik Marlene Hess Tania Higgins Dorothy Lichtenstein Sandra Lloyd
Stephen Meringoff David Mitnick Nancy & Fred Poses Carol Roaman Julian Robertson Clifford Ross Kara Ross Andy Russell Susan & Stephen Scherr Ian Schrager Barbara Stovall Smith Martha Stewart David & Jane* Walentas John Whitehead* Dick Wolf *In Memoriam
As of June 1, 2021
www.nyscf.org