The Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment Receives $2.78 Million Gift from the Beatrice and Samuel Seaver Foundation to Support Precision Medicine Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Trustees Hirschell E. Levine and John Cohen of the Beatrice and Samuel Seaver Foundation recently announced a $2.78 million gift to The Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai to support precision medicine research in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including rare genetic causes of autism. This gift brings the Seaver Foundation’s support of the Center to $5 million for the year.
This funding will allow The Seaver Autism Center to enhance its focus on precision medicine, including expansion of research programs in ADNP syndrome, FOXP1 syndrome, DDX3X syndrome and SHANK3 syndrome. These rare genetic disorders provide unique windows into the causes of autism because biomarkers seen in rare genetic disorders can be used to stratify the patient population in idiopathic autism and create subgroups that, for example, may be more responsive to a particular treatment. Funding will also support the development of a drug discovery and development program, one of the first of its kind in the field of autism.
“The incredibly generous, ongoing support of the Seaver Foundation has been the cornerstone of the growth of the Center,” says Joseph D. Buxbaum, PhD, Director of The Seaver Autism Center. “The Center’s reputation as a leader in the field of autism research and treatment, coupled with the continuous, extraordinary support from the Seaver Foundation, make us well positioned to take these crucial next steps to help autism treatment forward.”
“Over the past 25 years, The Seaver Center has grown and become one of the leading autism programs in the world,” says Kenneth L. Davis, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Mount Sinai Health System and Founding Director of The Seaver Center. “Our discoveries, accomplishments, and success in obtaining federal funding have roots in Seaver Foundation support and we are profoundly grateful for their continued generosity.”
Founded in 1993 through a gift from the Beatrice and Samuel Seaver Foundation to The Mount Sinai Hospital to address the unmet need for autism research in New York City, The Seaver Autism Center is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2018. At the time of its founding, there was minimal awareness and research, but the Seaver Foundation and Mount Sinai were willing to take on the challenge of establishing an autism research and treatment center from the start. With this shared goal, The Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment was born. This latest gift of support will enable the Center to push autism research and treatment forward to the next level.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.
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