Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, Elected to the National Academy of Medicine for Seminal Work in Immunology and Cell Biology
Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, an esteemed immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in recognition of her pioneering contributions to the fields of immunology and cell biology.
Dr. Merad was elected for her transformational discoveries, establishing for the first time that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct origins, maintain their lineage separately from adult hematopoiesis, and possess unique functions that enhance tissue health, repair, infection defense, and impact tumor outcomes.
She is the Mount Sinai Professor in Cancer Immunology, Chair of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy, Director of the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute, and Director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Icahn Mount Sinai.
With this appointment, Dr. Merad joins an elite group of distinguished international scientists alongside 100 new members this year. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can receive in health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
“This honor underscores Dr. Merad’s profound impact on these fields,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “Dr. Merad’s groundbreaking discoveries have reshaped the landscape of medical treatments, while her ongoing work continues to uncover the intricate responses of the human immune system to disease.”
In a 2010 Science study, Dr. Merad revealed that tissue-resident embryonic precursors give rise to macrophages, large white blood cells that play crucial roles in organ health and disease. This landmark research, cited thousands of times, has reshaped immunology textbooks and ignited an effort worldwide to explore tissue-resident macrophages in all areas of medicine. Dr. Merad's own team has revealed the role of the different macrophage lineages in cancer progression, treatment response, and inflammatory bowel disease in prominent journals, including Science, Cell, and Nature.
She has also made significant contributions to research on dendritic cells, a group of cells that control adaptive immunity. She identified a new subset of dendritic cells that has now become a key target to enhance viral and antitumor immunity. In a May 2020 Nature study, her team uncovered new therapeutic targets to boost dendritic cell-mediated antitumor immunity, and in a more recent paper also published in Nature this year, showed that this new therapeutic target can help treat patients with lung cancer.
Dr. Merad has transformed Mount Sinai into a global hub for studying the human immune system. She established the cutting-edge Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC), a world-leading research facility using single-cell technology to investigate immune cell contributions to human diseases and treatments. HIMC participates in consortia funded by the National Institutes of Health. This center is now pivotal in identifying new immune targets of cancer and inflammatory diseases.
"I am deeply humbled to be part of the National Academy of Medicine. Being elected is an incredible honor, and I’m proud to represent Mount Sinai," said Dr. Merad, who joined Mount Sinai's faculty in 2004. Raised by parents who were both scientific and medical professionals educated in France and practicing in Algeria, she was instilled with a deep respect for the transformative potential of science. She also attributes her success to Mount Sinai, which she said has provided her with the freedom to grow and pursue her research. Dr. Merad emphasizes the institution's culture of empowering junior faculty and young scientists: "If you aspire to innovate early in your career, Mount Sinai is the place to be."
The election of Dr. Merad brings Mount Sinai’s total membership in the prestigious group to 26 current and emeritus faculty members. The others are Joseph D. Buxbaum, PhD • Yvette Calderon, MD, MS • Neil S. Calman, MD • Brendan Carr, MD, MS • Dennis S. Charney, MD • Judy Cho, MD • Kenneth L. Davis, MD • Robert J. Desnick, MD, PhD • Angela Diaz, MD, MPH • Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD • Bruce Gelb, MD • Alison M. Goate, DPhil • Yasmin L. Hurd, PhD • Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc • Helen S. Mayberg, MD • Diane E. Meier, MD • Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD • Maria Iandolo New, MD • Peter Palese, PhD • Ramon E. Parsons, MD, PhD • Lynne D. Richardson, MD • Hugh A. Sampson, MD • Albert Siu, MD, MSPH • Barbara G. Vickrey, MD, MPH • Rachel Yehuda, PhD.Dr. Merad was previously elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2020, one of a very few Icahn Mount Sinai faculty members to hold dual Academy memberships.
New members of the Academy are elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. For more details, see this year’s official announcement from the National Academy of Medicine [https://nam.edu/news/].
About the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is internationally renowned for its outstanding research, educational, and clinical care programs. It is the sole academic partner for the eight- member hospitals* of the Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest academic health systems in the United States, providing care to a large and diverse patient population.
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