Research in the Department of Cell Biology is focused on understanding molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in eukaryotic cells. Using mammalian cells, yeast, viruses, fruit flies and transgenic mice, we are investigating mechanisms of DNA replication and repair, control of the cell cycle and apoptosis, roles for transcriptional regulation and chromatin structure in gene expression, RNA processing, intracellular trafficking, membrane fusion and budding, mechanisms of generating antibody diversity, and the functions of cell surface sugars.

Congratulations to Urvi! Dr. Urvi Shah, M.D., a former Montefiore Hematology and Oncology Fellow and newly appointed faculty member of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is the first prize winner of this years Henry L. Moses Award in the clinical research category. As part of her fellowship training, Dr Shah performed 2 years research in Dr. Yes laboratory which led to a first author publication in Blood last year. The award winning study is entitled North American ATLL has a Distinct Mutational and Transcriptional Profile and responds to epigenetic therapies. The Henry L. Moses awards recognize research excellence of fellows and junior faculty members of Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Shah received the award at the annual Dinner Dance and Awards Ceremony on Saturday, March 23rd from Dr. Steven M. Safyer, President and CEO, and Dr. Victor B. Hatcher, Research Director of Montefiore Medicine.

Dr. Margaret Kielian, a leading expert in viral infection mechanisms, is the recipient of the 2019 Marshall S. Horwitz, M.D. Faculty Prize for Research Excellence. The community-wide ceremony will be held in Robbins Auditorium on Monday, March 11, 2019, at 4 p.m. The award presentation and lecture will be followed by a reception. Please join Dr. Kielian as she shares some of the most exciting findings on how alphaviruses and flaviviruses enter and exit the host cell. Her lecture is entitled: How Viruses Infect a Cell: Structure, Function and Inhibition of Virus Membrane Fusion Proteins. Congratulations, Dr. Kielian! Dr. Kielian is the 5th faculty member from this department to receive this distinguished award since its inception 13 years ago. Previous recipients of the Marshall Horwitz Price include Dr. Matthew Scharff, Dr. Stanley Nathenson, , Dr. Pamela Stanley, and Dr. Carl Schildkraut.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Jiahao Chen, an predoctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Ulrich Steidl, who was recently awarded the 2019 Julius Marmur Graduate Student Research Awards for his study entitled Myelodysplastic Syndromes Progression to Acute Myeloid Leukemia at the Stem Cell Level He will present his award-winning studies at the 23nd Annual Julius Marmur Research Symposium on Monday, March 18, 2019 at 10:00am in the 3rd Floor Lecture Hall (Forch). The entire Einstein community is invited to the Symposium.

As the holiday season is approaching, good news comes in pairs for Cell Biology!

Congratulations to Dr. Barbara Birshtein on her receiving the 2018 Basic Science Faculty Mentoring Award! This is truly a well-deserved recognition, the latest in a long list of distinctions that Barbara has received in her career. The Ceremony will be held on December 19 at 4:30 PM in Price, please join us to celebrate with Barbara. RSVP at

http://www.einstein.yu.edu/administration/diversity-mentoring-invite/invite.html

Kudos to Peter! Peter Schultes, our Scientific Facilities Coordinator, has been chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Innovative Excellence Award. The Innovative Excellence Award is given to staff members whose innovation and forward thinking enhances Einsteins organization culture through their contributions and adaptation of existing programs, procedures and processes and the development of new initiatives that positively impacts operations. This award reflects Peter's outstanding performance, commitment to excellence and dedication to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

The Staff Recognition Ceremony will be held on Monday, December 17, 2018, at 1:45 p.m., in the Lubin Dining Hall.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Kira Gritsman, Assistant Professor in Medicine and Cell Biology, who has been awarded the Osler Young Investigator Award from The Interurban Clinical Club (ICC). ICC is a club of physician-scientists that was founded by Sir William Osler in 1905. The Sir William Osler Young Investigator Award recognizes Dr. Gritsman for "outstanding achievement by a young clinician-scientist in the tradition of Sir William Osler.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Rebecca Brown, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Margaret Kielian, who was awarded the Charles H. Revson Senior Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences (2018-2020).

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Samuel Taylor, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ulrich Steidl, who has been awarded a two year NYSCF Druckenmiller Fellows Award! He will be pursuing studies into pharmacological inhibition of the transcription factor PU.1 as a novel treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.

Congratulations! Dr. Britta Will, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine (Oncology) and Cell Biology, is a winner of the Michael Price Seeds of Science Award in its inaugural year. This award was established by the Price Family Foundation Fund. One of the two grants awarded this year will support Dr. Will and her collaborator, Dr. David Loeb, Chief of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, in their mechanistic studies of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia. Their planned work will focus on the molecular and physiological role played by chaperone-mediated autophagy, a process that cells use to get rid of damaged or surplus proteins, particularly under stress.

Dr. Carl Schildkraut, a longtime member of the Cell Biology Department and a world-renowned expert in DNA replication, is the recipient of the 2018 Marshall S. Horwitz, M.D. Faculty Prize for Research Excellence. On Monday, March 12, Dr. Schildkraut will share some highlights from his exceptionally productive career in his award lecture. The award presentation, lecture, and the post-award reception will be held at Robbins Auditorium starting at 4 pm.

Congratulations Carl, on this very well-deserved recognition!

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Ali Zahalka, an predoctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Frenette, who was recently awarded the 2018 Julius Marmur Research Awards for his study entitled Adrenergic nerves activate an angio-metabolic switch in prostate cancer (mentor: Dr. Paul Frenette)He will present his award-winning studies at the 22nd Annual Julius Marmur Research Symposium on Monday, March 19, 2018 at 10:00am in the 3rd Floor Lecture Hall (Forch). The entire Einstein community is invited to the Symposium.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Richard Piszczatowski, an MD/PhD predoctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Ulrich Steidl, who was recently awarded an NIH NRSA F30 Individual Predoctoral Fellowship Award for the project entitled "Investigating the role of Nol3 in normal and malignant hematopoiesis"!

Dr. Barnali Biswas received a poster award of $500 for her poster presented at the Dennis Shields Awards. She recently received a prestigious INSPIRE award from the Department of Science and Technology of the government of India. The award will allow her to set up her laboratory as an Assistant Professor in Mumbai at the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Wenjun Guo on his promotion to the rank of Associate Professor of Cell Biology!

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Keisuke Ito on his promotion to the rank of Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine!

The Department of Cell Biology would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Ulrich Steidl on receiving his tenure from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine! This is a very well deserved recognition of the outstanding productivity of his research program and his numerous contributions to and leadership in Einsteins teaching and research programs.

Dr. Advaitha Madireddy, Postdoctoral fellow in Cell Biology, is the recipient of a five-year K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Grant/Award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH. The grant was awarded to support her study to investigate how replicative defects drive hematological abnormalities and cancer predisposition in Fanconi anemia patients.

On June 7, Dr. Art Skoultchi, Chair of Cell Biology, presented the Keynote Lecture at the National Cancer Institute Center of Excellence in Chromosome Biology.

the Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Advaitha Madireddy, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Carl Schildkraut, who has been awarded the Dennis Shields Awards for Outstanding Postdoctoral Research.

On March 19th, Dr. Pamela Stanley presented a Keynote Lecture at the Gordon Conference on Glycobiology held in Ventura, California.

The Graduate School just announced the winners of the 2017 Julius Marmur Research Awards. Of the four winners this year, two are from the Department of Cell Biology: Halley Pierce and Robert Stanley. Congratulations to Halley and Robert and their laboratories for receiving this prestigious award! They will present their award-winning studies at the 21th Annual Julius Marmur Research Symposium on Monday, March 20, 2017.

Halley Pierce -- for her study entitled Central nervous system Chrm1 signals prime hematopoietic stem cells for mobilization via a glucocorticoid mediated relay. (mentor: Dr. Paul Frenette).

Robert Stanley -- for his study entitled A myeloid tumor suppressor role for NOL3. (mentor: Dr. Ulrich Steidl).

On Dec 8th, the Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Rebecca Brown, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Margaret Kielian, who has been awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship from the NIH.

On Nov 17th, Dr. Margaret Kielian presented the Keynote Lecture at the 18th Annual Norman P. Salzman Memorial Symposium at NIH. This annual meeting was established to honor the memory of Dr. Norman P. Salzman, one of the pioneers of molecular virology and a founding editor of the Journal of Virology. It is also widely considered to be the premier virology symposium hosted at the NIH.

Dr. Britta Will, Assistant Professor in Medicine and Cell Biology, is the recipient of a three-year Foundation Scholars Award from the Alexandrine and Alexander L Sinsheimer Fund. The fund was made to support her study on how transcriptional and epigenetic dysregulation drives cancer stem cell formation in leukemia. Congratulations.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate the following four Predoctoral Fellows and their laboratories who received NIH Predoctoral Fellowship Awards.

Ali Zahalka -- NIH NRSA F30 Individual Predoctoral Fellowship Award for a project entitled "Contributions of sympathetic signals to prostate cancer progression" (Sponsor, Paul Frenette, Cell Biology) .

Sean Healton -- NIH NRSA F30 Individual Predoctoral Fellowship Award for a project entitled "Epigenetic activity of normal and cancer-associated mutant H1 linker histones" (Sponsor, Arthur Skolutchi, Cell Biology).

Cary Weiss -- NIH NRSA F30 Individual Predoctoral Fellowship Award for a project entitled "MicroRNA-22 and the microRNA-22/tet2 network as regulators of the cell fate decision in hematopoietic stem cells and in the development of myelodysplastic syndrome" (Sponsor, Keisuke Ito, Cell Biology).

Ruth Howe -- NIH NRSA F30 Individual Predoctoral Fellowship Award for a project entitled "Characterizing the Novel Protein C15ORF65" (Sponsor, Ulrich Steidl, Cell Biology).

Congratulations to Dr. Ulrich Steidl on his promotion to the rank of Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine! This is a very well deserved recognition of the outstanding productivity of his research program and his numerous contributions to and leadership in Einsteins teaching and research programs.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Elena Tosti, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Winfried Edelmann, who has been awarded a fellowship from the Department of Defense.

Congratulations! Dr. Ulrich Steidl, Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Medicine, has been honored with election to the prestigious American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). The society was established in 1908 and is one of the nation's oldest and most respected medical honor societies.https://www.the-asci.org/about.shtml

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Dachuan Zhang, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Frenette, who has been awarded of the 2016 Julius Marmur Research Awards for his proposal, Neutrophil aging is regulated by the microbiome".

Welcome New Cell Biology Faculty! Britta Will, Ph.D. was appointed assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cell Biology in December 2015.Dr. Will received her Ph.D. training at Harvard Medical School and the University of Freiburg, Germany. Prior to this appointment, Britta did outstanding research on the regulation of normal hematopoietic and malignant stem cell function under Dr. Ulrich Steidls mentorship. Her research program dissects how age-related changes in gene-regulatory mechanisms contribute to hematopoietic stem cell failure and malignant transformation and exploits a combination of genetic mouse models, primary human specimen and cutting-edge molecular and cell biological assay systems. Dr. Wills laboratory is located in Room 401 of the Chanin Building. [web page]

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Dr. Arthur Skoultchi, Chairman of the Department, who is the recipient of the 2015 Faculty Mentoring Award. The ceremony will be held at 4:30PM, December 10, 2015, in Lubin Dining Hall.

Dr. Kira Gritsman, Assistant Professor in Medicine and Cell Biology, is the recipient of a 3-year Sinsheimer Scholar award. The grant was made to support her research on the roles of PI3 Kinase in myeloid leukemia cells and their bone marrow niche. Congratulations!

The Department of Cell Biology would like extend a very warm welcome to our newest faculty member, Associate Professor Dr. Matthew Gamble. Dr. Gamble has been on the faculty in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology since 2009. He was recently promoted to Associate Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and he will join our department with a secondary appointment as Associate Professor of Cell Biology. Several labs in our department have already had very fruitful interactions with Dr. Gamble and his lab members. Dr Gambles research interests include mechanisms of mammalian gene regulation at the levels of transcription and splicing, chromatin structure and function and their impact on malignant transformation, cellular senescence and DNA repair mechanisms, with a focus on the role macro domain-containing proteins. His laboratory is located in 203 Golding Building.

The Department of Cell Biology would like to congratulate Michael Willcockson, an MD/PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Arthur Skoultchi, who has been awarded an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship for his proposal, Regulators of the Erythroid Terminal Differentiation Decision and their Connection to the Cell Cycle".

Britta Will, Instructor in Cell Biology, has received a prestigious 2-year research grant from the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation. She will use the funding to characterize molecular abnormalities in HSCs of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome in order to develop mechanism-based therapeutic approaches.

Inaugural Honoree The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) has selected Dr. Matthew Scharff as the first-ever recipient of its inaugural 2015 AAI-BioLegend Herzenberg Award, which he will receive this spring during a special session at IMMUNOLOGY2015. The honor recognizes an individual who has made exemplary research contributions to the field of B cell biology. Dr. Scharff is world-renowned as a pioneer in the development and application of monoclonal antibodies, which have become a cornerstone in biomedical research. He is distinguished professor of Cell Biology and of Medicine, as well as the Harry Eagle Chair in Cancer Research/National Women's Division and faculty supervisor of the Hybridoma and Tissue Culture Facility. The AAI-BioLegend Herzenberg Award was established, with support from BioLegend to honor the memory of AAI member Dr. Leonard A. Herzenberg.

Congratulations to Dr. Travis Bernardo and Dr. Barnali Biswas for winning Postdoctoral Fellowship awards!

Dr. Travis Bernardo, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Skoultchi lab, is the recipient of a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA F32 Fellowship from the NIH.

Dr. Barnali Biswas, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stanley lab, is the recipient of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from The Lalor Foundation.

On 5/6/2015, Dr. Pamela Stanley gave a lecture in the NIH Director's Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS), which is the highest-profile lecture program at the NIH. Her lecture was entitled Glycans that regulate development and notch signaling.

Dr. Barbara Birshtein has been selected as this years recipient of the LaDonne H. Shulman Award for Excellence in Teaching. The recipient of this award is nominated and selected by the graduate students as a faculty member who has demonstrated exemplary skill in teaching and mentoring.Of special note: This is the second time that Barbara has received this award! Congratulations to Barbara on this very appropriate recognition of her dedication and teaching and mentoring skills by the graduate students.

Election to fellow is an honor bestowed upon American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) members by their peers. In 2014, 401 AAAS members were awarded this honor because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Among the six AECOM faculty members who received this distinction, three are members of the Department of Cell Biology.

Margaret Kielian, Ph.D. Elected for distinguished contributions to the field of virology, particularly for studies on the alphavirus and flavivirus membrane fusion proteins and on virus entry and exit. Dr. Kielian is Professor of Cell Biology and Samuel H. Golding Chair in Microbiology.

Richard Kitsis, M.D. Elected for distinguished contributions to fundamental and translational aspects of cell death, particularly for originating and driving the field of cell death in the heart. Dr. Kitsis is Professor of Medicine and of Cell Biology, the Dr. Gerald and Myra Dorros Chair in Cardiovascular Disease and Director of the Wilf Family Cardiovascular Research Institute at Einstein and attending physician, cardiology at Montefiore Medical Center.

Robert Singer, Ph.D. Elected for distinguished contributions to the development and application of imaging technologies and insights into the kinetics and spatial distributions of single mRNAs in living cells. Dr. Singer is Professor and Co-Chair of Anatomy & Structural Biology, Professor of Neuroscience and of Cell Biology, Co-Director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center and of the Integrated Imaging Program, and the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Anatomy & Structural Biology.

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