The Biobank Team

Dr. Merad is the Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC). She co-directs the Biobank with Dr. Alexander Charney.

Dr. Merad is an internationally acclaimed physician-scientist and a leader in the fields of dendritic cell and macrophage biology with a focus on their contribution to human diseases. Dr. Merad identified the tissue resident  macrophage lineage and revealed its distinct role in organ physiology and pathophysiology. She established the contribution of this macrophage lineage to cancer progression and inflammatory diseases and is now working on the development of novel macrophage-targeted therapies for these conditions. In addition to her work on macrophages, Dr. Merad is known for her work on dendritic cells, a group of cells that control adaptive immunity. She identified a new subset of dendritic cells, which is now considered a key target of antiviral and antitumor immunity.

Dr. Merad leads the Precision Immunology Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine (PrIISM) to bring immunology discoveries to the clinic. PrIISM integrates immunological research programs with synergistic expertise in biology, medicine, technology, physics, mathematics and computational biology to enhance our understanding of human immunology. She also founded the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Mount Sinai, one of the world’s most sophisticated research centers, which uses cutting-edge single-cell technology to understand the contribution of immune cells to major human diseases or treatment responses.

Dr. Merad has authored more than 200 primary papers and reviews in high profile journals. Her work has been cited several thousand times. She receives generous funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research on innate immunity and their contribution to human disease, and belongs to several NIH consortia. She is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. She is the President-elect of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS).  In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her contributions to the field of immunology.

Dr. Charney is an Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine with primary appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Genetics & Genomic Sciences, as well as secondary appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery. 

Dr. Charney received his MD and PhD under the mentorship of Pamela Sklar, MD, PhD, and Eric Schadt, PhD, two of the world’s foremost experts on large-scale genomics and multiscale biology. He has been the lead data scientist on some of the largest genetic studies ever conducted on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, including genome-wide association studies, copy number variant studies and rare sequencing variant studies.

Currently, he leads several of the largest studies in the field of psychiatric genomics and has established a unique approach to human brain research as the founder and primary investigator of the Living Brain Project. As a physician-scientist specializing in the neurobiology of severe mental illness, his primary goal is to translate genomic discoveries to experimental therapeutics. Alex likes to kayak, work out, play the drums and guitar!

Dr. Kim-Schulze is the Facility Director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC) at Mount Sinai. She is an expert in human immune response monitoring platforms on various clinical trials and particularly cancer immunotherapy trials. Dr. Kim-Schulze oversees the HIMC diverse range of cutting-edge technology platforms, with a focus on optimizing platform-specific assays to decipher the complexity of the immune system across a broad range of research areas including cancer, IBD, CVD and neurodegeneration. She is responsible for clinical sample management, processing and performing immunological assays and data analysis with bioinformatics scientist. She has been involved with over 150 clinical trials, including protocol writing, bio- specimen repository quality control, regulatory matters, assay optimization and development, data analysis, manuscripts and grant writings and applications, and establishment of center budget and overall finance.

Bio to come!

Nicole was redeployed to the Biobank team during the spring 2020 coronavirus surge in New York City. After completing her 6-week redeployment, she remained on the project to continue coordinating the Biobank. 

She received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Boston University and her Master of Arts in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University. In the fall of 2021, she will begin her PhD in Clinical Research at the Icahn School of Medicine to study breakthrough therapeutics for schizophrenia, psychotic illness trajectories, and psychedelics in psychiatry.

Nicole’s favorite part of her job is interacting with patients and their families. She feels passionate about health, human rights, and the natural world.

 Kai was redeployed in April 2020 to the Human Immune Monitoring Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was subsequently recruited to work for HIMC full-time and process COVID-19 blood samples, QC and manage COVID-19 bio-specimens, perform assays, and assist data analysis. 

Kai majored in Pharmacy in Peking University Medical Center in Beijing China, and then pursued graduate studies in Pharmacology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is an experienced research specialist in translational medical research. Kai was a researcher at the Department Neuroscience at Lerner Research Institute of Cleveland Clinic, and in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University. Kai looks forward to learning more cutting-edge technologies, such as CyTek Aurora, Olink, and scRNA-seq.

Outside of work, Kai enjoys cooking, traveling, and watching movies.

Nick joined the Biobank research team in October of 2020 to process COVID-19 blood samples while beginning work at the Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC). He was trained and mentored by Kai Nie and the rest of the HIMC Sample Processing team since he began.

Nick studied Interdisciplinary Biology at Stony Brook University and minored in English with a focus in Renaissance English literature. His interests in biology include viral epidemiology and virology. Since working at Mount Sinai, Nick has developed a strong affinity for immunology and hematology. Nick is currently training to become proficient in different genomic and proteomic assays and wishes to continue contributing to the research efforts of the Biobank team and the HIMC.

Nick has a wide variety of hobbies. In his free time, he enjoys watching anime, cooking, calisthenics exercises, and running.

Sandi was redeployed to the original Biobank team in April 2020. She served as the main ICU liaison and tube transporter during her 6-week redeployment. Now, Sandi performs phlebotomy on all healthy control subjects enrolled in the Biobank.

Sandi currently manages 53 academic labs within the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and serves as the liason between administration and the labs. She ensures that all labs are compliant and follow safety protocols. She has worked in the Tisch Cancer Institute for 7 years and loves her work with all of her collaborators and researchers.

Sandi believes that we all make a difference in the lives of all our patients. She hopes to continue her work not only in the daily operations of the labs but also in different research programs she is able to participate in.