Joseph Schein, MD Fellowship

In July 2014, the Joseph Schein, MD Endowed Fellowship in Experimental/Molecular Pathology will commence at Mount Sinai’s Department of Pathology. This fellowship is named after Joseph Schein to honor his longtime appreciation of the value of pathology, both to medical practice and to patient care. The goal of the program will be to focus on intramural research activities in stem cell biology and inflammatory diseases and extramural efforts to align clinical research programs with access to innovative biotechnology and commercial development activities. Candidates of the program will utilize the Systems Pathology platform, a system which integrates both cellular and tissue-based molecular characterization of phenotypic features of a broad spectrum of diseases along with clinical attributes of specific patients. At the end of the program, candidates should have the capability of developing an independent and comprehensive research program from concept to execution.

Joseph Schein, MD, graduated from Princeton with a degree in humanities- modern languages in 1937 and from the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1941. He was mentored by Abraham Flexner, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies. At Penn, Dr. Schein met and married his wife of 75 years, Dr. Selma Snyderman, who forged a distinguished career in pediatric research, notably diseases of inborn errors of metabolism. Dr. Schein first started out with a rotating internship at Newark City Hospital as a protégé of Harrison Martland, who became the Professor of Forensic Medicine at NYU. After this internship, Dr. Schein started a lifelong and continuing relationship with Mount Sinai with a series of fellowships, first working closely with Drs. Klemperer and Otani in the Pathology Department, then becoming a fellow under George Baehr, focusing on “psychosomatic” medicine. He also served for many years as the liaison psychiatrist, first to medicine and then to neurology. Because of major activity in neuro-hormonal research, Dr. Schein elected to train at the same time under Dr. Paul Federn, one of Freud’s most trusted colleagues, at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Schein has always believed that there is no better training than the one originating from the 18th century by Giambattista Morgagni’s famous treatise De Sedibus Et Causis Morborum Per Anatomem Indagatis. He is especially honored that this endowed fellowship recognizes his longtime attachment and commitment to pathology.