The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Renames Department of Neuroscience in Honor of The Nash Family
From Left to Right: Paul Kenny, PhD, Chairman, Nash Family Department of Neuroscience; Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Director of the Friedman Brain Institute; Pamela Nash; Helen Nash; Beth Nash; Joshua Nash, Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees Member; Richard Friedman, Co-Chairman, Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees
Photo Credit: Mount Sinai Health System
In honor of the Nash family’s philanthropic generosity and extraordinary commitment to brain research at Mount Sinai, the Department of Neuroscience will be renamed The Nash Family Department of Neuroscience.
“The Nash family has been supporting critical initiatives at Mount Sinai for more than 40 years and began a focused commitment to the advancement of our neuroscience community more than a decade ago, enabling us to make impressive strides in understanding how the nervous system functions in health and disease,” says Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute and Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “The research that has been made possible through the Nash family’s generosity is being translated into fundamentally new and improved treatments for some of the world’s most devastating brain disorders. We are forever grateful for their commitment to this important work.”
The Nash family began their transformational support of Mount Sinai in 1976. Since then, they have been among Mount Sinai’s most revered and committed supporters. Jack Nash, who was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1990 until his death in 2008, and his wife Helen Nash passed on their tradition of philanthropy and service to their daughter Pamela and son Joshua, who became a Mount Sinai Trustee in 2006. Other significant gifts have supported The Nash Family Professorship of Neuroscience, held by Dr. Nestler, and The Nash Family Laboratories, led by Dr. Nestler, both of which were established in 2008. Their generosity also helped establish The Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics in 2019.
“We are thrilled that the name of our Department will reflect the tremendous support that the Nash family has provided to neuroscience research at Mount Sinai. We are very grateful for their dedication and delighted that we can recognize all they have done to elevate our Department into the premiere program that it is today,” says Paul J. Kenny, PhD, Chair of The Nash Family Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai, the Ward Colman Professor of Neuroscience and Director of Mount Sinai’s Drug Discovery Institute. “Their support enables us to power research initiatives, develop educational programs and help translate that knowledge into delivering the most advanced care to patients today and for generations to come.”
The Nash Family Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai, which is ranked No. 1 in the United States in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, sponsors innovative research in basic and translational neuroscience at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioral levels. As a direct result of the Nash family’s support, the neuroscience program has seen an unprecedented scope of growth. Over the past ten years, more than 40 basic neuroscience faculty have been recruited to Mount Sinai, making it one of the world’s leaders in neuroscience. The Department’s research and clinical faculty members are national and international leaders who are committed to an improved understanding of the nervous system and to clinical advances in diagnosis and treatment across a broad range of brain and spinal cord disorders. Research is conducted in 38 different labs, each with their own investigative team and individualized research projects that are run by a member of Mount Sinai’s internationally acclaimed faculty.
“We are deeply grateful for the Nash’s immense generosity, which has helped to create the dynamic research environment and culture of innovation that is the hallmark of our neuroscience community here at Mount Sinai,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System. “Their commitment has enhanced Mount Sinai’s reputation as one of the world’s leaders in neuroscience research and is enabling us to attract and train the next generation of scientific leaders.”
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