Mount Sinai Ranks Ninth Nationally in NIH Biomedical Funding
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai secured more than $514 million in total funding from the National Institutes of Health during fiscal year 2026, according to mountsinai.org.
That financial milestone propelled the institution into ninth place nationally among medical schools for biomedical research grants.
The total covers 696 grants and contracts across fields such as immunology, cancer, genomics, and artificial intelligence in human health, mountsinai.org reported. The school entered the top ten national rankings for NIH research grants for the first time.
Standing Apart as a Freestanding Medical School
Operating without a traditional university backing, Mount Sinai stands as the only freestanding medical school among the top ten NIH grant recipients nationwide, mountsinai.org reported. Founded in 1968 in an upper Manhattan bus garage, the institution integrated its research labs directly with hospital clinical care.
“Our unique model brings researchers and clinicians together, allowing discoveries in the lab to move more quickly to the patients and communities who need them most,” Brendan G. Carr, Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, told mountsinai.org.
Eric J. Nestler, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine, also highlighted the trajectory. “From our humble beginnings in a vacant bus garage in upper Manhattan to becoming a life-sciences and educational powerhouse, we have propelled science and medicine thanks in part to our passion and grit,” he told mountsinai.org.
Expanding Cancer and Brain Research Initiatives
Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center received a comprehensive cancer center designation from the National Cancer Institute in 2025, placing it among the top one percent of cancer centers nationwide according to mountsinai.org. Researchers there advanced clinical trials for bladder cancer vaccines and therapies aimed at preventing disease recurrence.
In neurology, investigators contributed to the PsychAD Consortium to study Alzheimer’s disease progression. Other teams advanced deep brain stimulation projects directed by Alex Charney for conditions including Parkinson’s disease and depression, mountsinai.org reported.
Targeting Autoimmunity and Pandemic Preparedness
A new private grant of $5 million established the Colton Center for Autoimmunity within the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai. Directed by Shruti Naik, the center applies AI-enabled analytics to study conditions affecting over 15 million Americans, mountsinai.org reported.
Meanwhile, virologists Gustavo Palacios and Adolfo García-Sastre lead the newly funded DOORs project, backed by an $11.8 million federal grant, to examine how viral families infect and spread. The institution also secured a $21 million award to develop broad-protection respiratory vaccines starting with an H5N1 prototype, mountsinai.org reported.
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