Philanthropy
The immune system plays a critical role in many diseases. Thus, medications to modify various aspects of immunity have become essential therapeutics for doctors in many specialties. However, many immunotherapeutic drugs show limited effectiveness or carry their own unwanted side effects. The development of effective and safe drugs for treating the immune components of inflammatory disease, for example, has been hampered by the complexity of the immune system. Simply stated, there is much that we do not fully understand about the immune system. However, breakthroughs over the past few years could lead to extremely valuable treatments. This will only happen if interdisciplinary collaborations are able to focus and build upon the knowledge already gained. Many players, techniques, and technologies are needed to harness this effort: excellent clinicians, immunologists, geneticists, microbiologists, imaging scientists, cell biologists, and information scientists, to name a few.
Individuals who are not scientists or clinicians can also contribute to advancing the work of the Immunology Institute. If you are are interested in learning more about how you can contribute then please contact the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Development Office.