These are some of the honors recently given to the faculty of NYU Langone Health:
Pioneering NYU Langone Scientist Named to National Academy of Inventors
NYU Langone’s chief scientific officer, Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, has been named to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for pioneering discoveries that have advanced cancer biology and biomedical innovation. Dr. Bar-Sagi, who also serves as NYU Langone’s executive vice president and vice dean for science, joins the 2025 class of NAI Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.
“Innovation is the driving force behind progress in science and medicine,” said Dr. Bar-Sagi. “This honor reflects the exceptional ecosystem at NYU Langone Health, where a culture of innovation and collaboration fosters breakthroughs in research and patient care. I am privileged to contribute to this shared mission.”
Much of Dr. Bar-Sagi’s scientific work has centered on the RAS family of genes, which govern how cells grow and divide and are among the most frequently mutated drivers of human cancers.
Dr. Bar-Sagi is the named inventor on six U.S. patents. These cover innovations ranging from modulators of RAS protein signaling to targeted cancer diagnostics and monobody–drug conjugates—small, engineered proteins paired with a cancer-fighting drug. These conjugates act like a custom-designed key that locks onto specific features of a tumor cell, delivering the drug directly where it’s needed while sparing healthy tissue.
Beyond her own discoveries, Dr. Bar-Sagi has helped build the institutional infrastructure that drives NYU Langone’s scientific enterprise. Under her leadership, research funding has grown substantially; invention disclosures, licensing activity, and startup formation have expanded; and programs supporting translational research have flourished.
“Dr. Bar-Sagi has an extraordinary ability to turn fundamental insights into practical solutions with the goal of improving patient care,” says Marc Sedam, vice president of NYU’s Technology Opportunities and Ventures (TOV), which translates the outputs of the university’s $1.5 billion research enterprise into products that maximize societal and economic impact. “Her inventions show the promise to treat challenging cancers in a novel way, improving options for patients. The ability to view research as part of the path from bench to bedside is the hallmark of a true inventor.”
The NAI induction ceremony will be held on June 4, 2026, in Los Angeles.
NYU Langone Health Designated as a Rare Disease Center of Excellence
The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) has designated NYU Langone Health as a NORD Rare Disease Center of Excellence. The designation recognizes NYU Langone’s leadership in providing expert, multidisciplinary care and advancing research for the more than 30 million Americans living with rare diseases.
The health system is among 46 institutions across 28 states and Washington, DC, that are all working together to shorten diagnostic journeys, expand access to care, train the next generation of rare disease experts, and accelerate groundbreaking research.
Pew Names Richard L. Possemato and Michelle Krogsgaard as 2025 Innovation Fund Investigators
Richard L. Possemato, PhD, and Michelle Krogsgaard, PhD, in NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology, have been selected to join the Pew Charitable Trusts’ 2025 class of Innovation Fund investigators. The NYU Langone team members are among 14 scientists who will collaborate on interdisciplinary research projects that explore foundational questions about human biology and disease. By combining their expertise in topic areas ranging from cell biology and immunology to neuroscience and genetics, these partnerships will help to advance scientific discovery and improve human health.
For their project, Possemato and Krogsgaard (also a member of Perlmutter Cancer Center) will explore how T cells become hampered by tumors and the metabolically hostile environments they produce. The team will investigate the specific nutrient conditions and metabolic genes that help T cells fight cancer. Then, they’ll examine the T cells of patients undergoing immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. Ultimately the researchers hope to determine the nutrient environments and potential gene targets present during cancer that could be leveraged to give T cells a helping hand during treatment.
NYU Langone’s Ramin S. Herati Received Hevolution and AFAR’s New Investigator Award
Ramin S. Herati, MD, an assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, has received the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and Hevolution Foundation’s New Investigator Award.
This grant program is designed to enable junior investigators to advance research projects that explore the biology of aging and that may translate aging biology findings from the lab to the clinic. The overall goal is to expand therapeutics and treatments within geriatric care. Each of the 18 winners receives a grant of $375,000 over three years to perform their investigations.
Herati’s research will explore the mechanisms that help explain how inflammation that occurs throughout the body during aging can disrupt vaccine responses in older adults and make vaccines less effective. The findings may lead to better vaccines.
