School of medicine

School Notes: School of Medicine
July/August 2024

Nancy J. Brown | http://medicine.yale.edu

Professor named “most influential”

In April, Time magazine included Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology, on its 2024 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Published annually, “Time100” includes global leaders, titans of industry, athletes, media superstars, and creative geniuses. Just a few weeks later, on May 2, Time recognized Iwasaki again, in a second list devoted to the year’s 100 most influential people in health. 

Iwasaki is a leading immunobiologist whose work on the human body’s response to viral infections became essential research during the COVID-19 pandemic. In praising Iwasaki as one of the most influential people in the world, Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, wrote that “she is at the top of her game. Her deep appreciation of the regulation of the human immune system has allowed her to lead the way in delineating the mechanisms of how it reacts to COVID-19, and the consequences of Long COVID.” 

YSM fourth in US for NIH funding

Yale School of Medicine was ranked fourth in the nation for total National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in the most recently released rankings by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR). BRIMR, a nonprofit organization based in North Carolina, compiles the medical school rankings in NIH funding each year. In the federal fiscal year 2023, which ended September 30, 2023, YSM researchers received a total of $571,450,883 in awards. This is an increase of nearly 4 percent from 2022, in which YSM ranked seventh. YSM has many priorities for research, including inflammation, single cell biology, metabolism, developmental brain disorders, health equity, technology and biomedical engineering, biomedical and biological imaging, and translational medicine/clinical trials, as well as others identified by Yale’s University Science Strategy Committee. 

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