Rewriting the Future of Serious Mental Illness with the Jeff and Lisa Blau Adolescent Consultation Center for Resilience and Treatment at Mount Sinai

The future of mental health is being rewritten. Breakthroughs in gene therapy, AI, and brain stimulation are creating new possibilities. This event presented by the Jeff and Lisa Blau Adolescent Consultation Center for Resilience and Treatment at Mount Sinai brings together leaders in psychiatry and technology to discuss what’s next, and what it means for treating mental illness. 

This event will start at 6 PM, with a runtime of 90 min including Q&A. It will take place in person and online at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor. The livestream will be available HERE and will remain there after the program.

Featured speakers will include Dr. Alexander Charney with Dr. Nicole Simons, who will discuss what we know about serious mental illness, how our understanding is changing, and introduce emerging approaches including gene therapy, AI, and deep brain stimulation. Dr. Benjamin Glicksberg and Dr. Matteo Danieletto will demonstrate vision wearables and discuss how audiovisual data, along with AI analysis, may support clinical assessment and symptom monitoring. Sandip Trivedi, who built an AI companion chatbot for his brother struggling with a mental health diagnosis, will discuss the app’s development, safety features, and ethical guardrails as it is tested with a larger audience to explore its potential to support people living with schizophrenia and their families. Finally, Dr. Nicola Cascella and Erin Decker will discuss deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, including a conversation about the experience of undergoing DBS treatment.

DISCLAIMER: This presentation by the Blau Center at Mount Sinai is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The New York Public Library does not provide medical advice or endorse any medical service provider or the services they provide. You should always conduct your own due diligence when selecting a medical provider. The Library is not responsible for (i) the reliability, timeliness, or accuracy of the information provided in this presentation, or (ii) the security or privacy of any information you provide to the Blau Center at Mount Sinai or any other third-party service provider. 

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

To view the livestream | Whether you're attending in person or online, you must register with your email address. You will need a device with audio and/or video and an internet/cellular connection to view the livestream.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

In order of appearance at the program:

Dr. Alexander W. Charney, MD, PhD is the Vice Chair of the Windreich Department of AI and Human Health and Director of The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine. He is also an Associate Professor of AI and Human Health, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Neurosurgery, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. As a physician-scientist specializing in the neurobiology of neuropsychiatric illness, Dr. Charney focuses on translating genomic discoveries into experimental therapeutics. He leads major research and institutional initiatives in mental health, personalized medicine, and digital health, including The Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program and The Living Brain Project. His work leverages genomics and AI to advance understanding of complex diseases such as schizophrenia, while mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists.

Dr. Nicole Simons, PhD is the Program Director of the Jeff and Lisa Blau Adolescent Consultation Center for Resilience and Treatment and an Assistant Professor in the Windreich Department of AI and Human Health and Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Simons’ research focuses on translating scientific discoveries into innovative treatments for patients with schizophrenia, including clinical trials for deep brain stimulation and vision wearables studies. She is also part of a Mount Sinai Health System-wide genome sequencing program initiative whereby patients will be invited to obtain whole-genome sequencing (WGS) out-of-pocket.

Dr. Benjamin Glicksberg, PhD is the Founding Director of the Center for AI in Children’s Health and an Associate Professor in the Windreich Department of AI and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is a Member of the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai, and Adjunct Faculty of Digital Engineering at the Hasso Planner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. Dr. Glicksberg’s research broadly uses machine learning on multi-modal and multi-omic patient data for personalizing medicine. His work often involves the analysis and integration of diverse multi-modal and multi-omic biomedical data, such as Electronic Health Records, clinical text, genomics, physiological waveforms, videos, and images, for applications ranging from predictive modeling to drug discovery.

Dr. Matteo Danieletto, PhD is the Associate Director of AI and Human Health and an Assistant Professor in the Windreich Department of AI and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Danieletto leads the engineering efforts for the Digital Discovery Program. His team developed eHive, a pioneering platform for research studies that integrates various data streams, including wearable data, in a HIPAA-compliant environment. His team also leads the AIHH-Vision effort, focused on data integrity and pipeline development for video data collected via smart glasses. Dr. Danieletto's expertise in software development and machine learning has driven significant advancements in IBD, skin disorders, and Lyme disease. He is involved in data engineering efforts for The Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program and leads the engineering effort for the ECGCopilot initiative, for further expanding the program's impact in AI-driven cardiac diagnostics.

Sandip Trivedi is a software engineer, Instructor, and an Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Human Health Fellow at the Windreich Department of AI and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the co-founder of Quantierra, a company that uses proprietary software to source, analyze, and execute real estate transactions. Sandip’s work focuses on developing the first generation of AI agents and tools to support people living with schizophrenia, caregivers, clinicians, and schizophrenia research. 

Dr. Nicola Cascella, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkin University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD. He has devoted his academic career to the study of biological and clinical aspects of schizophrenia. Over the last 10 years within the context of the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center, he has dedicated his interest to search novel therapeutic approaches to treat patients with schizophrenia who fail current treatment including clozapine. This search has resulted in the use of deep brain stimulation in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Five patients have been implanted since 2020. Those five patients have been the first cases in USA and as for the implanted brain location, the first cases worldwide.

Dr. Cascella will be joined by Erin Decker, who will share her experience with the DBS treatment. Erin has navigated a schizophrenia diagnosis since the age of 19. She grew up in a supportive household and spent much of her young adulthood living in different places with her former husband. Erin is the mother of a 21-year-old daughter, who has become a knowledgeable and supportive presence in understanding and navigating Erin’s mental and physical health. Today, Erin lives in her childhood home with her parents and two dogs. Her experiences have given her valuable firsthand insight into living with schizophrenia and navigating mental health care.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) are available upon request. Please submit your request via this form or contact SNFL at least two weeks in advance.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

Livestream

• ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) also available (see previous).


• Captions and a transcript will be provided.

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. All programs are subject to recording and photography.

This event is presented by the Jeff and Lisa Blau Adolescent Consultation Center for Resilience and Treatment at Mount Sinai, which serves as a clinical and research platform that aims to increase our understanding of mental illness, and develop new interventions for those suffering from and at increased risk of developing mental illness. Learn more at icahn.mssm.edu.

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).