Biomedical Research in the 21st Century was a seminar series hosted by The New School's Eugene Lang College in the Fall semester of 1998. The series featured lectures by physicians and scientists on topics related to biomedical research, such as the heritability of disease, the approval process for new drugs, and the prevention of environmental illness. The series was organized by New School professor Katayoun Chamany, a geneticist and cell biologist, and sponsored by the Science, Technology and Society program (the former name from 1997 until 2009 of the program that, since 2009 and as of 2024, is now called “Interdisciplinary Science”) at Eugene Lang College and by Louis M. Aledort, a hematologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The series was offered as both a special lecture program at The New School (the division formerly known as the Adult Division, and known, as of 2024, as the Schools of Public Engagement) and as a Liberal Studies course for undergraduate students in other university divisions.

Advertised speakers in the series included Mount Sinai professor of geriatrics Jon Gordon, oncologist and bone marrow transplant researcher Luis Isola, oncologist George Atweh, rheumatologist Mark Horn, immunologist Dan Littman, health economist Marianne Fahs, biochemist Eloy Rodrigeuz, cardiologist Jonathan Halperin, bioengineer Savio Woo, epidemiologist and University of California, Berkeley professor Eva Harris, and Aledort himself.

The course was also advertised for Fall 1999, but it is unclear if it was held.

Sources:

The New School (1998). New School Bulletin 1998 Fall Vol. 56 No. 1 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1998fa

The New School (1999). Parsons School of Design, Portfolio and Catalog 1999-2000 Vol. 16 No. 7 [course catalog]. Parsons School of Design Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/PC050101_pg1999ye

Katayoun Chamany is the Mohn Family Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and a Professor of Biology at Eugene Lang College at The New School. Born in Iran, Chamany grew up in Iowa, where she received her B.A. in biology at the University of Iowa in 1989. In 1996, she received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in cell and molecular biology. The following year, 1997, Chamany was hired by The New School as Assistant Professor of Biology to chair the Science, Technology and Society program. In 2004, she was promoted to associate professor, and to full professor in 2018. Chamany’s research and teaching efforts focus on cell biology, and in particular on stem cells. In the Fall Semester of 1998, Chamany coordinated the seminar series, Biomedical Research in the 21st Century, with Dr. Louis M. Aledort, a hematologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Sources

The New School (1998). New School Bulletin 1998 Fall Vol. 56 No. 1 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. /digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1998fa>

The New School, “Katayoun Chamany”, newschool.edu, accessed August 6, 2024, /www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty/katayoun-chamany/>

Katayoun Chamany (2024), “Kayatoun Chamany”, LinkedIn, accessed August 6, 2024, /www.linkedin.com/in/katayoun-chamany-2a40a77/>

Louis M. Aledort is a retired hematologist and professor of medicine, formerly at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a hospital in New York City. Born in 1935, Aledort received his Doctorate of Medicine from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and was hired by Mount Sinai in 1966. In 1993, he became the Mary Weinfeld Professor of Clinical Research in Hemophilia. A prolific researcher on coagulopathy, in 2010 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Blood Disorder Research from the Hemophilia and Thrombosis Research Society.

In the early 1980s, Aledort served as Director of the National Haemophilia Foundation. In 1994, it was revealed that, during the AIDS crisis, Aledort’s advice to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had prevented the screening or recall of blood products containing HIV.

In 1958, Louis married Ruth Schonholz, with whom he had a son, Eric Steven Aledort, in 1963. In 2001, they moved from Tenafly, New Jersey to the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York. They are notable collectors of lithographs.

Louis Aledort sponsored and spoke at a New School seminar series, Biomedical Research in the 21st Century, in the Fall semester of 1998.

Sources

Associated Press (1994), “Report Says Advocacy Group Let H.I.V. Go Unchecked in Blood Products for Hemophiliacs”, The New York Times, October 24, 1994, /www.nytimes.com/1994/10/24/us/report-says-advocacy-group-let-hiv-go-unchecked-blood-products-for-hemophiliacs.html>

Linda Kosoff (2024), “Hung Up on Art: Louis Aledort, MD”, ASH Clinical News, January 2024, /ashpublications.org/ashclinicalnews/news/7673/Hung-Up-on-Art-Louis-Aledort-MD>

The New School (1998). New School Bulletin 1998 Fall Vol. 56 No. 1 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. /digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1998fa>

“Art That Shines Without Reflected Glare”, The New York Times, January 24, 2008. /www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/garden/24light1.html>

“Susan A. Epstein, A Lawyer, Is Wed”, The New York Times, October 21, 1990, /www.nytimes.com/1990/10/21/style/susan-a-epstein-a-lawyer-is-wed.html>

Mount Sinai, “Louis M Aledort”, Mount Sinai Health System, accessed August 6, 2024, /profiles.mountsinai.org/louis-m-aledort>