Posted on August 20, 2010

Mount Sinai Medical Center Receives $25 Million From Helmsley Charitable Trust

Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City has announced a $25 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to build a cardiovascular research center.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Cardiovascular Translational Research Center, which will include the Helmsley Molecular Research Center and the Helmsley Clinical Investigation Center, will use sophisticated gene therapy to repair damaged heart muscle, employ genetic tests to screen patients for risk assessment, and perform clinical trials to provide innovative patient therapies. The grant also will be used to complete the Freedom Trial, a five-year study led by Mount Sinai Heart director Valentin Fuster that is designed to help clinicians determine which treatment options for cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients are most effective.

Following Leona Helmsley's death in 2007 from congestive heart failure, the trust has focused much of its grantmaking on health and medical research initiatives. Earlier this year, it awarded $37.5 million to Mount Sinai Heart and the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

"With the support of the Helmsley Trust, we are in a position to truly excel in research and to have a direct impact on patient care," said Kenneth L. Davis, president and CEO of the Mount Sinai Medical Center. "The breakthroughs — both scientific and clinical — that the Helmsley Center will foster will usher in a new era for Mount Sinai Heart."