SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR EDUCATION, PROFESSOR | Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, PROFESSOR | Oncological Sciences, PROFESSOR | Cell, Developmental and Regenerative Biology

Education A.B. Summa cum laude, Harvard University Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.D., Harvard Medical School (Harvard-M.I.T. Program in Health Sciences and Technology) Residency, Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Postdoc, Harvard University Biography Margaret H. Baron, MD PhD, is Fishberg Professor of Medicine; Senior Associate Dean for Education and Director of the http://icahn.mssm.edu/education/graduate/md-phd-program MD-PhD Program; Director, Program in Hematology and Blood Disorders (Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology); and a member of the http://www.mssm.edu/research/institutes/tisch-cancer-institute Tisch CancerInstitute (TCI) and Black Family Stem Cell Institute (BFSCI). She is also Program Director of an NIH-funded T32 Research Training Program in Molecular and Cellular Hematology (which can support postdoc and clinical fellows). Dr. Baron is an established scientist who has over 25 years of continuous, independent NIH-sponsored research funding in hematopoiesis and a publication record spanning protein biochemistry, virology, cell biology, developmental biology, and stem cell biology. She is known for her work on the plasticity of the differentiated state, globin gene regulation, and developmental hematopoiesis. Dr. Baron is a graduate of the Harvard-M.I.T. Program in Health Sciences and Technology (H.S.T.) and holds degrees from Harvard (A.B.), Harvard Medical School (M.D.) and M.I.T. (Ph.D.). She trained in the laboratories of David Baltimore (Ph.D. thesis) and Tom Maniatis (postdoc). Her first independent faculty position was in The Biological Laboratories at Harvard University, where she was an assistant and then associate professor before moving to a tenured position at Mount Sinai in 1997. She served for 18 months (2006-2007) as Interim Co-Director of the BFSCI. Dr. Baron is a dedicated educator, having developed and directed courses for undergraduates, PhD and MD/PhD students at Harvard and Mount Sinai. She is co-founder and former co-Director for the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology (DSCB) Multidisciplinary Training Area (MTA) for PhD and MD/PhD students. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and served as Assistant Director of the Medical Scientists Training Program (MSTP) and as Co-Director for the former Mechanisms of Disease and Therapies Multidisciplinary Training Area (MTA). To read more about Dr. Baron's research, please visit the http://icahn.mssm.edu/research/labs/baron-laboratory Baron Laboratory website. Awards 2012-13 - Fellow Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program 2011 - Present Elected Member Association of American Physicians (AAP) 2004 - Research Recognition Award American Cancer Society 2001 - Present Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine Mount Sinai School of Medicine 2000 - Present Elected Member American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) 1989-92 - 1992 Basil O'Connor Scholar Award March of Dimes 1987-94 - 1994 Scholar Award Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust Scholar Award Research Our lab is interested in molecular mechanisms of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell fate specification and differentiation using mouse and human primary cell and ES cell models and animals. We have a longstanding interest in developmental hematopoiesis in mammals. One focus of the lab is to study signaling pathways in embryonic hematopoiesis and erythropoiesis (red blood cells) in the mouse. A second focus is on definitive (adult type) hematopoietic and erythroid progenitor development (mouse fetal liver or bone marrow, human progenitors from peripheral blood or bone marrow). We are developing a high throughput screen for regulators of erythroid progenitors as well as later stages of maturation, including enucleation, and are targeting specific ligand-activated transcription factor pathways for detailed analysis. Experimental approaches include classical cell and molecular biology techniques, small interfering RNA viral technologies, RNA profiling and RNAseq, computational analyses, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and genetic manipulation of mice. This work has the potential to reveal new approaches for regulating erythropoiesis and to suggest options for the development of novel therapies to improve the body’s ability to rapidly replenish its red blood cells. They may also lead to the discovery of new targets in progenitors that could be exploited to develop methods for more efficient production ex vivo of red blood cells for transfusion.