Benjamin Laitman, MD/PhD, ISMMS '18, MSH ‘24, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.  My clinical focus is on Laryngology, the management and surgical treatment of disorders of the voice and upper aerodigestive tract. My research interests are in developing new methods, both surgically and medically, to reduce scarring in the vocal folds and trachea. I have been fortunate to be part of the Mount Sinai community for the past 13 years—a fully realized product of the physician scientist training offered here. I received both my MD and PhD at Mount Sinai through its Medical Scientist Training Program and was mentored to receive an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual Predoctoral F30 fellowship during that time. I went on to complete my Otolaryngology Residency and Laryngology Fellowship at Mount Sinai. Subsequently, I was recruited to our department as a surgeon-scientist faculty member, splitting my time between clinical Laryngology and academic/research pursuits. While I have received pilot funding from a number of national and local agencies to study vocal fold fibroblast heterogeneity and cellular changes during tracheal transplantation, the start-up funding I received from Mount Sinai will be critical, as I develop a research program that will merit future NIH funding. More importantly, I have joined a department that has an incredible passion to ensure I am successful. Considerable effort was made to make sure that I have research partners willing to help support me with space, shared resources, and personnel that I would not have at this stage without considerable funding of my own. All of this was put into place before I started, to allow me to hit the ground running. Our department and our institution are strongly committed to expanding the role of physician and surgeon scientists. Indeed, part of my job is to help recruit and mentor future medical students and residents toward a path that incorporates more substantive research. I am confident that having trained at, and now being supported by, Mount Sinai, I will be successful in my career.