Melissa Wasserstein

Dr. Wasserstein is the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Genetic Medicine at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Professor of Pediatric and Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After graduating from Cornell University, Dr. Wasserstein received her medical degree from NYU School of Medicine, followed by a pediatrics residency and medical genetics fellowship at Mount Sinai. A board-certified biochemical geneticist and pediatrician, Dr. Wasserstein diagnoses and manages patients with inborn errors of metabolism. Dr. Wasserstein’s research activities focus on expanding and enhancing newborn screening to optimize the outcome of infants with rare disorders. She is the Principal Investigator of ScreenPlus, a multi-disorder, multi-tiered, consented pilot newborn screening program that includes an exploration of the ethical issues associated with newborn screening for complex conditions. In addition, she has worked with the acid sphingomyelinase deficiency community for her entire career, studying the natural history of this rare disorder and evaluating the safety and efficacy of novel therapeutics. Another research interest is evaluating the implemention of genomic medicine in underserved populations.