Elana Bernstein, MD, MSc Named 2023-2026 Irving Scholar

The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research has announced four new Herbert and Florence Irving Scholars for the 2023-2026 cohort.

Columbia Rheumatology's own Elana Bernstein, MD, MSc has been selected as a new scholar for this cohort!

In the late 1980’s, Herbert and Florence Irving created a generous endowment to support clinical and translational research at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Part of this endowment supports awards of $180,000 unrestricted funds as Florence and Herbert Irving clinical research career awards (“Irving Scholars”)  for junior faculty members involved in clinical and translational research. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Bernstein on her outstanding contributions to patient care and scholarly thought in the Division of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology!

Elana J. Bernstein, MD, MSc 
Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine     
Project Title: “Vasculopathy, Inflammation, and Interstitial Lung Disease in Systemic Sclerosis” 

The Irving Scholarship will enable Dr. Bernstein to conduct a translational analysis of how vasculopathy in systemic sclerosis contributes to interstitial lung disease (ILD) and has the potential to lead to new treatments for ILD. 

Dr. Bernstein received her medical doctorate at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, training at Massachusetts General Hospital and a MSc from Weill Cornell. She completed her fellowship in rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery in 2013 where she was also an NIH NCATS KL2 awardee. Dr. Bernstein was recruited to Columbia in 2014 as Instructor then quickly appointed Assistant Professor. From her arrival in 2014, Dr. Bernstein has held multiple teaching roles for students, residents and fellows, as well as served as an outstanding mentor for scholars in rheumatology. In 2022 she was awarded the Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Promising Clinician Scientist Award, which is bestowed on early career physician-scientists at VP&S who conduct important and innovative clinical and/or translational research while also maintaining productivity in the face of extraprofessional commitments related to significant family caregiving, a cohort including several current or former Irving Scholar awardees. In early 2023 she was named the M. Irené Ferrer Scholar Awardee for research that addresses gender-specific issues for her work in ILD. 

As a current and past site principal investigator for multiple observational studies and clinical trials, both NIH- and industry-sponsored, in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and ILD, Dr. Bernstein is clearly an emerging leader in her field and was the founder and current Director of the Columbia University/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Scleroderma Program. Since her KL2, Dr. Bernstein has obtained an impressive array of foundational and industry funding for her work including the Arthritis Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Rheumatology Research Foundation, Eico Sciences, Pfizer, Corbus Pharmaceuticals, Kadmon, Boehringer Ingelheim, and the Scleroderma Research Foundation.  She has a current K23 (K23AR075112) for SSc, her main research focus area, and is principal investigator on recent R01 (R01HL164758) and DOD (W81XWH2210163) grants in 2022. Dr. Bernstein is nationally recognized not just as a collaborative clinical investigator but also an expert in her field, as co-author, speaker, and recent selection by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) to serve as Co-first author of the ACR project to develop guidelines for the screening, monitoring, and treatment of ILD in patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.  She serves as a peer reviewer for journals including Annals of Internal Medicine, PLoS One, JAMA Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, and many others and has over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including high-impact journals such as Lancet Rheumtology, PNAS and others, including 13 as first-or last-author. With these remarkable achievements in a relatively short time period, Dr. Bernstein’s career trajectory is sure to continue to advance and push forward her scientific field.

We're particularly proud of Dr. Bernstein for this achievement as it was awarded to her around the same time as another award at the 2024 Systemic Sclerosis World Congress in Prague. At this global conference, Dr. Bernstein was awarded the Edith Busch Prize for Young Investigators. This prize is awarded to a young investigator in recognition of outstanding contributions to research in systemic sclerosis. Congrats all around!