Scott Friedman

Dr. Scott Friedman is the Dean for Therapeutic Discovery and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has performed pioneering research into the underlying causes of scarring, or fibrosis associated with chronic liver disease, affecting millions worldwide.

Friedman was among the first to isolate and characterize the hepatic stellate cell, the key cell type responsible for scar production in liver. His work has spawned an entire field that is now realizing its translational and therapeutic potential, with new anti-fibrotic therapies for liver disease reaching clinical trials.

He graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 1979, and then went on to serve as Medical Resident at the Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, followed by a Gastroenterology Fellowship at University of California San Francisco before assuming a faculty position there. During his time at UCSF, he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, in the laboratory of Professor Moshe Oren.

Friedman has given invited honorary lectures throughout the world and has been a named Lecturer or Visiting Professor at more than 30 institutions worldwide. In 2003, he was honored with the International Hans Popper Award by the Falk Foundation in Freiburg, Germany, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the understanding of liver disease and its treatment. In 2016, he was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Awards from both the AASLD and the American Liver Foundation. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association in 2008, the American College of Physicians in 2013, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in 2014 and the American Association for the Advancement for Science in 2015. Friedman is widely respected among commercial partners for his broad expertise from basic science to clinical trials, and currently consults for ~25 companies in the liver disease and fibrosis areas.