Joshua D. Nosanchuk, MD

Leadership: Dr. Nosanchuk is an internationally regarded leader in undergraduate medical education, serving most recently as the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Einstein. From 2020-2023, he led a complete revision of the MD program curriculum that included launching new required longitudinal courses on service learning, scholarship, and health systems sciences, and transforming the training phases to a 17-month pre-clinical period followed by 12-months of clerkships and 18-months of individualized professional development. Dr. Nosanchuk has received various education and leadership awrds from Einstein and medical/scientific societies. Dr. Nosanchuk serves on various external education and society committees, including being a member of the Executive Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners. 

Basic Science Laboratory: There are two main areas of research in the Nosanchuk laboratory: fungal pathogenesis and innovative therapeutic development. 

Fungal diseases are a major global health threat, resulting in over 1.5 million deaths annually. A dramatic rise in fungal disease incidence over the past few decades is directly associated with the growing numbers of immunocompromised individuals, particularly patients receiving chemo- or immuno-therapy, recovering from invasive surgery, or individuals with HIV/AIDS, and is also a consequence of climate change. Despite the increased prevalence of mycotic diseases, there remains an enormous gap in knowledge and our current therapeutic armamentarium all too often fails to eradicate these insidious pathogens. The Nosanchuk laboratory is investigating the pathogenesis of human pathogenic fungi, especially Histoplasma capsulatum, Candida parapsilosis, Candida auris and Cryptococcus neoformans. Currently, we are focusing on 1) the role of melanin production on pathogenesis; 3) deciphering the impact of extracellular release of vesicles from fungi, which contain numerous products associated with virulence; 3) how antibody can modify fungal disease outcomes.

A second focus area of the laboratory is on innovative approaches to combat 1) fungal and bacterial infections and 2) wound healing, leveraging the delivery of compounds via antibody or nanoparticles. We have generated pre-clinical vaccines against fungi, created diagnostics for mycoses, and a variety of nano- and micro-particle-based antimicrobial compounds.