Maria New

Maria Iandolo New (December 11, 1928 - July 26, 2024 ) was a professor of Pediatrics, Genomics and Genetics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She was an expert in congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetic condition affecting the adrenal gland that can affect sexual development.

Medical education

New received her undergraduate degree in chemistry with a minor in Latin from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1950, and her M. D. from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, in 1954. She completed an internship in medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York, followed by a residency in pediatrics at the New York Hospital. She was also Adjunct Professor of Genetics at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Associate Dean for Research at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University.

New is recognized as one of the world's leading pediatric endocrinologists.

Her later primary research emphasis was on genetic steroid disorders. New continued to study three monogenic disorders: 21-hydroxylase deficiency, 11β-hydroxylase deficiency, and apparent mineralocorticoid excess, emphasizing genotype/phenotype correlation and prenatal diagnosis and treatment. She has published more than 640 academic articles in a wide range of prestigious journals and published a genetics book entitled Genetic Steroid Disorders in 2014. She has also received numerous awards recognizing her work treating mothers and children affected with the disorder.

Principal discoveries

In 1977, New first described apparent mineralocorticoid excess (AME) in a Zuni girl. Her team was the first to publish mutations on the 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 enzyme (encoded by the HSD11B2 gene) causing this potentially fatal form of low renin hypertension. New opened a new field of receptor biology by demonstrating the action of the 11β-HSD2 enzyme at the mineralocorticoid receptor of the distal renal tubule to metabolize cortisol to cortisone and thus protect the receptor. This was the first demonstration of the metabolism of a ligand to down-regulate its action on receptor activation.

In 1979, New described a form of mild steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency called nonclassical 21-hydroxylase deficiency, which is characterized by diverse hyperandrogenic symptoms appearing postnatally in males and females. The remarkable prevalence of 1 in 27 Ashkenazi Jews of a mild form of CAH was documented by New in 1985 and the genetic frequency of the mutation is 1 in 3 in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. These studies established nonclassical 21-hydroxylase deficiency as the most frequent disorder of all autosomal recessive diseases in humans. While a spectrum of severity of congenital adrenal hyperplasia had always been observed, New was first to identify the mild form with specific molecular mutations.

Prenatal Dexamethasone Ethical issues have been raised about New's research. Namely, it has been questioned whether pregnant women undergoing treatment for the possible effects of congenital adrenal hyperplasia on their unborn babies were properly informed concerning the treatments that were administered to them. Further research and long term studies are needed to establish the correct usage guideline.

Awards and honors

Judson J. Van Wyk Prize, Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (2010) the highest prize from the American Endocrine Society Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Clinical Investigator Award, The Endocrine Society (1995) Dale Medal, Society for Endocrinology (1995) Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award, The Endocrine Society (1988), the highest award from the British Endocrine Society University of Pennsylvania Distinguished Graduate Award St. Geme Lectureship, University of Colorado School of Medicine (2010) President, Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (1985) Elected Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences