Richard Drexler, MD, PhD
Dr. Drexler is an Assistant Professor in the Nash Family Department of Neuroscience and the Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He earned his medical degree from Semmelweis University Budapest (Hungary), with training at the University of Oxford (UK), and his doctoral degree from Hannover Medical School (Germany). Following neurosurgery residency in Hamburg (Germany), he pursued postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Michelle Monje at Stanford University, where he investigated the impact of long-range projections from hindbrain cholinergic and serotonergic neurons on glioma progression. He joined the faculty at the Icahn School of Medicine in 2026. Dr. Drexler is recognized for his contributions to understanding the mechanisms of long-range neuronal activity-dependent growth of primary brain tumors and the bidirectional signaling between brain tumor cells and neuronal circuits.
Publications
Serotonergic neuron-glioma interactions drive high-grade glioma pathophysiology.
Richard Drexler, Belgin Yalçın, Rebecca Mancusi, Abigail Rogers, Kiarash Shamardani, Pamelyn J. Woo, Alexandre Ravel, Samuel Wu, Yahaya A. Yabo, Lisa Steger, Carlos Alberto Oliveira de Biagi-Junior, Costanza Lo Cascio, Robert Malenka, Boris D. Heifets, Mariella G. Filbin, Dieter Henrik Heiland, Karl Deisseroth, Michelle Monje.
BioRxiv, 2025.
Cholinergic neuronal activity promotes diffuse midline glioma growth through muscarinic signaling.
Richard Drexler*, Antonia Drinnenberg*, Avishai Gavish, Belgin Yalçın, Kiarash Shamardani, Abigail E. Rogers, Rebecca Mancusi, Vrunda Trivedi, Kathryn R. Taylor, Yoon Seok Kim, Pamelyn J. Woo, Neeraj Soni, Minhui Su, Alexandre Ravel, Eva Tatlock, Alexandra Midler, Samuel H. Wu, Charu Ramakrishnan, Ritchie Chen, Alberto E. Ayala-Sarmiento, David Rincon Fernandez Pacheco, La’Akea Siverts, Tanya L. Daigle, Bosiljka Tasic, Hongkui Zeng, Joshua J. Breunig, Karl Deisseroth, Michelle Monje.
Cell, 2025.
A prognostic neural epigenetic signature in high-grade glioma.
Richard Drexler*, Robin Khatri*, Thomas Sauvigny, Malte Mohme, Cecile L. Maire, Alice Ryba, Yahya Zghaibeh, Lasse Dührsen, Amanda Salviano-Silva, Katrin Lamszus, Manfred Westphal, Jens Gempt, Annika K. Wefers, Julia E. Neumann, Helena Bode, Fabian Hausmann, Tobias B. Huber, Stefan Bonn, Kerstin Jütten, Daniel Delev, Katharina J. Weber, Patrick N. Harter, Julia Onken, Peter Vajkoczy, David Capper, Benedikt Wiestler, Michael Weller, Berend Snijder, Alicia Buck, Tobias Weiss, Pauline C. Göller, Felix Sahm, Joelle Aline Menstel, David Niklas Zimmer, Michael B. Keough, Lijun Ni, Michelle Monje, Dana Silverbush, Volker Hovestadt, Mario L. Suvà, Saritha Krishna, Shawn L. Hervey-Jumper, Ulrich Schüller, Dieter H. Heiland, Sonja Hänzelmann, Franz L. Ricklefs.
Nature Medicine, 2024.
Characterizing and targeting glioblastoma neuron-tumor networks with retrograde tracing.
Svenja K Tetzlaff, Ekin Reyhan, Nikolas Layer, C Peter Bengtson, Alina Heuer, Julian Schroers, Anton J Faymonville, Atefeh Pourkhalili Langeroudi, Nina Drewa, Elijah Keifert, Julia Wagner, Stella J Soyka, Marc C Schubert, Nirosan Sivapalan, Rangel L Pramatarov, Verena Buchert, Tim Wageringel, Elena Grabis, Niklas Wißmann, Obada T Alhalabi, Michael Botz, Jovana Bojcevski, Joaquín Campos, Berin Boztepe, Jonas G Scheck, Sascha Henry Conic, Maria C Puschhof, Giulia Villa, Richard Drexler, Yahya Zghaibeh, Fabian Hausmann, Sonja Hänzelmann, Matthia A Karreman, Felix T Kurz, Manuel Schröter, Marc Thier, Abigail K Suwala, Karin Forsberg-Nilsson, Claudio Acuna, Julio Saez-Rodriguez, Amir Abdollahi, Felix Sahm, Michael O Breckwoldt, Bogdana Suchorska, Franz L Ricklefs, Dieter Henrik Heiland, Varun Venkataramani.
Cell, 2025.
Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis.
Solomiia Savchuk, Kaylee M Gentry, Wengang Wang, Elana Carleton, Carlos A O Biagi-Junior, Karan Luthria, Belgin Yalçın, Lijun Ni, Hannah C Farnsworth, Rachel A Davis, Richard Drexler, Johannes C Melms, Yin Liu, Lehi Acosta-Alvarez, Griffin G Hartmann, Elisa C Pavarino, Jenna LaBelle, Pamelyn J Woo, Angus M Toland, Fangfei Qu, Yoon Seok Kim, Mariella G Filbin, Mark A Krasnow, Keith L Ligon, Benjamin Izar, Julien Sage, Bernardo L Sabatini, Michelle Monje, Humsa S Venkatesh.
Nature, 2025.
Myelin plasticity in the ventral tegmental area is required for opioid reward.
Belgin Yalçın, Matthew B Pomrenze, Karen Malacon, Richard Drexler, Abigail E Rogers, Kiarash Shamardani, Isabelle J Chau, Kathryn R Taylor, Lijun Ni, Daniel Contreras-Esquivel, Robert C Malenka, Michelle Monje.
Nature, 2024.
Awards
Research Award of the Hamburg Cancer Society, 2025.
Marit Mary Swenson Award for Pediatric DMG/DIPG, Society for Neuro-Oncology. 2024.
Award for Excellence in Cancer Neuroscience, Society for Neuro-Oncology. 2023.
Funding
