Matthew D. Park, Ph.D. is an 8th year MD/PhD candidate at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is preparing to apply for residency in internal medicine on the research track. He completed his dissertation under the mentorship of Miriam Merad, a world-renown pioneer in the study of macrophages and dendritic cells. He helped lead studies on how the development of myeloid cells (myelopoiesis) is co-opted by tumors, other types of inflammatory lesions, and aging to distract our immune system’s ability to preserve homeostasis. One such study, published in Science, established how aging of the immune system promotes lung cancer development. It’s major conceptual advance in our understanding of aging, in addition to its greater clinical significance in identifying IL-1 signaling as a target for lung cancer prevention, was recognized by Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 List, The Wall Street Journal, and other news media. This study was also central to securing the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan Award, which supports Mount Sinai’s first clinical trial on anti-aging. It and other studies that he has led and/or contributed to have motivated several other trials at Mount Sinai that test myeloid cell-targeting therapies and strategies for the immunoprevention of cancer.