CUIMC Faculty Named AAAS Fellows
Cancer researcher Michael M. Shen and exposome pioneer Gary W. Miller were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society, for their contributions to science.
AAAS Fellows are selected for their extraordinary achievements in research, teaching, technology, administration, or communicating science to the public.
Michael M. Shen, PhD
Shen is the Arthur J. Antenucci Professor of Medical Sciences and professor of genetics & development, urology, and systems biology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Shen was elected for distinguished contributions to developmental and cancer biology, particularly for applying the principles of developmental genetics to the study of genitourinary malignancies.
His work in creating 3D organoids—cell systems that mimic the complex heterogeneity in a tumor—has been instrumental in advancing the study of cancer, tumor biology, and novel cancer treatments. Shen and collaborators have worked extensively with bladder cancer organoids developed from samples of patient tumors to study drug response and drug resistance in bladder cancer patients.
Shen also is a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Gary W. Miller, PhD
Miller is professor of environmental health sciences and vice dean for research strategy and innovation at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Miller was elected for distinguished contributions to the fields of pharmacology, toxicology, and neuroscience, particularly to the understanding of neurotransmitter storage, Parkinson’s disease, and the importance of environmental factors in disease development.
Miller is a pioneer in the emerging exposome field, which strives to provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the non-genetic contributors to health and disease. Miller leads Columbia’s exposomics and metabolomics laboratory, which is part of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. His research focuses on environmental drivers of neurodegeneration.
Before joining Columbia in 2018, Miller founded and directed the HERCULES Exposome Research Center at Emory University, the first NIH center on the exposome. He authored the first book on the topic, “The Exposome: A Primer.”
Miller also has an appointment in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Other Columbians elected this year to the AAAS: Gerard Parkin (Chemistry), Dustin Rubenstein (Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology), and Nicholas Christie-Blick (Earth & Environmental Sciences).