CUIMC Update - Aug. 16, 2021

CUIMC Update is a weekly e-newsletter featuring medical center news and the accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and trainees. Please send your news, honors, and awards to cuimc_update@cumc.columbia.edu. Grants are provided by the Sponsored Projects Administration office.

NEWS

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman Awarded 2021 Horwitz Prize 
Columbia will award the 2021 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Katalin Karikó, PhD, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, for their trailblazing work on messenger RNA vaccines for COVID-19. Read more.

VP&S Recognized by NIH for Advancing Gender Diversity
The National Institutes of Health has awarded VP&S the NIH Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity in Biomedical and Behavioral Science. VP&S was one of 10 organizations recognized by the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. Read more.

VP&S Welcomes Its Most Diverse Class of Medical Students
The VP&S Class of 2025 has more students from underrepresented minority backgrounds than any medical school class in Columbia’s history. Read more.

Tuesday: Return to Campus Update 
Columbia will host a Return to Campus Update Forum for faculty, researchers, and staff on Aug. 17 at 4 p.m. on Zoom. The update will focus on new information about COVID in New York City and state and globally plus provide information on campus readiness and more. Register here.

Week 3 of Employee Appreciation Events: Trivia Challenge and Talent Competition
Do you know which CUIMC school began as the DeLamar Institute, or what medication widely used by parents to treat skinned knees was developed from a discovery at VP&S? Correct answers to those and other Columbia trivia questions earned double points in the August Employee Appreciation Trivia Challenge, now entering its third and final week ahead of next week’s tournament of finalists. During the first two weeks, 505 players participated in the trivia competition, including one player who answered 100% of the questions correctly and four players who answered 95% of the questions correctly. Learn more and find this week’s trivia questions here.

Do you knit, bake, juggle, or have a hobby, passion, or talent? Share a photo or video to be included in our CUIMC production featuring Broadway stars. Submissions are due today. Read more.

2021 Annual HIPAA Privacy & Security Briefing
The annual HIPAA & Security Briefing for faculty, researchers, and management staff is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m. Registration is required here using your Columbia email address. All who pre-register will receive a confirmation email before the event with instructions for joining on Zoom.

GRANTS

VAGELOS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

Oliver Clarke, PhD, Anesthesiology, will receive $1,760,696 over five years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for “Structural Basis for Allosteric Regulation of RyR1.”

Benjamin Izar, MD, Medicine, will receive $1,966,682 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “Mechanisms of Liver Metastasis and Associated Resistance to Immunotherapy.”

Stavroula Kousteni, PhD, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, will receive $1,675,080 over four years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for “Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of ATRA Inhibition of Osteoblast-Induced MDS Development.”

Elizabeth Oelsner, MD, Medicine, will receive $3,720,856 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Metal Exposure and Subclinical Lung Disease in Adult E-cigarette Users.”

Jianwen Que, MD, PhD, Medicine, will receive $1,917,899 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “VEGF/KDR Signaling in Airway Epithelial Regeneration and Disease.”

Neil Shneider, MD, PhD, Neurology, will receive $1,938,163 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a subaward of “Corticospinal Neuron Dysfunction and Degeneration in ALS: Testing the Role of Corticomotor Connectivity in Motor Neuron Disease.”

MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Joan Casey, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $2,130,169 over three years from the National Institute on Aging for “Short and Long-Term Consequences of Wildfires for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.”

UPDATE: Rachel Shelton, ScD, Sociomedical Sciences, Nathalie Moise, MD, Medicine, and Parisa Tehranifar, DrPH, Epidemiology, will receive $2,616,318 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “De-implementation of Mammography Overuse in Older Racially and Ethnically Diverse Women.”

AWARDS AND HONORS

VAGELOS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

Azra Raza, MD, Medicine, will join the steering committee of the American Association for Cancer Research’s newest scientific working group dedicated to supporting cancer evolution research. Read more.

EVENTS

School of Nursing General Q&A Virtual Information Session, Aug. 18, 3 p.m., register here.

Nurse Anesthesia Virtual Information Session, Aug. 24, 5 p.m., register here.

Columbia Nursing Masters Direct Entry Program Virtual Information Session, Aug. 25, noon, register here.

For more events, visit the CUIMC Events listing.