CUIMC Update - December 21, 2022
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
CUIMC Holiday Celebration Features Gingerbread Houses and Toy Drive
At this year’s CUIMC Holiday Celebration, faculty and staff enjoyed refreshments, viewed entries and learned the winners of the CUIMC gingerbread house competition, and donated toys for the annual CUIMC Holiday Toy Drive. Read more and watch the video.
Neurodegeneration Research Center Established at Columbia
The Carol and Gene Ludwig Center for Research on Neurodegeneration will bring novel approaches to treating Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases through cutting-edge research and the creation of state-of-the-art laboratories. Read more.
18 Mind-Blowing Things Columbia Health Professionals Told Us This Year
From when to brush your teeth to plant-based diets to people who cannot burp, here’s what we learned in 2022 that we can’t stop sharing. Read more.
Meet Columbia’s First Associate Dean for Medical School Professionalism
Jean-Marie Alves-Bradford, MD, who recently began a new role as inaugural associate dean for medical school professionalism in the learning environment, discusses the unique stresses of medical school and how new efforts will help students adapt and succeed. Read more.
VP&S Welcomes New Faculty Who Bring Wide Range of Expertise
In 2022, new hires included an expert in endometriosis treatment, the co-founder of a biotech devoted to leveraging RNA in drug discovery, founding chief of the new Division of Surgical Oncology, and a specialist in adolescent medicine. Read more.
EVENTS
Best Practices in Academic Mentoring: A Model of Excellence
Jan. 12, 2023, 8 a.m., online
Register here.
Algorithmic Bias and Machine Learning in Health Care
Jan. 12, 2023, 4 p.m., online
Register here.
Data Science for Public Health Summit
Jan. 13, 2023, 8 a.m., Vagelos Education Center, 104 Haven Avenue, Room 401
Register here.
CUIMC Women in Science Lecture Series: Perfectly Imperfect Pathways for Success
Jan. 17, 2023, 4 p.m., online
Register here.
GRANTS
COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE
Dana Wolf, DMD: $1,500,000 over five years from the Health Resources and Services Administration for "Predoctoral Training in General, Pediatric, and Public Health Dentistry and Dental Hygiene."
MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Allison Aiello, PhD, Epidemiology: $947,136 over four years for a subaward from the National Institute on Aging for "Immunosenescence, socioeconomic disadvantage and dementia in the US aging population."
Sen Pei, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences: $766,391 over four years from the National Science Foundation for "RAISE:IHBEM - Human behavior-driven mathematical modeling and forecasting of respiratory disease transmission in urban settings."
VAGELOS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
Kevin Gardner, MD, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology: $2,994,632 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "The Role of Kaiso as a predictive breast cancer biomarker in Africa and across the African Diaspora."
Anum Glasgow, PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics: $747,000 over three years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for "Mapping and rewiring protein allostery."
Fabio Iwamoto, MD, Neurology: $500,000 over two years from the Ivy (Ben and Catherine) Foundation for "Emerging Leader Award - Targeting the Glioblastoma Master Regulator CEBP–a pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics surgical study of ST101."
Lale Ozcan, MD, Medicine: $281,817 over three years from the American Heart Association for "Role of geranylgeranyl synthesis and hepatic Rap1a on cholesterol metabolism."
Simone Sanna-Cherchi, MD, Medicine: $1,944,000 over three years from the Department of the Army, Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for "Multiethnic Integrated GWAS to Illuminate the Pathobiology of FSGS."
Yufeng Shen, PhD, Systems Biology: $319,230 over two years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for "Computational analysis of whole genome sequence data for discovering novel risk genes of structural birth defects."
Catherine Spina, MD, Radiation Oncology: $495,000 over three years from the Duke (Doris) Charitable Foundation for "Adenosine Signaling Modulation, Checkpoint Inhibition, and Tumor Irradiation for Patients with Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer."
HONORS
VAGELOS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
Frances T. McCarthy, RNC, Pediatrics, is a 2023 recipient of the Courageous Parents Network Ilene Beal Courageous Provider Award.
SOCIAL MEDIA SNAPSHOT
IN THE NEWS
The Wall Street Journal (Requires a subscription)
Why Heart Attacks Rise During the Holiday Season
Dec 12, 2022 - People experiencing mild symptoms often put off going to the doctor until the New Year because they are busy or traveling, says Mitch Elkind, chief clinical science officer for the American Heart Association and a stroke neurologist at Columbia University in Manhattan.
The New York Times
Letters to the Editor: What Are the Causes of Obesity?
Dec 8, 2022 - Big Food plays a crucial role in the ever-spreading obesity epidemic in the United States and abroad. Multinational corporations increasingly use sophisticated chemistry and technology to engineer food to appeal to our instinctual desires for sugar, fat, and salt.
Editor's Note: Robert Klitzman, the author of this letter, is a professor of psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and at the Mailman School of Public Health. He is also the program director for the Master of Science in Bioethics at the School of Professional Studies.
Crain's New York Business (Requires a subscription)
Columbia Nursing School Gets $15M Federal Grant to Study HIV Risk in Women
Dec 15, 2022 - Rebecca Schnall, the Mary Dickey Lindsay Professor of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at Columbia University School of Nursing, and her team will convene a virtual cohort of 1,800 women across the country who are negative for HIV and study how different factors influence their risk of acquiring the virus and other sexually transmitted infections.