CUIMC Update - February 19, 2025
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 Hosts Well-Being Fair for Employees
The second annual Well-Being Fair offered a variety of activities, including Zumba, reiki, awareness through movement, acupuncture, chair massages, aromatherapy, hands-only CPR training, pet therapy, and NARCAN instruction.
50 Haven Ballroom Reopens with New Seating and Dining Space
The Division of Student and Campus Services recently opened the revamped 50 Haven Ballroom, offering year-round seating with a fresh, modern look. The space offers a comfortable indoor spot to unwind, study, or catch up with friends and colleagues.
Sharing "Untold Stories" of Health Care History
The African, Black, and Caribbean Employee Resource Group and Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center hosted an event titled “Untold Stories in Health Equity” with Heather Butts, highlighting overlooked leaders in health care and encouraging participants to document and share other untold stories.
You May Love to Travel—But Does Your Stomach?
Traveler's diarrhea, constipation, and indigestion are all common symptoms for jetsetters. Columbia gastroenterologist Arthur Magun explains how travel can disrupt your digestive health and what you can do to make your trip more pleasant.
AI at VP&S Initiative Kickoff: Monday, Feb. 24
All members of the University are welcome to attend the AI at VP&S Initiative Kickoff, a showcase of AI-driven research, applications, and innovations at VP&S. Learn about the new initiative, experience real-time demonstrations highlighting diverse AI use cases, and connect with potential collaborators, mentors, and colleagues interested in AI. Register and see a list of demos at the event.
Events
- Global Food Systems' Effect on Nutrition and Food Security
Feb. 20, 11:30 a.m.
Allan Rosenfield Building, 722 W. 168th Street, 8th Floor Auditorium and via Zoom - 2025 Lunar New Year Celebration
Feb. 20, 3 p.m.
School of Nursing, 560 W. 168 St., 7th floor - AI at VP&S Initiative Kick-off
Feb. 24, 5 p.m.
Milstein Building, 177 Fort Washington Ave., Heart Center Auditorium - Time for a Heart to Heart: Steps You Can Take to Prevent Heart Disease
Feb. 27, noon
VP&S Building, 630 W. 168 St., Amphitheater 1 or via Zoom - Webinar: "Early Childhood and Media: Guiding Healthy Screen Habits"
Feb. 27, 6 p.m.
Online - Person Place Thing on NPR with Randy Cohen featuring Robert Klitzman
Feb. 27, 6:30 p.m.
Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive, Garden Room 2 - VP&S Open Forum
March 3, 4 p.m.
Black Building, 650 W. 168 St., Alumni Auditorium and via Zoom - Columbia AI Summit
March 4, all day
Multiple locations - March Narrative Medicine Rounds with Dinaw Mengestu
March 5, 6 p.m.
Online - Bioethics in Film: From Screen to Seminar | Hereditary (2018)
March 6, 6:30 p.m.
Vagelos Education Center, 104 Haven Ave., Room 902 and via Zoom - The 50th Anniversary of the Declassification of Homosexuality As a Disease: Where Are We Today?
March 13, 6:15 p.m.
Online - The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series in the Clinical Sciences: “Unraveling the Mechanisms of Fight or Flight: How the Heart Responds to Adrenergic Signals” with Steven O. Marx, MD
March 27, 4:30 p.m.
Black Building, 650 W. 168 St., Alumni Auditorium - Application Deadline: Lasker Essay Contest
March 31, 2 p.m.
Online
Grants
Mailman School of Public Health
- Yael Hirsch-Moverman, ICAP
$313,621 over two years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for "Rifapentine in High Doses in Pregnancy with TB (Radiant-Moms) study." - Ami Zota, Environmental Health Sciences
$1,608,091 over four years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for "Reframing personal and community report back of consumer products by centering intersectionality."
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
- Daria Boccher-Lattimore, Psychiatry
$4,256,818 over five years from the Health Resources and Services Administration for "Regional AIDS Education and Training Center." - Remi Creusot, Medicine
$2,361,083 over four years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for "Unraveling the tolerogenic potential of lymph node fibroblastic reticular networks in autoimmune diabetes." - Rita Kukafka and Katherine Crew, Biomedical Informatics
$3,438,069 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "Integrating Breast Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Risk to Explore Decision-Making for Chemoprevention Among Racially/Ethnically Diverse Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer." - Ryan Moy, Medicine
$1,379,151 over five years from the Gateway for Cancer Research for "A phase II trial of defactinib and VS-6766 in diffuse gastric cancer." - Reuben Robbins, Psychiatry
$3,293,964 over five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for "Enhancing Novel Research for Inflammation and Cognitive Health among Adolescents and Young Adults Living with Perinatally Acquired HIV and Adversity (ENRICH+)." - Badri Vardarajan, Sergievsky Center
$915,157 over one year from the National Institute on Aging for "Characterizing complex structural variation in Alzheimer’s disease."
Honors
College of Dental Medicine
- Luiz Pimenta has been named a 2025–26 American Dental Education Association Leadership Institute fellow.
Social Media Snapshot
In the News Highlights
- Ask Well: Should Dinner Be the Smallest Meal of the Day?
Feb 11, 2025
The New York Times
For decades, nutrition researchers have focused on what—not when—people eat, so we don’t have many large or long-term studies on the influence of meal timing on health, said Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. But, she said, the studies that do exist show some consistent links. People who consume a greater percentage of calories in the evening tend to be at higher risk for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and higher levels of inflammation. - RFK Jr. Has Questioned Rising Autism Rates. Here's What Experts Say He Gets Wrong About the Disorder
Feb 13, 2025
ABC News Online
"When autism was first described, it was new to people understanding that there was a condition that included social communication difficulties and restricted and repetitive behavior, and people primarily only recognized it when it was at its most extreme," Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, division director in child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University, told ABC News. - Children With Mild Peanut Allergy May Be Able to Eat Peanut Butter, Trial Shows
Feb 10, 2025
NBC News Online
While it will be necessary to follow children for a longer term to validate the results, “the ability to induce tolerance to a food is incredibly exciting,” said Dr. Joel Brooks, an assistant professor of pediatrics and an associate program director of allergy and immunology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. “Now these children won’t have to carry an EpiPen with them,” he said.