CUIMC Update - March 1, 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
Meet the Three Women who Have Guided Columbia Through the Pandemic
As Women's History Month begins, Columbia News profiles three remarkable women - Melanie Bernitz, Wafaa El-Sadr, and Donna Lynne - who have played important leadership roles in navigating Columbia through the continuing phases of the pandemic. Read more.
CUIMC Celebrates Women’s History Month
In recognition of Women’s History Month, we are delighted to share profiles of pioneering female faculty members who are achieving excellence in research, education, and patient care. Read more.
VP&S Researchers Identify New ‘Home-Grown’ Coronavirus Variant Found in New York City Region
Spread of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, which shares worrisome similarities with other recent variants, has been identified in the New York City region by VP&S researchers Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, and David D. Ho, MD, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Clyde ‘56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine. Read more.
Oral Symptoms Common in Children with COVID-Linked Inflammatory Disorder MIS-C, Dental Researchers Find
Children with COVID-19 often have mild or no symptoms; however, a small percentage develop a condition known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. A pilot study by faculty and trainees at the College of Dental Medicine has found that more than half of hospitalized pediatric patients with MIS-C showed symptoms in the mouth and throat. Read more.
Incarceration Is Strongly Linked with Premature Death in U.S., Finds Study Led by Mailman PhD Student
New research led by Sandhya Kajeepeta, a PhD candidate in the Department of Epidemiology at Mailman, has found a strong association between jail incarceration and death rates from infectious diseases, chronic lower respiratory disease, drug use, and suicide. Read more.
Why Nurses Should Be Guiding, Making Health Policy: Rep. Underwood Offers View from the Hill
Rep. Lauren Underwood, RN, MSN, MPH, one of three nurses now serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, spoke on Feb. 16 via Zoom with nursing students, educators, and nursing professionals about how they can advocate for a better health care system for all. The event was co-sponsored by the School of Nursing. Read more.
EVENTS
CUIMC Grand Rounds: “Increased Resistance of New Circulating SARS-CoV-2 Variants to Antibody Neutralization” with David D. Ho, MD, today at 5 p.m., register online.
New York State HIV Primary Care and Prevention Center of Excellence & Columbia School of Nursing Present Transgender-Affirming Primary Care, March 3, 6 p.m., register online.
Columbia Synapse Spring 2021 Conference: The Social Brain, March 13-14, register online.
GRANTS
VAGELOS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
Michaeline Bresnahan, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $293,753 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a subaward of “Childhood Mass Trauma Exposure, Inflammatory Programming, and Psychopathology in Young Adulthood.”
Chi-Min Ho, PhD, Microbiology, will receive $2,025,000 over five years from the Office of the NIH Director for “Molecular Basis of Effector Protein Export In The Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Falciparum.”
Emily Mace, PhD, Pediatrics, will receive $734,237 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a subaward of “Composition and Structure of Antibody Receptors at the Surface of Primary Human Cells During Immune Activation.”
COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE
Yiping Han, PhD, Dental Medicine, will receive $2,778,245 over five years from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research for “Investigation of FadA Adhesin from Fusobacterium Nucleatum.”
AWARDS AND HONORS
VAGELOS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
Max O'Donnell, MD, Medicine and Epidemiology; Katharina Schultebraucks, PhD, Emergency Medicine; and Sagi Shapira, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology, were chosen as finalists for the Clinical Research Forum 2021 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards.