CUIMC Update - March 27, 2024

March 27, 2024

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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

Healthspan Extension Summit, April 19
Join your colleagues on April 19 for the CUIMC Healthy Aging Initiative Symposium, which will highlight the work of faculty whose basic, clinical, and population health research is contributing to a better understanding of how to achieve healthier outcomes in aging.

ARPA-H Awards Columbia Researchers Nearly $39M to Develop a Living Knee Replacement
A team of Columbia researchers has been awarded up to a $38.95 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to build a living knee replacement from biomaterials and human stem cells, including a patient’s own cells.

Endometriosis Apps, AI Help Researchers Understand the Condition
Noémie Elhadad, PhD, developed a research mobile app to gather data from patients around the world who suffer from endometriosis, tracking their day-to-day symptoms and treatment strategies.

Studying the Impact of Social Media on Teen Mental Health
Mailman research from Melissa DuPont-Reyes, PhD, aims to better understand the ways that social media both helps and harms Latinx adolescents.

Is All “Milk” Created Equal for Kids?
Milk alternatives, including oat, soy, almond, and coconut milk, are widely available, but they don't match the nutritional advantages offered by dairy milk, according to pediatric gastroenterologist Sarah Lusman, MD. 

Events

Grants

School of Nursing

  • Lusine Poghosyan, PhD, and Patricia Stone, PhD
    $2,445,840 over five years from the National Institute of Nursing Research for "Systems Science and Comparative and Cost-Effectiveness Research Training for Nurse Scientists (S2CER2)."

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Dustin Duncan, ScD, Epidemiology
    $316,698 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute of Mental Health for "HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies."
  • Zenebe Yirsaw, MD, ICAP
    $22,000,000 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for "Technical Assistance to National Entities and Regional Health Bureaus (RHBs) in the Implementation of HIV Programs across Ethiopia under PEPFAR."

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Adam Brickman, PhD, Taub Institute
    $426,830 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute on Aging for "Health, Aging and Dementia in South Africa: A Longitudinal Study (HAALSI) -- Project 1 Dementia."
  • Nobuko Hijiya, MD, HICCC
    $879,720 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "Clinical Trials Specialist in Developmental Therapeutics."
  • Alice Huang, PhD, Orthopedic Surgery
    $2,890,127 over five years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for "The role of T cells in tendon healing."
  • Timothy Poterucha, MD, Medicine
    $432,224 over two years from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation for "Epidemiology of Valvular Heart Disease in the United States: PREVUE-Valve PHASE 2."
  • Anna-Lena Steckelberg, PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
    $2,056,250 over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for "Understanding the antiviral roles of a cellular RNA quality control pathway."
  • Chenqi Tao, PhD, Ophthalmology
    $2,056,250 over five years from the National Eye Institute for "Receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in astrocyte migration and angiogenesis."

Honors

School of Nursing

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Social Media Snapshot

#ColumbiaDental students and faculty spotlight Dr. Bessie Delany for #WomensHistoryMonth.

In the News Highlights

  • Building Intelligent Machines Helps Us Learn How Our Brain Works
    Mar 19, 2024
    Scientific American
    AI is an ideas-rich field at the moment, and engineers have plenty of leads to follow up already without having to import more from neuroscience. “They’re killing it,” notes neuroscientist Nikolaus Kriegeskorte of Columbia University. But the brain is still an existence proof for generalized intelligence and, for now, the best model that AI researchers have. “The human brain has certain tricks up its sleeve that engineering hasn’t conquered yet,” Kriegeskorte says.
    Nikolaus Kriegeskorte is a professor of neuroscience at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
  • Older Adults as Community Health Workers: 3 Steps to Engage This Demographic
    Mar 16, 2024
    Forbes
    Older adults in an aging society are a dividend, said Dr. Linda P. Fried, dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “It will require great imagination to envision roles and responsibilities that capitalize on the capabilities of mature minds and match their aspirations to give back and leave the future better than the present.”
  • How to Prepare Your Kids—and Yourself—for a Sleepover, According to an Expert
    Mar 16, 2024
    People
    "My most universal piece of advice would be to make sure you feel comfortable before sending your child over for a sleepover," Dr. Rebekah Diamond, a pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, tells PEOPLE. "This usually means getting to know the parents a bit and asking a few basic questions."