CUIMC Update - October 1, 2025

June 11, 2026

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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

ICYMI: 2025 VP&S State of the School
Watch a recording of the 2025 State of the School, presented by Katrina Armstrong, Dean of VP&S, and James McKiernan, Senior Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs, and see a list of all honorees from the event.

CUIMC Rallies on Capitol Hill for Research Funding
Physicians, researchers, students, and staff at Columbia University Irving Medical Center met with legislators on Capitol Hill in D.C. to advocate for medical research.

Metabolic Markers May Predict Breast Cancer in High-Risk Women
A new metabolomics study by Mailman researchers identified eight metabolic features significantly associated with breast cancer risk and found that integrating these into existing risk prediction models substantially improved predictive accuracy.

A Psychobiologist Explains How Mitochondria Impact Your Health
The research of Martin Picard, is advancing our understanding of the critical role mitochondria play in maintaining overall health and well-being.

A Noteworthy Connection
Renowned calligrapher Bernard Maisner shares his art, film work, and journey through heart surgery with Craig Smith, chair of the Department of Surgery—and the letters that connect them.

Join Columbia’s Ride to End Cancer: Velocity Your Way

This year, Velocity, Columbia’s Ride to End Cancer, is offering Velocity Your Way, a fully flexible fundraiser, where supporters can choose any activity they prefer to support Columbia’s cancer research and care. Members of the CUIMC community can sign up with waived registration fees using the code CONNECT25. To register or donate, please visit the Velocity website. 

Events

Grants

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Uttiya Basu, Microbiology
    $3,058,429 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “The role of N6-methyladenosine RNA modification in programmed and aberrant DNA mutagenesis in B cells.” 
  • Christina Eckhardt, Medicine
    $942,502 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Developing a biologically driven clinico-molecular signature of rapidly progressive idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.”
  • Jia Guo, Psychiatry
    $374,514 over three years from the American Federation for Aging Research for “Brain Aging: Integrating T1w MRI with AI-Driven CBV to Unveil Spatial-temporal Patterns.” 
  • Tal Korem, Systems Biology
    $389,700 over two years for a subaward from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Microbiome Based Biomarkers of Wound Healing.”   
  • Filippo Mancia, David Fidock and Matthias Quick, Physiology
     $4,096,670 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Leveraging PfCRT Structure to Discern Function and Predict Emergence of Drug-Resistant Malaria.” 
  • Alex Rai, Pathology
    $600,000 over three years for a subaward from the National Institutes of Health for “Validation and clinical development of plasma EV protein biomarkers for minimally invasive detection of Alzheimer's disease.”  
  • Robert Schwabe, Medicine
    $3,309,395 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “Understanding and targeting transcriptional master regulators in hepatocellular carcinoma.” 

Honors

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Mustafa Aydogan, Genetics and Development
    Has been selected as an HHMI Hrabowski Scholar. Read about his research here. 

Social Media Snapshot

Instagram

In the News Highlights

  • Tylenol Is Safe, Doctors Tell Worried Pregnant Moms
    Sep 25, 2025
    Reuters
    Untreated fever and pain during pregnancy are known to increase the risk of birth defects, preterm birth, low birth weight and miscarriage and other health problems. "The risk of fever in pregnancy is very real," said Dr. Caitlin Baptiste, maternal fetal medicine specialist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York. "Certainly in the first trimester, we know it can cause congenital birth defects and can raise the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders," she said. Baptiste said she is glad for the increased focus on autism, but does not think it's helpful to add unfounded worries about Tylenol use. "We need to focus efforts on where the science is," she said.
  • Are Gel Manicures a Harmless Beauty Trend, or Health Hazard?
    Sep 11, 2025
    The Wall Street Journal
    In general the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricts few chemicals in personal-care products—just 11, notes Ami Zota, associate professor of environmental health sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. But states are starting to enact restrictions. Zota says evidence about TPO [trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide] is still emerging. “I think we need to have a more structured way to follow up on emerging chemicals of concern,” she says. 
  • Genetic Disorder PKD Affects Millions, But Often Goes Undiagnosed
    Sep 23, 2025
    PIX 11 New York (video)
    Dr. Heedeok Han is a nephrologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. As head of the PKD Foundation Center of Excellence at Columbia, Dr. Han believes raising awareness is important because the condition, other than blood in the urine and pain in the flanks, often presents itself as asymptomatic and is discovered incidentally or not until it’s in an advanced stage. “We really want to prevent those episodes and those stories where patients find out about PKD right before they require dialysis or require transplant,” said Dr. Han. “It’s actually the fourth leading cause of end-stage kidney disease.”
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