CUIMC Update - October 18, 2023
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
Andrea Califano to Lead Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York
Andrea Califano, Dr, former chair of the Department of Systems Biology, will lead the new Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York, which brings together experts to engineer immune cells for early disease prevention, detection, and treatment. Read more about the CZ Biohub New York and read a Q&A with Califano.
Craig Smith Examines a Life of Service
Chair of the Department of Surgery and heart surgeon Craig R. Smith, MD, recently published his memoir, "Nobility in Small Things: A Surgeon’s Path." In an interview with Columbia Surgery, Smith discusses leadership, confidence, personal responsibility, and finding time to write.
CUIMC Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month on Haven Plaza
CUIMC hosted a community celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month Oct. 11 on Haven Plaza, featuring food, dance performances, games, and trivia. The event aimed to highlight the contributions of the Latinx community at CUIMC and in northern Manhattan.
How To Protect Yourself Against the Flu, COVID-19, and RSV
Vaccines are key to preventing respiratory illnesses like seasonal flu, COVID-19, and RSV. Stephen Ferrara, DNP, associate dean of clinical affairs at the School of Nursing, shares why vaccination is important and how the CUIMC community can access flu shots.
Are Cancer Rates on the Rise in Younger People?
Research suggests cancer appears to be on the rise for people under 50 years old in the United States. Two Columbia cancer experts, Katherine Crew, MD, and Joel Gabre, MD, discuss what could be driving this increase and the implications for cancer prevention.
Events
- Lung and Breast Cancer Awareness with ColumbiaDoctors Outreach
Oct. 24, 10 a.m.
Haven Plaza, Haven Avenue between Fort Washington Avenue and 169 Street - Women's Health Corner Talk Series: Breast Cancer Screening
Oct. 24, 12:15 p.m.
VP&S Building, 630 W. 168 St., Amphitheater 1 - Mitigating Disparities in Post-2020 Healthcare Outcomes
Oct. 25, 9 a.m.
The Forum at Columbia University, 601 West 125 Street - 2023 Privacy and Information Security Briefing
Oct. 26, 11:30 a.m.
Black Building, 650 W. 168 St., Alumni Auditorium - Broadway Haven Players Presents: "Topeka or To-Not-Peka" Musical
Oct. 27, 7 p.m.
Black Building, 650 W. 168 St., Alumni Auditorium and Schaefer Awards Gallery - HICCC Annual Symposium: New Frontiers in Cancer Research and Care
Oct. 26, 2 p.m.
Vagelos Education Center, 104 Haven Ave, 2nd Floor Auditorium - Oral and Lung Cancer Awareness with ColumbiaDoctors Outreach
Oct. 31, 10 a.m.
Haven Plaza, Haven Avenue between Fort Washington Avenue and 169 Street - What Would It Take To Achieve Equity in Health Professions?
Oct. 31, 11:30 a.m.
Allan Rosenfield Building, 722 W. 168 St., 8th Floor Auditorium - The Greenwall Foundation’s William C. Stubing Memorial Lecture: "Can Mental Health Save the World?"
Nov. 14, 5 p.m.
2950 Broadway, Pulitzer World Room
Grants
School of Nursing
- Walter Bockting, PhD
$3,358,619 over four years from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for "Social Connectedness and Health among Gender Minority People of Color."
Mailman School of Public Health
- Seth Prins, PhD, Epidemiology
$3,608,096 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for "Estimating the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on adolescent health: racialized, spatial, disparities in policing, school discipline, substance use, and mental illness." - Miriam Rabkin, MD, ICAP
$840,000 over one year for a subaward from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for "HIV Differentiated Service Delivery (DSD) Strategic Initiative."
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
- Mark Ansorge, PhD, Psychiatry
$549,260 over four years for a subaward from the National Institute of Mental Health for "Thalamo-prefrontal circuit maturation during adolescence." - Jose Gutierrez, MD, Neurology
$536,995 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for "BBB dysfunction in post-stroke dementia." - Max O'Donnell, MD, Medicine
$3,681,212 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for "Rapid phenotypic detection of complex and emergent TB drug resistance using a next-generation nanoluciferase reporter phage." - Yufeng Shen, PhD, Systems Biology
$2,249,740 over three years from the Simons Foundation for "Triangulation of missense variant impact through multimodal modeling and functional assays." - Michele Shirasu-Hiza, PhD, Genetics & Development
$2,201,800 over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for "Circadian regulation of physiological functions." - Veli Topkara, MD, Medicine
$2,789,922 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for "Role of RNA helicase Ddx5 in pathological cardiac remodeling."
Honors
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
- Jose Amat, MD, PhD, Psychiatry
Received the Margaret Morgan Lawrence, MD, Memorial Award. - Noémie Elhadad, PhD, Biomedical Informatics
Included in "The AI 100 2023: The top people in artificial intelligence" by Business Insider. - David A. Fidock, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology
Elected to be the next president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. - W. Thomas Huntsman, MD, Surgery
Received the 2023 Walter A. Franck Physician Excellence Award.
Social Media Snapshot
Not Getting Enough Sleep? Your Vascular Cells Are Drowning in Oxidants
Columbia Medicine (@ColumbiaMed)
A new @ColumbiaPS study on what happens to women’s’ bodies during mild chronic sleep deprivation “is some of the first evidence to show that mild chronic deficits cause heart disease.”
In the News Highlights
- Morning Joe: For Ageism Awareness Day, We Highlight Positive Aspects of Aging
Oct 6, 2023
MSNBC (video)
Linda Fried, interviewed here, is dean of the Mailman School of Public Health. - Some Coma Patients May Be Conscious. New Research Could Identify Them.
Oct 12, 2023
The Washington Post
Jan Claassen, who is a neurocritical care physician and the director of critical care neurology at Columbia University/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and whose laboratory led the recent study, was determined to make CMD diagnosis simpler by incorporating equipment already available in most hospitals. - What Causes Muscle Twitching? And Here's When You Should Worry.
Oct 8, 2023
USA TODAY
Because these nerves are constantly triggering muscle movements day after day, they can be very sensitive and sometimes misfire. "Almost always this is due to motor nerves that send signals from the spine or brain to the receptors," explains Loren Fishman, MD, a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Columbia University.