CUIMC Update - September 10, 2025

September 10, 2025

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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

NewYork-Presbyterian The One is Now Open
ColumbiaDoctors at NewYork-Presbyterian The One started welcoming patients on September 9. Located in White Plains at 1111 Westchester Avenue, The One brings together Columbia experts from more than 90 specialties and subspecialties to offer seamless, patient-centered care for adults and children.

Columbia Announces 2025 Horwitz Prize Winners
The 2025 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize winners are Kevin Campbell, Louis Kunkel, and Eric Olson for discoveries that revealed the biological causes of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and provide the foundation for breakthrough treatments for this and related muscular diseases. 

A Rising Interventional Radiologist
The Rising Star Award is an initiative of the Academy of Clinical Excellence (ACE), established to recognize outstanding residents and fellows in clinical departments at VP&S. Watch a video and learn more about how John Filtes, an ACE Rising Star recipient and assistant professor in the Department of Radiology, chose a career in interventional radiology.

Call for Volunteers: Curious Minds Science Zone
Volunteers are needed for this year’s Curious Minds: Science Zone hosted on September 18 by the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at VP&S. Volunteers can welcome students, decorate Haven Plaza, and help connect young learners with the excitement of science and medicine. Opportunities are available for multiple shifts.

Complete the Columbia Employee Climate and Engagement Survey

All CUIMC employees are invited to complete the Columbia Employee Climate and Engagement Survey. All responses are anonymous and confidential. The survey will remain open until Friday, September 26. Visit the climate survey website for more information.

Events

Grants

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Markus Hilpert and Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne, Environmental Health Sciences
    $654,823 over five years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Bronx Environmental Health Summer Training for Justice.”
  • Katherine Keyes, Epidemiology
    $782,002 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Improving Health and Housing Outcomes through a Simulation and Economic Model (iHOUSE Model).” 

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Eric Greene, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics  
    $2,069,065 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “Helicase regulation during homologous recombination.”
  • May Hua, Anesthesiology
     $650,186 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute on Aging for “Improving needs among older adults: the ICUconnect 2 primary palliative care RCT.” 
  • Hans-Willem Snoeck and Anjali Saqi, Medicine
    $1,000,000 over three years from the Kully Family Foundation for “Development of cell replacement therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and childhood interstitial lung disease.”  
  • Timothy Cragin Wang, Medicine
    $500,000 over two years from the DeGregorio Family Foundation for “Modified Trefoil Factor Family 2 (TFF2-MSA) as a novel therapy for gastroesophageal cancer.” 
  • Ai Yamamoto, Neurology
    $3,640,432 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Calcium signaling and autophagy defects in Alzheimer's disease neurons.” 

Honors

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Social Media Snapshot

LinkedIn post announcing the opening of the NYP The One location

View post on LinkedIn here.  

In The News Highlights

  • Kids Who Sleep Less and Use Screens More May Face Higher Heart Risks: Study
    Aug. 26, 2025
    ABC News (video)
    Columbia University Irving Medical Center associate professor Dr. Brooke Aggarwal discusses a new study by researchers in Denmark that looks at potential risks associated with kids and teens skipping sleep for screen time. 
    Brooke Aggarwal, interviewed here, is an associate professor of medical sciences at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
  • Exposure to Air Pollution Increases Risk of Dementia, Scientists Say
    Sep 4, 2025
    Financial Times (UK)
    [Lewy body] dementia, which accounts for 10 to 15 percent of dementia cases, is characterized by the formation of abnormal protein clumps, the so-called Lewy bodies, in the brain. The link with air pollution was stronger for Lewy body disease than for other forms of dementia, said Xiao Wu of Columbia University, an author of the study published in Science. 
    Xiao Wu is an assistant professor of biostatistics at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
  • This Lung Disease Can Be Dangerous for Younger People, Too
    Aug 28, 2025
    CNN Online
    Now, researchers are trying to learn how many people have “young COPD,” meaning the condition is diagnosed before 50 years of age. “Young COPD” was present in 4.5% of adults under 50 in the population studied, a new study published in the journal NEJM Evidence found. The diagnosis was associated with a significantly elevated risk of hospitalization due to lower respiratory disease and an increased risk of death before 75. 
    Elizabeth C. Oelsner, senior author of the study referenced here, is an associate professor of medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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