CUIMC Celebrates 2016-2017, Issue 3

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CUIMC CELEBRATES acknowledges faculty, staff, and students at Columbia University Irving Medical Center who receive major research grants, who earn prestigious honors, who are elected to honorary societies, orwho take leadership positions in professional organizations. Celebrates also gratefully acknowledges the gifts made by donors and friends of the Medical Center and highlights faculty who have appeared in the news recently. If you have an award or honor that you would like to have listed in Celebrates, please fill out this online form. Please note: All federal grants are automatically included based on institutional data provided by Sponsored Projects Administration. For more information, send an e-mail to the Celebrates editor. Click on the image at right to print this issue. Research Grants / Awards & Honors / Philanthropic Gifts / CUIMC in the News

RESEARCH GRANTS

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS

Jason Adelman, MD, Medicine, will receive $999,997 over four years from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for “Develop and Validate Health IT Safety Measures to Capture Violations of the 5 Rights of Medication Safety.”

Dritan Agalliu, PhD, and Tyler Cutforth, PhD, Neurology, will receive $400,000 over one year from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Th17 Cell-Mediated CNS Damage in Response to Recurrent S. pyogenes Intranasal Infections.”

Francesca Bartolini, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $2,000,000 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Pathogenic Role for Formin-Mediated Microtubule Stabilization Pathways in Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Uttiya Basu, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology, will receive $600,000 over three years from the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance for “Infectious Disease-Induced DNA Alterations in B-Cell Malignancies.”

Jahar Bhattacharya, MD, DPhil, Medicine, will receive $1,231,930 over three years from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for “Actin Fence Therapy for Acute Lung Injury.”

David Bickers, MD, Dermatology, will receive $3,903,951 over five years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for “Columbia University Skin Disease Resource-Based Center (epiCURE).”

David J. Brenner, PhD, Center for Radiological Research, will receive $784,805 over four years from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration for “Physical and Biological Modulators of Space Radiation Carcinogenesis: Mechanistically Based Model Development for Space Radiation Risk Assessment.”

Adam Brickman, PhD, Taub Institute, will receive $793,490 over one year from the National Institute on Aging for “White Matter Hyperintensities in Aging and Dementia.”

Jiook Cha, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $737,021 over four years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Neural Correlates of Fear Over-Generalization in Youth With Pathological Anxiety.”

Angela Christiano, PhD, Dermatology, will receive $788,6300 over five years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for “Alopecia Areata Center for Research Translation (AACORT).”

Alberto Ciccia, PhD, Genetics & Development, will receive $1,244,262 over four years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for “Transcriptional Regulation by the DNA Damage Response.”

Lorraine Clark, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $381,018 over two years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Planning Grant: Columbia-Yale-Bilkent Study: Genetic Study of Essential Tremor.”

E. Sander Connolly, MD, and Eric Heyer, MD, Neurological Surgery, will receive $5,035,321 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Statin Neuroprotection and Cognitive Dysfunction After Carotid Endarterectomy: Safety, Feasibility, and Outcomes.”

Jeanine D’Armiento, MD, PhD, Anesthesiology, and Lynne Johnson, MD, Medicine, will receive $2,101,922 over three years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “In Vivo Imaging of Destructive Processes in COPD.”

Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD, Institute for Cancer Genetics, will receive $6,166,000 over seven years from the National Cancer Institute for “From Pathogenesis to New Therapeutic Targets in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.”

Alex Dranovsky, MD, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $1,135,048 over two years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Temporal Specification of Neuronal Function and its Relevance to Mental Health.”

Cristiane Duarte, PhD, Catherine Monk, PhD, and Jonathan Posner, MD, Psychiatry, will receive $4,264,846 over two years from the Office of the NIH Director for “Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Disadvantage: Neurodevelopment Among Puerto Rican Children.”

Joachim Frank, PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, will receive $302,666 over two years from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics for “Cryo-EM Studies of Human CFTR Structure/Function for the 3D Consortium.”

Guy Garty, PhD, Center for Radiological Research, will receive $1,583,934 over three years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “High-Throughput Biodosimetry Using a Fully Automated Dicentric Assay on Commercial High-Content Screening Platforms.”

Yunglin Gazes, PhD, Taub Institute, will receive $622,755 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Longitudinal Changes in White Matter Integrity Predicting Cognitive Changes in Reasoning and Vocabulary Abilities.”

Ali Gharavi, MD, Medicine, will receive $1,199,994 over three years from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for “Multispecies, Integrative GWAS for Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis.”

Jon Giles, MD, Medicine, will receive $2,481,798 over five years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for “Adipose Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis.”

Michael Goldberg, MD, Ophthalmology, will receive $4,000,000 over five years from the National Eye Institute for “Core Facilities for Vision Research” in a competitive renewal.

Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, Obstetrics & Gynecology, will receive $837,794 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Pulmonary Complications in a Birth Cohort After a Randomized Trial of Antenatal Corticosteroids: The ALPS Follow-Up Study -  Clinical Coordinating Center” in a competitive renewal.

Margaret Haney, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $3,297,733 over two years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Non-metabolized Pregnenolone Derivatives: New Treatment for Cannabis Use Disorder.”

Erin Heinzen Cox, PharmD, PhD, Institute for Genomic Medicine, will receive $3,287,722 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Identification and Molecular Characterization of Somatic Mutations in MCD.”

Dawn Hershman, MD, Medicine, will receive $600,000 over three years from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for “Comorbidity, Toxicity, and Breast Cancer Survival Among Women On and Off Clinical Trials.”

Hilda Hutcherson, MD, P&S Education, will receive $415,000 over one year from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for “RWJF Summer Medical and Dental Education Program: Interprofessional Pilot.”

Sanja Jelic, MD, Medicine, will receive $529,554 over one year from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Vascular Endothelial Activation in Sleep Apnea” in a competitive renewal.

Shingo Kariya, PhD, Neurology, and Diane Berengere Re, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences (Mailman School of Public Health), will receive $440,000 over two years from the National Institute on Aging for “Toward Understanding Aging Mechanisms of Neuromuscular Junctions.”

Stavroula Kousteni, PhD, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, and Raul Rabadan, PhD, Biomedical Informatics, will receive $1,969,940 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Genetic Characterization of Osteoblast-Induced Leukemias.”

Alla Landa, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $979,602 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Early Interpersonal Adversity and Neural Predisposition to Chronic Pain.”

Ronald Lazar, PhD, Neurology, and Susheel Kodali, MD, Medicine, will receive $440,000 over two years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Cerebral Hemodynamics and Neurocognition in Severe Aortic Valve Disease.”

David Lederer, MD, Medicine, will receive $585,030 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Mentored Patient-Oriented Research in Pulmonary Fibrosis and Lung Transplantation.”

Joseph H. Lee, DrPH, and Richard P. Mayeux, MD, Sergievsky Center, will receive $842,216 over one year from the National Institute on Aging for “Genetic Modifiers of Alzheimer Disease in PSEN1 Mutation Carriers in Puerto Rico.”

Rudolph Leibel, MD, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, and Wendy K. Chung, MD, PhD, Pediatrics, will receive $2,759,642 over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “The Molecular Genetic Analysis of Human Obesity” in a competitive renewal.

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, and Joshua Kantrowitz, MD, Psychiatry, will receive $1,118,298 over one year from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Human Trial of Allosteric Modulator Alpha7 Nicotinic Receptors in Schizophrenia.”

Fangming Lin, MD, PhD, Pediatrics, will receive $715,410 over three years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Role of Autophagy in Maladaptive Renal Repair Following Acute Kidney Injury.”

Jennifer Manly, PhD, and Adam Brickman, PhD, Sergievsky Center, will receive $9,227,171 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Offspring Study of Mechanisms of Racial Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Dr. Manly also will receive $3,097,687 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “School Quality and Racial Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease in Project Talent.”

Karen Marder, MD, and Lawrence Honig, MD, PhD, Taub Institute, will receive $4,520,736 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Targeting Lewy Body-Specific Pathology Using Biomarkers.”

Amy Margolis, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $656,969 over five years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke on Brain Function and Academic Skills.”

Carol A. Mason, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $1,013,265 over five years from the National Eye Institute for “Vision Sciences Training Grant” in a competitive renewal.

Richard P. Mayeux, MD, Taub Institute, will receive $822,761 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Coordinating Center for Genetics and Genomics of Alzheimer’s Disease (CGAD).” He also will receive $800,000 over one year from the National Institute on Aging for “Replication and Extension in African Americans of AD Sequencing.”

Cathy Lee Mendelsohn, PhD, Urology, will receive $1,589,984 over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Generating an Atlas of the Developing Human Urinary Outflow Tract.”

Jeffrey M. Miller, MD, Psychiatry, will receive $577,027 over one year from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Antecedents of Suicidal Behavior-Related Neurobiology.”

Jacqueline Montes, EdD, Neurology, will receive $650,670 over five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for “Evaluation of Oxidative Capacity and Exercise Tolerance in Ambulatory Patients With Spinal Muscular Atrophy.”

Andrew Moran, MD, Medicine, will receive $2,390,043 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Model-Based Approach to Improving Hypertension Control in Populations.”

Thomas Nickolas, MD, Medicine, will receive $532,666 over four years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Pathogenesis of Compromised Bone Quality and Mechanics in Chronic Kidney Disease.”

Benjamin Ohlstein, MD, PhD, Genetics & Development, will receive $1,800,000 over five years from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for “2016 Faculty Scholars Competition.”

Edward Owusu-Ansah, PhD, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, will receive $593,952 over three years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “IGFBP-Mediated Local and Systemic Effects of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Skeletal Muscles.”

Gabrielle Page-Wilson, MD, Medicine, will receive $600,000 over three years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “A New Therapeutic Option for the Treatment of Prolactinomas.”

M. Teresa Palomero Vazquez, PhD, Institute for Cancer Genetics, will receive $600,000 over three years from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for “Bringing New Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma Therapies to the Clinic.”

Livio Pellizzoni, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $440,000 over two years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “SMN Dysfunction in FUS-Dependent ALS.”

Adler Perotte, MD, Biomedical Informatics, will receive $786,250 over one year from the Department of the Interior for “Combining Clinical Data and Transdermal Analysis of Whole Blood to Create a Next-Generation Wearable Device.”

Martin Picard, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $1,996,784 over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for “Mitochondrial Stress Signal Transduction From Organelle to Organism.”

Franck Polleux, PhD, Neuroscience, will receive $3,000,875 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Function of SRGAP2 During Synaptic Development” in a competitive renewal.

Liza Pon, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $1,602,806 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “The Role of Actin in Cellular Aging.”

Meenakshi Rao, MD, PhD, Pediatrics, will receive $749,940 over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Enteric Glia, Sexual Dimorphism, and GI Motility.”

Rodney J. Rothstein, PhD, Genetics & Development, will receive $3,959,557 over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for “Molecular Mechanisms Underlying DNA Double-Strand Break and Crosslink Repair.”

Simone Sanna-Cherchi, MD, Medicine, will receive $1,200,000 over three years from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for “Multispecies, Integrative GWAS for Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis.”

Neil Schluger, MD, Medicine, will receive $600,000 over four years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Tuberculosis Trials Consortium.”

Charles Schroeder, PhD, Neurological Surgery, will receive $2,860,320 over three years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Dynamic Neural Mechanisms of Audiovisual Speech Perception.”

Gary Schwartz, MD, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, will receive $299,280 over three years from the National Cancer Institute for “Phase 2 Clinical Trials Program for Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network.”

Antonia Sepulveda, MD, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $1,830,000 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “Genomics and Mechanisms of Esophageal Carcinogenesis.”

Michael Shen, PhD, Medicine, will receive $600,000 over three years from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for “Investigation of a Putative Prostate Stem Cell Niche.”

Samuel Silverstein, MD, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, will receive $672,408 over four years from the New York State Department of Health for “Stem Cell Research Experiences for Life Sciences Teachers to Improve Their Students’ Knowledge and Understanding of Stem Cell Science.”

Richard Sloan, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $638,166 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Integrative Pathways to Health and Illness.”

Hans-Willem Snoeck, MD, PhD, and Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, PhD, Medicine, will receive $8,226,041 over seven years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Modeling, Pathogenesis, and Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.”

Steven Spitalnik, MD, and Eldad Hod, MD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $3,822,820 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Red Blood Cells From Iron-Deficient Donors: Recovery and Storage Quality.”

Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, Medicine, will receive $2,994,308 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Effect of Long-Term Sleep Restriction on Energy Balance.”

Barbara Stanley, PhD, Psychiatry, will receive $3,804,563 over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Zero Suicide Implementation and Evaluation in Outpatient Mental Health Clinics.”

Yaakov Stern, PhD, Sergievsky Center, and Christian Habeck, PhD, Neurology, will receive $7,180,418 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Exploring Cognitive Aging Using Reference Ability Neural Networks” in a competitive renewal.

Melissa Stockwell, MD, Pediatrics, will receive $2,414,954 over four years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for “Flu2Text: A Multi-Site Study Assessing an Intervention for Second Dose of Influenza Vaccine.”

Milan Stojanovic, PhD, Medicine, will receive $1,005,000 over three years from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for “Development of Inhibitors of the Aging Process of Organophosphate Adducts of AChE.”

Megan Sykes, MD, Medicine, and David H. Sachs, MD, Surgery, will receive $2,745,913 over one year from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “A Tolerance Approach to Xenotransplantation” in a competitive renewal. Dr. Sykes also will receive $320,000 over one year from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Immune Response to Combined Liver and Bone Marrow Transplant for Tolerance in NHP.”

Guomei Tang, PhD, Neurology, will receive $309,102 over two years from the Simons Foundation for “Autophagy Pathway as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Autism.”

Andrew Teich, MD, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $632,580 over three years from the National Institute on Aging for “An Integrative Analysis of DNA Methylation, Transcriptomic Changes, and Cognitive Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Vadim Ten, MD, PhD, Pediatrics, will receive $1,750,000 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Mitochondrial Dysfunction and White Matter Injury.”

Andrew Tomlinson, PhD, Genetics & Development, will receive $1,280,000 over four years from the National Eye Institute for “Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Activity in Drosophila Eye Development.”

Giuseppe Tosto, MD, PhD, Sergievsky Center, will receive $440,000 over two years from the National Institute on Aging for “Admixture Mapping in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Badri Vardarajan, PhD, Sergievsky Center, will receive $795,523 over three years from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for “Genetic Variation Underlying Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (LOAD).” Dr. Vardarajan also will receive $640,000 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Genomic Characterization of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk in the Puerto Rican Population.”

Lauren Wasson, MD, Medicine, will receive $752,101 over five years from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for “Improving Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease in the Emergency Department Using Cognitive Informatics Tools.”

Hynek Wichterle, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, will receive $1,367,566 over two years from Biogen for “The Role of PLD1 and PLD2 in Neurodegenerative Pathways Common to ALS and AD.”

Elizabeth Widen, PhD, Medicine, will receive $258,402 over two years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for “Pregnancy Weight Trajectories and Offspring Adiposity.”

Lori Zeltser, PhD, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, will receive $487,763 over two years from the Office of the NIH Director for “Foundational Tools to Study the Impacts of Sympathetic Activity on the Neuroanatomy and Function of Brown Adipose Tissue.”

Emmanuel Zorn, PhD, Medicine, will receive $2,223,225 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Innate B-Cell Immunity and Antibody-Mediated Rejection of Human Kidney Allografts.”

MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Elaine Abrams, MD, ICAP, will receive $2,474,263 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Supporting the Provision of High-Quality, Comprehensive, and Sustainable HIV Services in National Teaching and Referral Hospitals in the Republic of Kenya Under PEPFAR.”

Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $437,821 over two years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Early Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants, Breast Milk Extracellular Vesicles, and Abnormal Cardiometabolic Programming.”

Lisa Bates, PhD, Epidemiology, will receive $425,263 over two years from the Fogarty International Center for “Domestic Violence Attitudes and Culturally Appropriate Prevention in Pakistan.”

Helena Duch, PsyD, Population & Family Health, will receive $554,774 over one year from the Heising-Simons Foundation for “Getting Ready for School: An Integrated Approach to School Readiness” in a competitive renewal.

Wafaa M. El-Sadr, MD, ICAP, will receive $27,026,933 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Supporting Sustainable Implementation of HIV and TB Services for Epidemic Control in the Republic of Mozambique under PEPFAR.” Dr. El-Sadr also will receive $2,539,153 over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “IPrEP: A Combination Strategy for HIV Prevention Among Young Female Sex Workers, Kisumu, Kenya.”

Pam Factor-Litvak, PhD, Epidemiology, and Roy Alcalay, MD, Neurology, will receive $702,204 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for “Environmental Epidemiology of Essential Tremor.”

Lynn Freedman, JD, and Marta Schaaf, MIA, MPH, Population & Family Health, will receive $500,000 over two years from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for “For Maternal Health Accountability at the Frontlines.”

Tiffany Harris, PhD, ICAP, will receive $1,490,000 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Strengthening Epidemiology and Strategic Information in the Republic of Zimbabwe Under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).”

Julie Herbstman, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $608,000 over four years from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Personal Environmental Exposure Assessment Using Wristbands for Epidemiological Studies in Disadvantaged Communities.”

Andrea Howard, MD, ICAP, will receive $500,000 over two years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Lesotho, Provide Miner-Friendly Services for Integrated TB/HIV Care (PROMISE).”

ICAP will receive $630,000 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Community-Based HIV Services for Key Populations and Adolescent Girls and Young Women.”

W. Ian Lipkin, MD, Center for Infection & Immunity, will receive $2,407,915 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Systems Biology of Innate Immunity and Vaccination.” Dr. Lipkin also will receive $298,930 and $348,691 over one year from the Chronic Fatigue Initiative for “Epigenetic Analysis of CFI PBMC DNA” and “TruCulture Immune Profiling in CFS/ME,” respectively.

Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, Epidemiology, will receive $261,255 over four years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Health and Social Consequences of National Marijuana Legalization.”

Lisa Metsch, PhD, Sociomedical Sciences, will receive $8,000,974 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “A Cluster RCT to Increase HIV Testing in Substance Use Treatment Programs.”

Peter Muennig, MD, Health Policy & Management, and Heidi L. Allen, PhD, School of Social Work, will receive $2,800,189 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Health of Adults Without Dependent Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.”

Frederica Perera, PhD, DrPH, and Julie Herbstman, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, will receive $2,745,597 over two years from the Office of the NIH Director for “Identifying Newborns at Risk of Adverse Neurodevelopmental Outcomes and Obesity From Air Pollution.”

James Phillips, PhD, Population & Family Health, will receive $440,000 over two years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for “A Comprehensive Systems Analysis of Community-Based Primary Health Care.” Dr. Phillips also will receive $364,900 over two years from the Fogarty International Center for “Adapting the WHO Cardiovascular Disease Risk Management Package to the Ghanaian Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Primary Care Model: An Implementation Pilot Study.”

Min Qian, PhD, Biostatistics, will receive $440,000 over two years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Building Multistage Treatment Regimens for Depression After Acute Coronary Syndrome.”

Ursula Staudinger, PhD, Columbia Aging Center, will receive $252,000 over one year from the Atria Senior Living Group for “Research on Aging for Atria.”

Parisa Tehranifar, DrPH, Epidemiology, will receive $2,780,671 over five years from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for “Impact of Breast Density Information Disclosure in Racially Diverse Populations.”

COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE

Joseph Finkelstein, MD, PhD, Center for Bioinformatics and Data Analytics in Oral Health, will receive $953,665 over three years from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for “Physical Telerehabilitation in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis With Significant Mobility Impairment.”

SCHOOL OF NURSING

Suzanne Bakken, PhD, and Kathleen T. Hickey, EdD, Scholarship & Research, will receive $2,722,457 over five years from the National Institute of Nursing Research for “Precision in Symptom Self-Management (PriSSM) Center.”

Amanda Hessels, PhD, Scholarship & Research, will receive $324,000 over three years from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health for “Impact of Patient Safety Climate on Infection Prevention Practices and Healthcare Worker and Patient Outcomes.”

Elaine Larson, PhD, Scholarship & Research, will receive $1,350,476 over three years from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for “Nursing Intensity of Patient Care Needs and Rates of Healthcare-Associated Infections (NIC-HAI).”

Rebecca Schnall, PhD, Scholarship & Research, will receive $1,989,445 over five years from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for “The Wise App Trial for Improving Health Outcomes in PLWH.”

Patricia Stone, PhD, Scholarship & Research, will receive $371,995 over one year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Barriers and Facilitators for NHSN Adoption in Nursing Homes.”

AWARDS & HONORS

CUIMC

CUIMC was named a 2017 Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) site, one of 13 sites nationwide. SHPEP, formerly the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP), is a free six-week summer program that aims to strengthen the academic proficiency and career development of students underrepresented in the health professions and prepare them for successful application and matriculation to health professions schools. The program is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and for the first time involves all four schools at CUIMC as well as the physical therapy and occupational therapy programs.

2016 Baton Awards

Three CUIMC staff members were recognized as exceptional team players:

• Gerald Jeglinski, P&S Budget & Finance
• Jeannine Jennette, Public Safety
• Elizabeth Sparrow Tashiro, Mailman School IT

2016 Kenneth A. Forde Diversity Alliance Diversity Awards

• Naralys Batista, P&S’19, student award
• Christopher Gonzalez, MD, resident award
• Julia Iyasere, MD, faculty award
• Christopher Travis, P&S’19, student award

Provost’s Grants Program for Junior Faculty Who Contribute to the Diversity Goals of the University

Four CUIMC faculty members had projects funded in the fall 2016 cycle of the program:

• Richard Francis, MD, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, “Localization of Stored Platelets to Sites of Active Bleeding Following Transfusion”
• Monica Goldklang, MD, Medicine, “In Vivo Imaging of Lung Apoptosis in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency”
• Esi Lamousé-Smith, MD, PhD, Pediatrics, “Infant Gastrointestinal Tract Microbiome Dysbiosis and Its Impact on CD8+ T-Cell Gene Transcription Regulation”
• Jasmine McDonald, PhD, Epidemiology, “Molecular Changes Related to Infections and Relevant to Pubertal Timing”

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS

2016 Awards for Excellence

Five staff members and members of a student-run clinic were honored for their outstanding contributions at P&S:

• Gladys Bueso, Medicine, officer of administration/managerial award
• Erin Bush, Systems Biology, officer of research award
• Thomas Kolar, Medicine, SSA union member/clerical technical award
• Andrew Marks, MD, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, diversity award
• Marcela Pierce, Pediatrics, officer of administration/administrative professional award
• CHHMP: Columbia-Harlem Homeless Medical Partnership, community service award

Other Honors

Anissa Abi-Dargham, MD, Psychiatry, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors awarded in the fields of health and medicine in the United States.

Jeffrey A. Ascherman, MD, Surgery, was named president of the Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Mitchell Benson, MD, Urology, received the Lifetime Medical Achievement Award from the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research at the foundation’s 41st annual honors gala in October.

John A. Chabot, MD, Surgery, received a Nobility in Science Award from the National Pancreas Foundation for his dedication to patients suffering from diseases of the pancreas.

Cynthia Chiarello, PhD, Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine, was appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal for Women’s Health Physical Therapy. 

Frank D’Ovidio, MD, Surgery, and his team were awarded “Best Abstract in Lung Transplantation” for their presentation at the 2016 European Respiratory Society, International Congress 2016 London, “Effects of Infections on Lipidomic Profile of Bronchial Washing and Bronchoalveolar Lavage After Lung Transplantation.”

Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD, Pathology & Cell Biology, was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and will be inducted in April.

David Fidock, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology, was elected to the council of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Carol Friedman, PhD, Biomedical Informatics, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors awarded in the fields of health and medicine in the United States.

Isaac George, MD, Surgery, received the Kenneth A. Forde Surgical Research Award, which is granted to an outstanding junior faculty member initiating a career in academic surgery, for work with Nathaniel Langer, MD, Surgery, on the role of myostatin in heart failure.

Stephen Goff, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology, was selected to receive the 2017 D.C. White Research and Mentoring Award from the American Society for Microbiology in recognition of distinguished accomplishments in interdisciplinary research and mentoring in microbiology.

Max E. Gottesman, MD, PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his fundamental insights leading to the understanding of transcription termination in E. coli and how termination affects other cellular processes.

Lenin C. Grajo, PhD, Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine, was invited by the American Occupational Therapy Association to co-facilitate a national Community of Practice to define, articulate, and expand the role of occupational therapy in literacy development.

Wei Gu, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, was named a fellow of the AAAS for his distinguished contributions to the field of protein modifications in modulating stress responses, particularly for acetylation/deacetylation and ubiquitination/deubiquitination in p53-mediated tumor suppression.

James Guarrera, MD, Surgery, was named the 2016 Rising Star in Transplantation by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Sidney Hankerson, MD, Psychiatry, delivered a presentation to the United Nations as part of the January event “Mental Health for All: Local Strategies.”

Thomas Jessell, PhD, Neuroscience, was awarded the 2016 Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscience in recognition of his significant contributions to neuroscience throughout his career.

Donald Landry, MD, PhD, Medicine, was inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in recognition of development of multiple patented technologies crossing medical disciplines, from cardiovascular biology to cancer research and treatments.

Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD, Neuroscience, received the 2016 Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience, a prize that recognizes an outstanding PhD thesis in the area of general behavioral neuroscience, from the Society for Neuroscience.

Nicholas Morrissey, MD, Surgery, received the 2016 Alfred M. Markowitz Service Award from the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center Society of Practitioners.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil, Medicine, was named one of the “Next Avenue 2016 Influencers in Aging,” a list of 50 innovators and thought leaders who are changing how we age and think about aging in America.

Owen A. O’Connor, MD, PhD, Medicine, received the 2016 Trustees Award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in recognition of his contributions to medical research, leadership, and dedicated service to society.

Rodney Rothstein, PhD, Genetics & Development, received a 2016 Inventor of the Year Award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in recognition of pioneering research and patents on recombinational editing of genomes to identify genome stability.

Paul Sajda, PhD, Radiology, was named a fellow of the AAAS for his distinguished contributions to the understanding of neural correlates of vision, human perceptual decision-making, and cortically coupled computer vision.

Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, DO, and Henry Ting, MD, Medicine, are 2016-17 Fellow Ambassadors for the New York Academy of Medicine. The program aims to increase the direct engagement of fellows with the research and policy staff of the academy and provide the public with access to the wealth of knowledge that the academy’s fellows possess through public communication and media interviews.

Steven Spitalnik, MD, Pathology & Cell Biology, was invited to give the 2017 Klaus Mayer lectureship by the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; he will deliver the award lecture on May 2. Dr. Spitalnik also was inducted into the National Blood Foundation 2016 Hall of Fame during the AABB annual meeting in October.

Joel Stein, MD, Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine, was appointed chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD, Biomedical Informatics, received the 2016 New Investigator Award from the American Medical Informatics Association.

Andrew Teich, MD, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, won the Beeson Award from the National Institute on Aging for his project titled “An Integrative Analysis of DNA Methylation, Transcriptomic Changes, and Cognitive Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Dr. Teich also was appointed co-director of the New York Brain Bank.

Sebnem Tuncdemir, PhD, Neuroscience, received the 2016 Nemko Prize in Cellular or Molecular Neuroscience, a prize that recognizes a young neuroscientist’s outstanding PhD thesis advancing understanding of molecular, genetic, or cellular mechanisms underlying brain function, from the Society for Neuroscience.

Harris Wang, PhD, Systems Biology, was named a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the United States’ highest award for young scientists and engineers.

MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Elaine Abrams, MD, Epidemiology, received the 2016 Clinical Educator Award from the HIV Medicine Association for her significant contributions to clinical care, provider education, and research in the field of HIV medicine.

Mushtaque Chowdhury, PhD, Population & Family Health, was elected chair of the Asia-Pacific Alliance for Human Resources for Health for 2017-18.

Ruth Finkelstein, ScD, Health Policy & Management, was named one of the “Next Avenue 2016 Influencers in Aging,” a list of 50 innovators and thought leaders who are changing how we age and think about aging in America.

Rachel Shelton, ScD, Sociomedical Sciences, was selected to be program chair for the 2018 Society of Behavioral Medicine’s annual meeting.

Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD, Population & Family Health, was appointed executive director and assistant commissioner of Health Access & Equity, a new unit within the Division of Prevention & Primary Care at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

 

COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE

The College of Dental Medicine received the INSIGHT Into Diversity’s 2016 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award. It was one of only three dental schools to receive the award, and this year is the third consecutive year the college has been so honored.

Daniel Bienstock, DMD, MD, Hospital Dentistry, received a 2016 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons - AAOMS Scientific Poster Award in recognition for his work on the association between artery degeneration and earlobe crease.

Allan Formicola, DDS, dean emeritus, will receive the Gies Award for Visionary Leadership Vision, Innovation, and Achievement in Academic Dentistry and Oral Health in March, presented by the ADEAGies Foundation. The Gies Awards, named after the dental education pioneer and one of the founders of the College of Dental Medicine, are the profession’s pre-eminent recognition for individuals and organizations that exemplify the highest standards in oral health and dental education, research, and leadership.

Ling He, Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, received a Young Investigator Award at the fifth annual Musculoskeletal Repair and Regeneration Symposium for a poster titled “A Novel Osteogenesis Factor From the Blood: CXCL16 Benchmarked to BMP2.”

Chang Lee, PhD, and Daniel Oh, PhD, Hospital Dentistry, were the inaugural recipients of the College of Dental Medicine Faculty Research Grant Awards. These one-year faculty grants offer pilot/seed funding for promising research projects. The grants will support Dr. Lee’s research, “TMJ Disc Regeneration by 3D Printed Scaffolds in a Large Animal Model,” and Dr. Oh’s research, “Mechanotransduction Study on Osteogenic Differentiation of Dental Pulp Derived Stem Cells via Biogenic Microenvironment Scaffold.”

Jeremy Mao, DDS, PhD, Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, co-chaired the third international Conference on Dental and Craniofacial Stem Cells in October and delivered a keynote lecture at the conference titled “Epithelium-Mesenchyme Communication by Exosomes.” He also is program chair for the 2017 International Association for Dental Research annual conference and a workshop chair for the 2017 Orthopedic Research Society annual conference.

Christina Nunez’19 was awarded a scholarship from the Hispanic Dental Association Foundation.

Apoorva Shah’18, received an award in clinical research at the 22nd Hinman Student Research Symposium in October. His project focused on the requirements to induce differentiation of stem cells to form neural crest cells, with the ultimate aim of inducing tooth buds for regenerative medicine.

Jaffer A. Shariff, DDS, was a finalist in the Balint Orban Memorial Competition and presented research titled “Concordance Between the CDC/AAP Classification of Periodontitis and Continuous Measures of Extent and Severity in Elderly Participants of the WHICAP Study” at the American Academy of Periodontology meeting in September.

SCHOOL OF NURSING 

Amanda Hessels, PhD, Scholarship & Research, was named a nurse-of-the year finalist in research from the March of Dimes. She also served as master of ceremonies and panel moderator for “Real World Experiences: A Nursing Perspective,” at the Hackensack Meridian Health 12th annual nursing research and evidence-based practice conference.

Kathleen Hickey, EdD, Scholarship & Research, received the 2016 Clinical Article of the Year Award from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing.

Laura Kelly, PhD, Academics, was awarded the 2016 Alumni Award of the Edmond J. Safra Alumni Visiting Nurse Faculty Program at the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Dr. Kelly completed the program in 2015.

Kristine Kulage, MPH, MA, was appointed editor of The Catalyst, the newsletter of the Society of Research Administrators International.

Allison Norful, PhD candidate, was inducted as a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine..

PHILANTHROPIC GIFTS

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS

A donor made a contribution of $34,000,000 to support Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

A family made a $2,500,000 commitment to support the children’s vision care program at the Department of Ophthalmology’s Harkness Institute.

A donor made a $2,050,000 pledge to the Department of Neurology to advance research at the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center and establish a matching challenge grant to increase the impact of the gift.

A family foundation made a $2,000,000 pledge to provide professorship support and advance cancer immunotherapy research and clinical trials in the Department of Medicine.

A family foundation made a $1,008,711 commitment to support the Department of Psychiatry’s Domestic Violence Initiative.

A donor made a $1,000,000 commitment to the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology toward a professorship in women’s health.

A donor made a $1,000,000 pledge to the Department of Medicine to establish an endowment fund that will support the education and training of primary care physicians.

A family foundation made a $1,000,000 commitment to establish and endow two scholarships in cardiac precision medicine.

An anonymous donor made a $650,000 pledge to advance research at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain.

An anonymous donor made a gift of $635,560 to support research and care at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

A family foundation made a $500,000 pledge to the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases to provide scholarship support to fellows and junior physician-scientists.

A couple made a $300,000 contribution to the Center for Radiological Research.

A donor made a $300,000 pledge to the Department of Urology to support the Bladder Cancer Research Fund.

An anonymous donor made a $260,000 contribution to advance research at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain.

A donor made a $250,000 gift to the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to advance research on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

A donor made a $250,000 pledge to the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center to provide transitional care for children, adolescents, and adult cerebral palsy patients and their families.

A donor made a $200,000 gift to provide fellowship support to the Division of Cardiology.

A donor made an additional $150,000 commitment to the Department of Ophthalmology to advance research toward developing effective treatments for Stargardt disease.

A donor made a gift of $150,000 to advance research in the Division of Rheumatology.

A donor made a $150,000 gift to the Department of Neurology to support junior faculty research in Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders.

A corporate foundation made a contribution of $100,000 to support scholarships at the College of Physicians & Surgeons.

A family foundation made a $100,000 gift to advance research at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain.

A corporation made a $100,000 contribution to the Friends of Columbia Doctors Fund to advance research, medical education, and clinical care.

A donor made a $100,000 contribution to provide professorship support to the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

An organization made a $100,000 contribution to support research and care at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.

An anonymous donor made a $100,000 gift to support scholarships at the College of Physicians & Surgeons.

A donor made a $100,000 contribution to advance research, education, and patient care at the Department of Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine.

A donor made a $100,000 gift to the Division of Cardiology to advance research on women’s cardiovascular health.

A family foundation made a $100,000 gift to advance research on retinal diseases and disorders at the Department of Ophthalmology.

MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

A foundation made gifts totaling $1,356,393 that will be used to establish a new professorship in productive aging.

A donor made a gift of $100,000 toward the ME/CFS Microbiome Study at the Center for Infection and Immunity.

An individual donor made a gift of $100,000 to the Department of Health Policy & Management.

A corporate foundation made a gift of $100,000 to support research on noncommunicable diseases.

COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE

An organization made a $100,000 pledge to the College of Dental Medicine to support a new dental student educational externship program with travel to China.

A corporation made a $100,000 commitment to advance periodontics research at the College of Dental Medicine.

SCHOOL OF NURSING 

A foundation made a donation of $200,000 to provide scholarship support for Columbia Nursing students.

An alumnus of the School of Nursing documented her bequest intention of $125,000 to support student scholarships

An alumnus of the School of Nursing made a gift of $100,000 to support student scholarships.

An alumnus of the School of Nursing made a gift of $100,000 to support the new Columbia Nursing building.

CUIMC IN THE NEWS

Why the 'Gluten-Free Movement' is Less of a Fad Than We Thought

The Washington Post | Jan. 13, 2017

Benjamin Lebwohl, the director of clinical research at Columbia University’s Celiac Disease Center, estimates that more than half of the 3.1 million PWAGs observed in this latest study have a legitimate, non-celiac gluten sensitivity—a phenomenon that has only emerged in the past five years in the medical literature.

 

The Best Architecture in New York of 2016

The New York Times | Dec. 16, 2016

The Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center, devised by Diller Scofidio & Renfro (in collaboration with Gensler), is a whimsical 110,000-square-foot exclamation mark on Columbia University’s Upper Manhattan medical campus near the George Washington Bridge.

 

AIDS Epidemic Nears Control in Three African Countries

Science | Dec. 9, 2016

The new study, coordinated out of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and led by epidemiologist Wafaa El-Sadr, collected massive amounts of on-the-ground data by visiting 80,000 randomly selected households in the three countries.

 

The Doctors Who Solve Medical Mysteries

The Wall Street Journal | Nov. 7, 2016

Dr. Wendy Chung, at Columbia University, uses genetics to diagnose rare and complex diseases that have eluded traditional doctors and specialists.

 

Drug Reverses One Baldness Type; Is Male Pattern Next?

CNN | Oct. 20, 2016

Compared with the paper-thin skin of mice, human skin is “much thicker, and it’s oily, and it’s deep, and it’s got a fat layer—so there's a lot to think about when making a good topical formula,” said Angela Christiano, professor of dermatology and professor of genetics and development at Columbia University.

 

The Running Lab

@WellNYT Facebook Live (New York Times) | Oct. 19, 2016

Alex Spangher, a data scientist for the Times, visits the Running Lab at Columbia University Medical Center to explore how workouts are scientifically studied and enhanced.

Researchers Identify Genes That Cause Periodontal Disease

Dentistry Today | Oct. 6, 2016

“Our approach narrows down the list of potentially interesting regulatory genes involved in periodontitis,” said Panos N. Papapanou, DDS, PhD, professor and chair of oral, diagnostic, and rehabilitation sciences at the college and leader of the study. “This allows us to focus on the handful of genes that represent the most important players in the process rather than the whole transcriptome.”

Risk of Opioid Addiction Up 37 Percent Among Young U.S. Adults

U.S. News & World Report | Oct. 4, 2016

A review of federal data found the odds of becoming dependent on opioids like Vicodin and Percocet increased 37 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds between 2002 and 2014. The study was conducted by researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

See more media headlines here.

Past issues of CUIMC CELEBRATES: http://ps.columbia.edu/celebrates/