Dean’s Rounds, Issue #3
Dear VP&S Community,
As we start a new year, I have been thinking a lot about the power of connection and collaboration to fulfill our mission. Among the many strengths of our community is our dedication to continual learning, growth, and curiosity, which propel us to reach out, partner, and explore outside of our disciplines and usual arenas. One of the great joys of my role is that I have a front row seat to so many examples of this collaborative spirit—work that breaks down silos both within and outside of VP&S to solve challenges and advance medicine.
Recently I spoke with Kiran Thakur, the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Neurology, who provided advice about a patient at another hospital with an unexplained and devastating neurological disease. I learned that our Program in Neuroinfectious Diseases, led by Kiran, is the only one in New York dedicated to neuroinfectious diseases, and one of only a handful globally dedicated to the clinical care, research, education, and public health challenges posed by infections of the nervous system. The program brings together clinicians and scientists from across VP&S to develop novel therapies; to leverage implementation science to improve diagnosis and care for conditions such as cryptococcal meningitis; and to spur partnerships with global organizations including the Pan American Health Organization, to shape policy and clinical practice. The program is a powerful example of interdisciplinary collaboration accelerating scientific discovery, training, and patient care.
It was also a pleasure to catch up with Emmanuelle Passegué, Alumni Professor of Genetics and Development, and director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (CSCI). Over the last 18 years, CSCI has become a collaborative scientific hub that brings together scientists from VP&S, A&S, and SEAS to advance discovery and therapies in stem cell biology and tissue regeneration. Many of you may have seen recent research from CSCI collaborations including papers describing how stem cells drive cancer development and the damaging impact of tumors on the health of a remaining organ, their stem cell population, and their niche (see papers from the Shen, Kousteni, and Wang labs). CSCI’s two main facilities, the Flow Cytometry Core and the Stem Cell Core, are designated VP&S Scientific Platforms; and on the education front, we are excited to welcome the first cohort in the new Stem Cell Biology PhD track in the fall of 2026, as part of the VIBRE PhD Pathway.
Increasingly, VP&S faculty are reaching beyond Columbia to advance our research efforts. Building on the strength of our partnerships with Biohub and the New York Genome Center, new partnerships are being developed with pharmaceutical companies and foundations, providing important opportunities to increase our impact and diversify our research funding. David Ho, the Clyde '56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine and professor of microbiology and immunology, is working with scientists at Merck in West Point, PA to explore a combination approach to tackle major obstacles to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. And the Hematologic Malignancies Initiative (HMI), a new initiative in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center led by Stavroula Kousteni, the Edward P. Evans Professor of Myelodysplastic Syndromes (in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics), will partner with the foundation Blood Cancer United to host the first pan–hematologic malignancies symposium, and is also co-organizing scientific symposia and retreats with the Edward P. Evans Foundation. With the launch of HMI, our leukemia community is now an active site within Beat AML, a precision-medicine collaborative originally initiated by Blood Cancer United (formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society).
Of course, our community engagement mission is defined by its commitment to collaboration and connection. One of my favorite initiatives in this area is the student-led service-learning program Pick Up Sports and Health (PUSH). With the mentorship and support of their faculty advisor, Julie Glickstein, professor of pediatrics, PUSH works with young people in Northern Manhattan, pairing pickup sports with health and science lessons to promote health equity, healthy lifestyles, and exposure to health-career pathways. After securing multiple grants and fellowships, PUSH plans to expand from its current work with PS 128 to include efforts at Teachers College Community School in Harlem and the Beacon after-school program at Community Math and Science Prep MS 328 in Washington Heights. I extend my thanks to the students who founded and led PUSH in 2023: Kevin Crosby, Jude Okonkwo, Mansi Shah, Shawn Simmons, Joshua Dawson, Michelle Batlle, and Tina Ting; and to the current executive board: Katherine Fearon, Ezra Moos, Isabelle Geneve, Sophie Hirst, Sagnik Yarlagadda, Sophia Campbell, Charlotte Thompson, Max Garrity-Janger, Lorenzo Duvergne, David Gorman, and Gary Jackson.
I would also like to thank everyone across our administration, faculty, and student body who contributed to the recent Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) site visit. This final step in a 1.5-year accreditation process reflected extraordinary collaboration across VP&S to ensure our learners receive the education and support they need to thrive now and in their future careers.
One of my favorite research papers is Mark Granovetter’s “The Strength of Weak Ties” which shows that casual acquaintances—our “weak ties”—are often more influential than close connections in driving major advances. Not only is the paper a testament to resilience (it was initially rejected for publication but has now been cited over 70,000 times), but the importance of weak ties also captures one of the most important, and most fragile, aspects of academic medicine. Whether caring for a patient, developing a new program, or advancing scientific discovery—working with someone beyond one’s closest circle opens the door to fresh perspectives, new opportunities, and innovative approaches to longstanding problems. In my experience, no place embodies these values better than VP&S, and I look forward to working with all of you to further strengthen our commitment to collaboration and connection in the years ahead.
All my best,
Katrina Armstrong, MD
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences
Dean, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons