CUIMC Update - January 3, 2024

January 3, 2024

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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

Columbia Students Build Life-Improving Devices for Kids with Disabilities
VP&S students in the occupational and physical therapy programs designed and built low-cost adaptive devices to improve the lives of local children. For Faith, a 10-year-old born with achondroplasia, students created a lightweight step stool to give her more independence.

In Memoriam: Remembering Our Colleagues
CUIMC extends sympathy to the families and colleagues of community members who died in 2023.

Is Your Body Ready to Hit the Gym?
Your new year's resolution might involve getting in shape, but if you aren't a regular gym visitor, you should follow the steps outlined by Columbia primary care doctor Adam Makkawi, DO, to determine if you’re ready. 

VP&S Students Host the Latino Medical Student Association
The Black and Latino Student Organization at VP&S hosted the Latino Medical Student Association’s Fall House of Delegates conference for the first time in LMSA’s 50-year history, bringing more than 95 medical students from across the Northeast to our campus.

The Impact of Good Sleep Hygiene On Heart Health for Teens
More than 70% of U.S. teenagers do not get enough sleep, and research shows that lack of sleep is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease later in life. Brooke Aggarwal, EdD, a clinical health education specialist at VP&S, discusses her team's efforts to develop an educational program for high school students in Washington Heights and beyond to raise awareness of the need for sleep during the teenage years. 

Events

Grants

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Jamie Daw, PhD, and Heidi Allen, PhD, Health Policy & Management
    $3,394,421 over four years from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for "The Postpartum Assessment of Women Survey (PAWS): Informing Medicaid Policies to Improve Health in the 'Fourth Trimester.'"
  • Nischay Mishra, PhD, Center for Infection and Immunity
    $568,141 over two years for a subaward from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for "Diagnosing and predicting risk in children with SARS-CoV-2 related illness."

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Jason Adelman, MD, Medicine
    $574,166 over two years for a subaward from the New York State Department of Health for "Using Health IT to Identify and Prevent Patient Safety Hazards."
  • Howard Andrews, PhD, Psychiatry
    $257,000 over two years from the National Institute on Aging for "Vitamin E Trial in Persons with Down Syndrome: Sharing Data with the Research Community."
  • Saptarshi Biswas, PhD, Neurology
    $267,916 over two years from the National Eye Institute for "The role of neuronal activity on retinal angiogenesis and blood retina barrier (BRB) maturation."
  • Judith Korner, MD, PhD, Medicine
    $3,137,517 over four years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for "Association of genetic variation near the dopamine D2 receptor gene and other polymorphisms that modulate dopaminergic and opioid signaling on the weight loss response to naltrexone/bupropion." 
  • Uma Reddy, MD, and Noelia Zork, MD, Obstetrics & Gynecology
    $2,487,180 over seven years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for "Columbia University Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network Clinical Center."
  • Lorraine Symington, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology
    $3,476,950 over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for "Mechanism and regulation of DNA double-strand break repair."
  • Masahiro Yamashita, PhD, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center
    $2,745,138 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for "Evolutionary potential of HIV-1 capsid: mechanisms and consequences."

Honors

Social Media Snapshot

Columbia University Irving Medical Center(link is external and opens in a new window)

Congratulations to two #ColumbiaMed(link is external and opens in a new window) researchers who were elected this month to the National Academy of Inventors(link is external and opens in a new window).

Henry Colecraft(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, the John C. Dalton Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons(link is external and opens in a new window), is a nationally recognized leader in the field of biophysics who studies how ion channels in cells function and how mutations in ion channels cause disease. He co-founded a company, Stablix, that is developing therapeutics based on his invention to treat a wide range of diseases.

Helen H. Lu(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, the Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and professor of dental and craniofacial engineering in Columbia University College of Dental Medicine(link is external and opens in a new window), is a leading researcher in regenerative materials and tissue engineering who has invented new devices for the treatment of periodontal diseases, ACL injuries, articular cartilage degeneration, and tendon repair.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eBZxscZs(link is external and opens in a new window)

In the News Highlights

Topics

Campus News, CUIMC Update, CUIMC Weekly Email Update