CUIMC Update - April 9, 2025

April 9, 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

VP&S Students Honored for Research Achievements
VP&S students were honored recently for their achievements in research at two annual events, the MD-MS Research Symposium and Student Research Day.

How Research Builds Better Care
Scientific research is the foundation for health care, paving our way to understanding how diseases work, what kinds of treatments are safe and effective, and strategies for preventing illness. Read more in our new explainer.

Nurses and AI Collaborate to Save Lives
A new AI tool designed by Columbia researchers uses machine learning and nurses' instincts to detect patient deterioration nearly two days earlier than conventional methods, reducing risk of death and complications among nearly 60,000 hospitalized patients in a clinical trial.

Cannabis Use Disorder Rising Among Pregnant Women
Diagnoses of cannabis use disorder during pregnancy are rising as more states legalize the drug, according to an analysis by Columbia researchers. Current medical guidelines advise against cannabis use during pregnancy.

Events

Grants

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Daniel Belsky, Columbia Aging Center
    $550,000 over one year from Norn Group for "Finding Aging Biomarkers by Searching Existing Trials (FAST) Initiative."
  • Haotian Wu, Environmental Health Sciences
    $343,400 over one year for a subaward from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for "Extracellular Vesicles in Environmental Epidemiology Studies of Aging."

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Alex Dranovsky, Psychiatry
    $310,175 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for "Motivational and cognitive circuit mechanisms of environmental toxin-induced risk for psychiatric disorders."
  • Amandeep Jutla, Psychiatry
    $972,000 over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health for "A Genetics-First Approach to Shared Risk in Neurodevelopmental Disorders."
  • Michael Shen, Medicine
    $2,384,955 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "Investigating mechanisms of tumor plasticity in human bladder cancer."
  • Melissa Stockwell, Pediatrics
    $621,583 over one year for a subaward from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for "Assessing Transmission of Influenza Within Households Using the Respiratory Virus Transmission Network (RVTN)."

Honors

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Social Media Snapshot

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Congratulations to #ColumbiaMed's Dr. Michel Sadelain on receiving two honors: the King Faisal Prize in Medicine 2025 Laureate for Cellular Therapy and the 2023/24 Meyenburg Prize awarded by the DKFZ German Cancer Research Center.

Dr. Sadelain is widely regarded as one of the fathers of #CARTcell therapy. His pioneering work in genetic engineering of immune cells has led to powerful new treatments for blood cancers, even in advanced stages. His team was the first to identify CD19 as a successful CAR target and to include a CD28 domain in the CAR construct, resulting in prominent clinical outcomes.

Today, his research continues to push the boundaries of cellular therapy, with promising approaches for tackling autoimmune diseases and solid tumors.

King Faisal Prize in Medicine article: https://lnkd.in/dKUSmty9
Meyenburg Prize article: https://lnkd.in/en3dxRTv

In the News Highlights

  • Well: This Habit Is Quietly Ruining Your Relationships
    Apr 4, 2025
    The New York Times
    Using the silent treatment is tempting because it can feel good, temporarily, to make the other person squirm, said Erin Engle, a psychologist with NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. But, she added, it can have long-term consequences in your relationship.
  • Deep Cuts to HIV Research Could Halt Decades of Progress, Scientists Say
    Apr 4, 2025
    The Washington Post
    Researchers said Trump is punishing them for supporting the mission he initiated during his first term. “We have already invested all of this money to begin these studies which were grounded in evidence and peer-reviewed as scientifically superior,” said Rebecca Schnall, a research professor at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She lost grants for studies on the effectiveness of HIV prevention strategies, including in communities identified as priorities under Trump’s plan to end HIV. “Essentially, we will have no return on investment,” she said.
  • Travel News: Measles Outbreaks Pose a Threat to Travelers in the US, Europe: What to Know
    Mar 31, 2025
    USA TODAY
    International travel is a source of measles cases, according to the CDC. Dr. Stephen S. Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said whether or not travelers should be concerned depends on if “they already have some, what the CDC would call presumptive evidence of immunity … or if they're going to an area where there is a fairly high measles risk.”