CUIMC Update - February 28, 2024

February 28, 2024

Share this page

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

Celebrating Black History: A Conversation with Nursing's Ashley Graham-Perel
In honor of Black History Month, Ashley Graham-Perel, EdD, director of diversity and cultural affairs at the School of Nursing, shares what the month means to her, how the School of Nursing recognizes Black History Month, and resources for students.

Overeating vs. Binge Eating Disorder: What is the Difference?
For Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Columbia psychologist Lisa Ranzenhofer, PhD, shares what to know about binge eating disorder, including possible causes, treatments, and strategies for caregivers who suspect a child is struggling with disordered eating patterns.

VP&S Open Forum: March 4 at 4 p.m.
All VP&S faculty and staff are invited to attend the next VP&S Open Forum on Monday, March 4, at 4 p.m. VP&S leadership will share updates on patient safety, CUIMC IT, the strategic planning process, and other campus initiatives. 

Learning About Public Health Through NYC Communities
Tyler Nichols, a second-year student in the Mailman School of Public Health, writes about the importance of listening to and learning from the communities we serve and how his hands-on work with communities across New York City has given him the chance to apply academic knowledge to real-world challenges.

How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep, which can have serious health consequences. Assistant professor of medical sciences Brooke Aggarwal, EdD, offers tips for improving your sleep hygiene and getting the rest you need. 

Events

Grants

School of Nursing

  • Billy Caceres, PhD
    $815,009 over one year from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for "A daily diary examination of the influence of intersectional stigma on blood pressure."

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Dustin Duncan, ScD, Epidemiology
    $327,072 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for "Reinvigorating HIV prevention and care for people who use drugs: Accelerating progress and sustaining gains in the midst of societal disruption."
  • Claire Greene, PhD, Population & Family Health
    $626,753 over three years from the National Institute of Mental Health for "Risk and protective factors for common mental disorders among populations during migration. A pilot cohort study among migrants and asylum seekers in Mexico."

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Randy Auerbach, PhD, Psychiatry
    $506,650 over two years for a subaward from the National Institute of Mental Health for "Targeting adolescent depression symptoms using network-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback and mindfulness meditation."
  • Frances Levin, MD, Psychiatry
    $516,331 over two years for a subaward from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration for "State Opioid Response (SOR)/Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) Technical Assistance."
  • Sandra Ryeom, PhD, Surgery
    $250,000 over one year from Stand Up To Cancer for "Therapeutic biparatopic antibodies targeting FGFR2 in gastric cancer."
  • Ji-Yeon Shin, PhD, Medicine
    $1,881,470 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "Nuclear envelope and predisposition to hepatic neoplasia."
  • Harris Wang, PhD, Systems Biology
    $359,101 over one year from the Department of Defense for "Automated Biobanking for DoD-relevant Biorepository for Synthetic Biology and Microbial Culturomics."
  • Vijay Yadav, PhD, Genetics & Development
    $411,250 over one year from the National Institute on Aging for "Taurine, an endogenously produced semi-essential micronutrient, as a regulator of lifespan and healthspan."

Honors

Social Media Snapshot

Columbia Medicine on Instagram: "As a distinguished leader in surgery, medicine, and academia, Dr. Kenneth A. Forde applied a strong but gentle approach to enacting change during his long career. Forde was the only Black student in the 1959 #ColumbiaVPS

In the News Highlights

  • Silent Brain Changes Precede Alzheimer’s. Researchers Have New Clues About Which Come First
    Feb 21, 2024
    Associated Press
    The new research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, offers a timeline for how those abnormalities pile up. The study’s importance “cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Richard Mayeux, an Alzheimer’s specialist at Columbia University who wasn’t involved in the research. “Knowledge of the timing of these physiological events is critical” for testing new ways of treating and maybe eventually even preventing Alzheimer’s, he wrote in an accompanying editorial.
  • ‘Gut Health’ Has a Fatal Flaw
    Feb 20, 2024
    The Atlantic
    There are “a lot of tall claims based on animal studies that the microbiome influences diabetes or obesity or whatever,” and the translatability of those studies to humans is “really unlikely,” Daniel Freedberg, a gastroenterologist at Columbia University, told me.
  • About 2% of Babies Born in the US Are from IVF. Here’s What You Need to Know About It
    Feb 21, 2024
    CNN Online
    Talk to a group of 100 people born in the United States, and chances are two of them were born as the result of in vitro fertilization, said Dr. Zev Williams, director of the Columbia University Fertility Center. “In many ways, IVF is actually one of the great triumphs of modern medicine,” he said.