CUIMC Update - October 30, 2024

October 30, 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

Celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, celebrating the value and talent that workers with disabilities add to America’s workplaces and economy. Hear from employees at Columbia about their experiences navigating the workplace as people with disabilities.

Miles of Meaning: Kaylee Seekon Runs the NYC Marathon for the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center
Kaylee Seekon, a pediatric diabetes educator at Columbia, is preparing to run her first New York City Marathon while also raising funds for the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.

Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility
Inspired by the techniques used by astrophysicists to find new galaxies and planets, Columbia Fertility is using advanced imaging, AI, robotics, and microfluidics to recover rare sperm cells in men with very low sperm counts and help them become fathers.

Medical Center Hosts Mental Health Awareness Event
Through workshops and activities, the Mental Health Awareness Event promoted employee well-being and raised awareness of campus mental health resources for faculty and staff. 

Election Forum Tackles Health Policy Issues
This year’s election forum invited an expert panel to discuss the most important health issues in the upcoming presidential election and included an audience question-and-answer session.

Remember to Vote!
Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov. 5, which is a University holiday. Early voting is open through Sunday, Nov. 3 in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Find poll locations, hours, and more info at columbia.turbovote.org.

Events

Grants

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Wafaa El-Sadr, ICAP
    $1,584,460 over three years for a subaward from Gilead Sciences for "HPTN 102/PURPOSE 3."

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Karen Dunbar, HICCC
    $300,000 over three years from the AGA Foundation for "Delineating how Wnt signaling activates disease-associated fibroblasts to promote Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma progression."
  • Mahesh Mansukhani and Suzanne Lentzsch, Pathology & Cell Biology
    $896,099 over five years for a subaward from the National Cancer Institute for "Screening for AL Amyloidosis in Smoldering Multiple Myeloma."
  • Murad Megjhani, Neurology
    $300,000 over three years from the American Heart Association for "Non-Invasive Intracranial Pressure Waveform Derivation Using Machine Learning Techniques."
  • Janet Sparrow, Ophthalmology
    $300,000 over three years from Research to Prevent Blindness for "Retinitis Pigmentosa, Fundus Autofluorescence and Photooxidative Processes."
  • Vidhu Thaker, Pediatrics
    $3,500,254 over four years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for "Defining the pathways of cardiometabolic health after weight loss."
  • Yonghao Yu, Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics
    $3,713,530 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for "Multiplexed Quantification of the Protein Poly-ADP-Ribosylation Landscape in C9ORF72-ALS/FTD."

Honors

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Social Media Snapshot

 

Columbia Medicine (@ColumbiaMed)

Early results from a study of newborn screening methods show that DNA analysis picks up many more preventable or treatable serious health conditions than standard newborn screening and is favored by most parents who are offered the option.

In the News Highlights

  • Newborn Genome Analysis Spots More Health Issues Than Standard Screening
    Oct. 24, 2024
    HealthDay News
    “The results show us that genome sequencing can radically improve children’s medical care,” said researcher Dr. Joshua Milner, chief of allergy, immunology, and rheumatology services at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. “Genome sequencing allows us to detect things that cause serious illness and take action to prevent those illnesses in a significant number of children, not just a few rare cases,” Milner added in a medical center news release.
  • Under an L.A. Freeway, a Psychiatric Rescue Mission
    Oct. 20, 2024
    The New York Times
    Dr. Joel Braslow, who worked on a street team early in his career, said he had grown skeptical that antipsychotics should be used in the context of homelessness. They reduce symptoms, he said, but they may also leave people heavily sedated and more vulnerable on the street, and achieve little without other social supports — especially housing. “Fifty years ago, psychiatrists would have found it inhumane to allow their patients to live without shelter,” said Dr. Braslow, a professor of psychiatry at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
  • Loss of Sense of Smell May Cause Changes in Breathing Patterns, Study Suggests
    Oct. 22, 2024
    NBC News Online
    The findings underscore the importance of testing for anosmia and finding treatments, said otolaryngologist Dr. Jonathan Overdevest at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. Researchers also need to work out the details of how losing one’s sense of smell might affect other aspects of health, Overdevest said. “One thing we do know is that a portion of the brain affected earliest by Alzheimer’s is in charge of the sense of smell,” he added.