CUIMC Update - April 24, 2024

April 24, 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

CUIMC Employees Participate in Relay Marathon
More than 200 employees participated in the CUIMC Team Relay Marathon, where teams of two to eight runners took turns running a combined 26.2 miles on The Armory’s 200-meter indoor track.

Healthy Aging Summit Unites Medical Center in Shared Goals
More than 300 people attended the April 19 Healthspan Extension Summit, which brought together researchers from across the medical center to present findings in basic science, clinical medicine, and public health. Participants also discussed how these fields can ensure healthier long lives.

Last Chance: Volunteer for CUIMC Commencement 2024
Join your colleagues as a commencement volunteer and help spread the exciting energy of the day. Volunteers welcome and direct guests, escort those who need extra care, guide graduates, and assist with program distribution.

Symposium Honors Career of W. Ian Lipkin
Leading scientists convened to celebrate the career and accomplishments of W. Ian Lipkin, MD, founding director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Mailman School of Public Health. The symposium covered topics ranging from zoonotic “spillover” events to advances in pathogen discovery and pandemic prevention.

Tomorrow: The Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Professorship Lecture
Join visiting professor Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, 2021 Nobel laureate and Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology at Scripps Research, for his lecture "May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in sensory physiology and disease" on April 25 at 4 p.m. in Alumni Auditorium.

Events

Grants

Mailman School of Public Health

  • Yifei Sun, PhD, Biostatistics
    $860,315 over three years for a subaward from the National Institute on Aging for "Integrative analysis for patient-centered outcomes and time-to-event data in Alzheimer's disease."

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Corinne Abate-Shen, PhD, Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics
    $2,584,230 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for "Investigating mechanisms of bladder cancer metastasis."
  • Jason Adelman, MD, and R. Graham Barr, MD, DrPH, Medicine
    $2,646,023 over five years from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for "Patient Safety in Health Services Research Training."
  • Dritan Agalliu, PhD, Neurology
    $1,694,464 over three years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for "Assessing the effects of peripheral immune activation on the NVU following TBI using a vascularized and perfused human blood/BBB model."
  • Adam Brickman, PhD, Taub Institute
    $527,975 over five years for a subaward from the National Institute on Aging for "Health, Aging and Dementia in South Africa: A Longitudinal Study (HAALSI) -- Core C Biomarkers."
  • Ricardo Cruz-Acuna, PhD, HICCC
    $764,900 over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for "Engineered Hydrogel Elucidates the Contribution of ECM Stiffness to Barrett's Esophagus Pathogenesis."
  • Jon Giles, MD, Medicine
    $615,742 over three years for a subaward from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for "Elucidating the Landscape of Immunoendotypes in Psoriatic Skin and Synovium (ELLIPSS)."
  • Guohua Li, MD, DrPH, Anesthesiology
    $1,661,123 over four years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for "Mortality in Autism."
  • Claudia Lugo-Candelas, PhD, Psychiatry
    $300,000 over three years from One Mind for "Prenatal sleep health: an untapped intervention target for the intergenerational prevention of mood and anxiety disorders."
  • Lale Ozcan, MD, Medicine
    $2,583,256 over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for "Hepatic Rap1a in cholesterol homeostasis."
  • Matteo Porotto, PhD, Pediatrics
    $3,541,537 over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for "Design of fusion inhibitors to block measles host-to-host infection."
  • Matthias Quick, PhD, Psychiatry
    $1,488,797 over four years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for "Structure and mechanism of pendrin and the mutations that cause Pendred's Syndrome."
  • Basak Ural, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology
    $501,512 over four years from the National Institute on Aging for "Impact of Environmental Exposures on Lung Immunity over Age."
  • Hee Won Yang, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology
    $1,727,261 over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for "Deciphering the mechanism of non-canonical cell cycle entry."
  • Michael Yin, MD, Medicine
    $3,368,275 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for "Hormone Therapy for Peri- and Postmenopausal Women with HIV (HoT)."

Honors

Mailman School of Public Health

School of Nursing

Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

In the News Highlights

  • Health Watch: The Season of Sneezin' Is Underway
    Apr 12, 2024
    CBS News (video)
    Springtime is the sneezing season for millions of Americans with allergies. Joel Brooks, pediatric allergist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, joins CBS News to discuss how severe things are this year and tips for treatment.
  • Majority Latino City Endures Years of Toxic Water in Health ‘Crisis’
    Apr 18, 2024
    The Washington Post
    The Environmental Protection Agency has assessed Sunland Park’s water operator, the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA), with 120 “violation points” over the last five years, a calculation based both on the number of times the utility has violated federal standards and the level of seriousness of the violations. Anne Nigra, a professor at Columbia University who focuses on the impacts of arsenic-laden water on Latino communities and reviewed the utility’s federally mandated water reports, called the situation in the New Mexico town “a public health crisis.”
  • The Sorry State of Postpartum Care in America
    Apr 17, 2024
    TIME
    A 2016 Columbia University study found that teaching high-risk mothers essential parenting skills after giving birth significantly reduced their likelihood of postpartum depression. By learning to comfort their infants, understand their parenting influences from childhood, anticipate postpartum challenges, and practice mindfulness, moms not only saw improvements in their mental well-being but also witnessed their babies crying and fussing less.
    The Columbia University study referenced here was led by Catherine Monk, PhD, the Diana Vagelos Professor of Women's Mental Health at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.