CUMC Celebrates: May–June 2014
CUMC CELEBRATES acknowledges faculty, staff, and students at Columbia University Medical Center who receive major research grants, who earn prestigious honors, who are elected to honorary societies, or who take leadership positions in professional organizations.
Celebrates also gratefully acknowledges the gifts made by donors and friends of the medical center and highlights faculty who have appeared in the news recently. If you have an award or honor that you would like to have listed in Celebrates, please fill out this online form. Please note: all federal grants are automatically included based on institutional data provided by Sponsored Projects Administration. For more information, send an e-mail to the Celebrates editor. Click on the image at right to print this issue.
Research Grants / Awards & Honors / Philanthropic Gifts / CUMC in the News
RESEARCH GRANTS
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS
Maura Boldrini, MD, PhD, Psychiatry, and Rene Hen, PhD, Psychiatry, received $3,415,498 from the National Institute of Mental Health for a competitive renewal of “Adult Hippocampal Neuroplasticity and Depression.”
Katherine Crew, MD, Medicine, and Rita Kukafka, DrPH, Biomedical Informatics, received $3,104,813 over five years from the National Cancer Institute for “Increasing Breast Cancer Chemoprevention in the Primary Care Setting.”
Davangere Devanand, MD, Psychiatry, received $2,893,758 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for “Treatment of Psychosis and Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Zoe Donaldson, PhD, Psychiatry, received $263,512 over two years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Variation in Serotonin 1a Receptor Expression as a Source of Depression Risk.”
Anthony Ferrante, MD, PhD, Medicine, received $1,413,848 over four years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for “Immune Regulation of Adipose Tissue Mass.”
Richard Foltin, PhD, Psychiatry, and Yuanjia Wang, PhD, Biostatistics, received $2,975,374 over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for “Impulsivity in Cocaine Abusers: Relationship to Drug Taking and Treatment Outcome.”
Jay Gingrich, MD, PhD, Psychiatry, received $838,950 over three years from the National Institute of Mental Health for a competitive renewal of “Serotonin and the Modulation of Brain Development.”
Guillermo Horga, MD, Psychiatry, received $919,398 over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “Neural Mechanisms of Sensory Predictions in Schizophrenia with Hallucinations.”
Andrew Kanter, MD, Biomedical Informatics, received $250,000 over four years from the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Ecuador for “Top World Universities Program Scholarship.”
Minoree Kohwi, PhD, Neuroscience, received $746,842 over three years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for “Mechanisms Underlying Loss of Neural Stem Cell Competence.”
Joanne Mantell, PhD, Psychiatry, received $1,733,190 over three years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “A Structural Intervention for Most-at-Risk Populations in Mombasa, Kenya.”
Rachel Marsh, PhD, Psychiatry, and Moira Rynn, MD, Psychiatry, received $454,663 over two years from the National Institute of Mental Health for “The Functioning of Overlapping Frontostriatal Circuits in Children with OCD.”
Carol Ann Mason, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, received $440,000 over two years from the National Eye Institute for “RPE-Neural Retina Interactions in the Developing Albino Eye.”
Rachel Miller, MD, Medicine, received $250,618 over two years from the National Institutes of Health for “Secondhand Smoke and Asthma: Mechanistic Outcomes of DNA Methylation in T Cells.”
Raul Rabadan, PhD, Biomedical Informatics, received $500,000 over five years from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for “Deep Characterization of Rousettus aegyptiacus Immune System: Use of Bats/Nonhuman Primates to Compare Immune Responses During Asymptomatic/Symptomatic Filovirus Infections.” He also received, with Anna Lasorella, MD, Pathology & Cell Biology, $2,070,760 over four years from the National Cancer Institute for “Reconstruction of Evolutionary Networks using Cross-Sectional Genomic Data.”
Lori Sussel, PhD, Genetics & Development, received $270,000 over three years from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International for “Examining the Role of Novel IncRNA's Upon Beta Cell Biology.”
Stephen Tsang, MD, PhD, Ophthalmology, received $1,600,000 over four years from the National Eye Institute for a competitive renewal of “Defining Barriers to Gene Therapy.”
Milton Wainberg, MD, Psychiatry, and Maria Oquendo, MD, Psychiatry, received $1,172,791 over five years from the Fogarty International Center for “Mental Health Implementation Research Training.”
Chunhua Weng, PhD, Biomedical Informatics, received $1,059,588 over three years from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute for “Building PCOR Value and Integrity with Data Quality and Transparency Standards.”
Debra Wolgemuth, PhD, Genetics & Development, received $1,376,000 over five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for a competitive renewal of “Retinoid Receptor Antagonists as Novel Male Contraceptives.”
Howard Worman, MD, Medicine, received $253,800 over three years from the Muscular Dystrophy Association for “Emerin-LAP 1 Interaction and X-linked Emery Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy.”
MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Melissa Begg, ScD, Biostatistics, Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Epidemiology, and Roger Vaughan, DrPH, Biostatistics, received $449,280 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a competitive renewal of “BEST-DP: Biostatistics & Epidemiology Summer Training Diversity Program.”
Batya Elul, PhD, ICAP, received $3,600,001 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “Strengthening Strategic Information Activities in the Kingdom of Lesotho under PEPFAR.”
Silvia Martins, PhD, Epidemiology, Carlos Blanco, MD, Psychiatry, and Cristiane Duarte, PhD, Psychiatry, received $3,059,522 over five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for a competitive renewal of “Predictors of High-Risk Behavior among Youth.”
AWARDS & HONORS
CUMC
Stephen E. Novak, head of archives and special collections, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in August 2014. The distinction is the highest honor SAA bestows on individuals and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE
Cheng-I Lin, DDS, and Sheena Goel, DDS, postdoctoral endodontic students, were given a Table Clinic Resident Research Award at the American Association of Endodontists meeting in May for their work, "Laser Doppler Flowmetry and Pulse Oximetry: Newer and Truer Vitality Tests?"
Fort Washington Dental won the Press Ganey Award for Highest Rated Unit. The practice administrator is Naomi Ramdin; David Albert, DDS, is medical director.
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
Seven P&S faculty received awards at the 2014 P&S Commencement.
- Distinguished Service Awards were given to John M. Driscoll Jr., MD, Pediatrics, and Charles S.H. Young, PhD, Microbiology.
- Charles W. Bohmfalk Awards, which recognize distinguished teaching, were given to Henry M. Spotnitz, MD, Surgery (for teaching in the preclinical years), and David L. Diuguid, MD, Medicine (for teaching in the clinical years).
- Dr. Harold & Golden Lamport Research Awards, which honor outstanding young researchers in the basic and clinical sciences, were given to Raul Rabadan, PhD, Systems Biology, (basic sciences) and David J. Lederer, MD, Medicine, (clinical sciences).
- Rita Charon, MD, PhD, Medicine, was given the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The award is given to a physician who has demonstrated compassionate and devoted patient care and who is a humanistic role model for students and young physicians.
2014 Irving Institute Imaging Pilot Awards
These are one-year clinical and translational pilot research grants sponsored by the Irving Institute in conjunction with the Columbia University Clinical Trials Office. The 2014 awardees are:
- Monica Goldklang, MD, Medicine, "Functional Imaging of Acute Lung Injury"
- Vesselin Miloushev, MD, PhD, Radiology, "Advanced Brain Magnetic Resonance T1ƿ Quantification in Alzheimer's Disease"
- Timothy Ryntz, MD, Obstetrics and Gynecology, "Can Dynamic MRI Offer Insight Into Underlying Pathophysiology of Idiopathic Menorrhagia?"
- Gregory M. Sullivan, MD, Psychiatry, "Regional Brain Binding of Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Type 2 (VMAT2) in Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot PET Study with [F‐18]‐FP‐(+)‐DTBZ"
- Qi Wang, PhD, Biomedical Engineering, "In-vivo Characterization of Abnormal Cortical Sensory Processing Resulted From Mutation in Autism-associated Genes Using Voltage Sensitive Dye Imaging"
Laurence Abbott, PhD, Neuroscience, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Richard Axel, MD, Neuroscience, was elected to the Royal Society as a foreign member. The Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of science, elects up to 52 new fellows and up to 10 new foreign members each year.
Jeffrey N. Bruce, MD, Neurological Surgery, received the Rutgers Medical School Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of his career achievements. Rutgers also announced the establishment of the Jeffrey N. Bruce MD Endowed Scholarship in Neurosurgery, made possible by a gift from Dr. Bruce.
Deborah L. Cabaniss, MD, Psychiatry, received a Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from President Lee Bollinger at Commencement. This is the highest award for teaching offered by Columbia University.
Lucien Côté, Neurology, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation at a gala in May. Dr. Côté was honored for his keen mind, warm personality, and matchless integrity as a physician.
Darryl C. De Vivo, MD, Neurology, presented the Sidney Carter Award Lecture at the 2014 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.
Salvatore DiMauro, MD, Neurology, was awarded the 2014 UNICO National Marconi Science Award and Medal in May at the UNICO National Board Meeting.
Lei Ding, PhD, Microbiology, was named a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar.
At the American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting, Sheldon Feldman, MD, Surgery, was elected secretary/treasurer of the board of directors.
Adolfo Ferrando, MD, PhD, Pediatrics, was one of the inaugural winners of the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, awarded by the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance.
Abbey Fingeret, MD, Surgery, was awarded the 2014 Promising Educational Scholar Award at the annual meeting of the Association for Surgical Education.
The John Jones Surgical Society honored Kenneth Forde, MD, Surgery, for his leadership in mentoring and academic surgery.
The National Lipid Association recognized Henry N. Ginsberg, MD, Medicine, with the Distinguished Achievement Award for his major contributions to clinical lipidology.
In July, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) will give Mark A. Hardy, MD, Surgery, the 2014 ASTS Pioneer Award, the highest honor the society bestows. This award is presented annually to an individual for leadership in transplantation or contributions to the field.
The Jean Julliard Prize was awarded to Eldad A. Hod, MD, Pathology & Cell Biology, by the International Society of Blood Transfusion. The award recognizes a clinician/scientist under the age of 40 who has a noteworthy portfolio of published work and has made important, recent contributions to transfusion medicine literature.
Thomas Jessell, PhD, Neuroscience, will receive the 2014 Neuroscience Prize from the Gruber Foundation in November for his work on the development and wiring of spinal cord neurons involved in movement control.
Nathan Johns, a graduate student in the lab of Harris Wang, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology, won a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship. The program recognizes outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.
Eric Kandel, MD, Neuroscience, received a 2014 Productive Lives Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Manish Mehta, a P&S medical student, was awarded a 2014 P&S Summer Research Training Fellowship, supported by the NIH. Mehta will spend the summer doing a rotation in the laboratory of Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD, Systems Biology.
Dana Pe’er, PhD, Systems Biology, received an inaugural Phillip A. Sharp Innovation in Collaboration Award from Stand Up to Cancer. The award, designed to encourage synergistic and innovative collaborations that will accelerate new cancer treatments, will offer two years of grant support for collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Donald O. Quest, MD, a 1970 alumnus of P&S, received a 2014 Alumni Medal at Columbia University Commencement. The honor recognizes distinguished service to the university.
Catherine Schevon, MD, PhD, Neurology, received the Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award from the American Academy of Neurology. This distinction recognizes early career physicians who have made independent contributions to epilepsy research. Dr. Schevon’s mentee, resident Shennan Weiss, MD, received the AAN Alliance Founders Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements in epilepsy research.
Nicholas Shea, a P&S medical student, received funding from the American Medical Association Foundation for his project, "Hematologic and Biochemical Effects of a Novel ECMO System in a Swine Model of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension." His mentor is Matthew Bacchetta, MD, Surgery.
Igor Shuryak, MD, PhD, Center for Radiological Research, is the 2014 recipient of the Jack Fowler Award from the Radiation Research Society. The award recognizes an outstanding junior investigator for exceptional work in radiation oncology, medical physics and/or radiobiology.
P&S medical student Madeleine Sowash was awarded the Medical Student Scholar Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America Education and Research Foundation. Her mentor is Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, MD, PhD, Medicine, and her project is "Whole-genome Sequencing of Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Bloodstream Isolates from a Tertiary Care Hospital."
Henry Spotnitz, MD, Surgery, and his colleagues won first prize in the arrhythmia section of the Scientific Presentations to the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery for their poster titled, “Introducer Development for Cardiac Resynchronization via Right Parasternal Mediastinotomy.”
Brent Stockwell, MD, Systems Biology, was one of 10 recipients of the 2014 Lenfest Distinguished Teaching Award. The award honors exceptional instruction and scholarship at Columbia University, with a special emphasis on mentoring students in the arts and sciences.
Tyler Vestal, a P&S medical student, was one of three winners of the inaugural 23andMe DNA Day student essay contest. His essay discussed the future of precision medicine.
Dorothy Warburton, PhD, Pediatrics, received the Distinguished Cytogeneticist Award from the American Association of Cytogenetics. The honor is given to recognize contributions to the field and service to the community through teaching, reviews, and participation in committees.
Andrew Zheng, a P&S medical student, is one of 70 medical and veterinary students selected from 37 different schools across the U.S. who will engage in laboratory research for a full year through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Medical Research Fellows Program.
MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
David Rosner, PhD, MPH, Sociomedical Sciences, is the 2014 recipient of Sigma Xi’s John P. McGovern Science and Society Award, which is given to those whose work transcends their career as a researcher. Dr. Rosner is an authority on occupational health and industrial disease and the health effects of lead in paint on children.
Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, and his team are the first-place winners of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Predict the Influenza Season Challenge.” Shaman and colleagues developed a scientifically validated system for predicting seasonal peaks of influenza in cities across the United States.
Roger D. Vaughan, DrPH, Biostatistics, won a 2014 Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, the highest award for teaching offered at Columbia University.
SCHOOL OF NURSING
Dawn Dowding, PhD, was elected as a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Mary Mundinger, DrPH, received an honorary degree from William Patterson University in recognition of her work developing the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree at Columbia University School of Nursing.
PHILANTHROPIC GIFTS
(April 5 – June 17)
COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE
A corporation made a $100,000 contribution to advance clinical research and education in the College of Dental Medicine’s dental implant program.
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
A donor made a $2,000,000 gift to the Center for Glomerular Diseases to advance research on kidney diseases.
A donor made a $1,000,000 commitment – and an additional promise to provide matching funds on a 1:1 basis, up to $1,000,000 – to the Integrative Therapies Program for Children with Cancer in the Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation.
A donor made a contribution of $1,200,000 toward a $7,500,000 commitment to support neurobiology research at the David A. Gardner PET Imaging Research Center.
An organization made a $1,200,000 commitment to the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to support the recruitment of an autism investigator.
A donor made a contribution of $1,000,000 toward a $20,000,000 commitment to support construction of the new Medical and Graduate Education Building.
A donor made a $1,000,000 commitment to support our campus revitalization initiative.
A gift of $875,000 was made toward a $10,500,000 commitment to advance research into the mechanisms of brain and gut function and the ways they are affected by nurture.
An anonymous donor made a pledge of $800,000 to advance research at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain.
The Russell Berrie Foundation made a $560,000 contribution toward a $2,730,000 commitment to the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center to advance pilot research to uncover the causes and cures for diabetes.
A bequest of $539,965 was realized to provide postgraduate and faculty exchange programs between Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
A private foundation made a contribution of $500,000 toward a $2,000,000 commitment to the Department of Psychiatry to support the Neuroscience Fellows Program.
A private foundation made a contribution of $500,000 to provide scholarship support to the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
A donor made a $500,000 commitment to support our campus revitalization initiative.
An educational institution made a contribution of $352,500 to provide fellowship support to the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics.
A contribution of $296,170 was made to the Department of Psychiatry to advance care and rehabilitation services at the Lieber Recovery and Rehabilitation Clinic.
A $250,000 payment was made toward a $1,000,000 commitment to the Department of Psychiatry to advance research and clinical care in non-verbal learning disabilities in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
A private foundation made a $250,000 contribution to the Department of Ophthalmology to advance research on age-related macular degeneration.
A donor made a contribution of $250,000 to the Department of Medicine to advance research on Barrett’s esophagus and other esophageal diseases.
A donor made a $200,000 payment to complete a commitment to the Department of Medicine to advance research to better understand the immune system.
The Simmons Mesothelioma Foundation made a contribution of $150,000 toward a $3,150,000 commitment to the Department of Medicine to advance research on malignant mesothelioma.
A family made a gift of $200,000 to support research, education, and patient care at the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center.
A donor made a $120,897 gift to the Department of Neurology to advance research to understand and treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
A private foundation made a gift of $120,000 to the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics to advance research on the interactions between visual perception and motor control.
A donor made a contribution of $101,025 toward a pledge of $400,000 to the Department of Psychiatry to advance imaging and holding therapy.
A donor made a $100,000 contribution toward a $1,000,000 commitment to advance research in the Department of Urology.
A donor made a $100,000 gift toward a $500,000 commitment to the Center for Translational Immunology to advance research in type 1 diabetes.
A family foundation made a contribution of $100,000 to the Department of Medicine to advance cardiology research.
A donor made a $100,000 contribution to the Department of Medicine to provide fellowship support to the Division of Cardiology.
A donor made a commitment of $100,000 to the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry to advance research on adolescent addiction.
A donor made a contribution of $100,000 to the Department of Medicine to advance heart failure research in the Center for Advanced Cardiac Care.
A family foundation made a $100,000 commitment to the Department of Neurology to support research toward finding a cure for mitochondrial disease.
MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
A donor made a pledge of $6,000,000, and a contribution of $2,500,000 toward that pledge, to establish a new professorship and center for public health promotion.
The American Legacy Foundation made a gift of $212,500 to complete its pledge of $850,000 to establish the Donald H. Gemson Assistant Professorship at the Center for History and Ethics of Public Health.
CUMC IN THE NEWS
April-June 2014
CBS NEWS Only Half the Vets with PTSD Are Getting Treatment: Report – June 20 One of the biggest problems is a lack of data to measure which treatments patients are receiving and whether the patients are getting better, said the study's chairman, Sandro Galea of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
WALL STREET JOURNAL Brain Cells That Keep Our Social Network Running – June 6 Now a paper published in the journal Nature by [medical student] Frederick Hitti and Steven Siegelbaum of Columbia University solves that mystery, using fancy techniques to manipulate CA2 neurons independent of the rest of the hippocampus.
THE ATLANTIC Making Aging Positive – June 1 Opinion: The keystone for successful aging is our ability to enjoy good health and function. Having created a new stage of life, the next step is to make it meaningful. Linda Fried is dean of and DeLamar Professor of Public Health Practice at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
WALL STREET JOURNAL Medical Campus Sets High-Tech Infusion – May 19 Columbia University Medical Center, a sprawling campus that for decades has been a fixture in the hilly Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan, is in the midst of a transformation. Ground was broken last fall on the site of Columbia's future Medical and Graduate Education Building, a 100,000-square-foot, $77 million glass tower overlooking the George Washington Bridge.
TIME The Genes Responsible for Deadly Prostate Cancer Discovered – May 12 Cory Abate-Shen of Columbia University Medical Center and Andrea Califano, chair Columbia's Department of Systems Biology, found that both genes had to be active in order for the prostate cancers to progress.
NURSE.COM Milestone New York legislation eases practice restrictions on NPs – April 28 Barriers to care remain, so the work continues, said Bobbie Berkowitz, RN, PhD, FAAN, who serves as dean of Columbia University’s School of Nursing. “Nurse practitioners are not given admitting privileges and some insurance companies do not pay parity to nurse practitioners for the same care that physicians are providing,” she said.
See more headlines in the CUMC Newsroom.
Past issues of CUMC CELEBRATES: http://ps.columbia.edu/celebrates/