| CUMC Celebrates - August 24, 2007 |
Even as grants from the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere become more competitive and difficult to obtain, the caliber of our researchers continues to shine through. This edition highlights grants awarded this spring to faculty at our schools.
I would also like to make special notice of the results of NIH-funded work of our chair of Genetics and Development, Dr. Gerard Karsenty. A link to the extensive media coverage of his findings on the importance of osteocalcin, a hormone released from bone, on blood sugar control is available at:
http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/celebrates/aug2407/karsenty_osteocalcin_bone_diabetes.html
Lee Goldman
EVP & Dean
College of Physicians & Surgeons
Mailman School of Public Health
College of Dental Medicine
Twelve CUMC faculty members were awarded Columbia University Professional Schools Diversity Research Fellowships, part of a $2 million initiative by President Lee Bollinger to promote and develop careers of diverse junior faculty. Fellowship recipients:
Luisa Borrell, DDS, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology (Mailman), to investigate health disparities within Hispanic communities
George Jenkins, DMD, assistant professor of clinical dentistry (College of Dental Medicine), to start research into the triage population at CDM
Kathie-Ann Joseph, MD, MPH, assistant professor of surgery (P&S), to determine what biological mechanisms impact breast cancer recurrence and survival rates in African-American women
Naa Oyo Kwate, PhD, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences (Mailman), to research the health effects of residential racial segregation or mixed living areas on minority health
Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, assistant professor of health policy and management (Mailman), to research qualitative properties of stress and how prestige affects the stress response
Miguel Munoz-Laboy, DrPH, MPH, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences (Mailman), to investigate sexual risk behaviors among bisexual Latino women and men
Gustavo Palacios, PhD, assistant professor of clinical epidemiology (Mailman), to further research on the importance of environmental triggers in individuals genetically disposed to disease, especially the role of viruses in development of type 1 diabetes
Dean Preddie, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine-nephrology (P&S), for a pilot project on home dialysis in preparation for establishing a home hemodialysis program at Columbia
Carlos Rodriguez, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine-cardiology (P&S), to research cardiovascular disease in Hispanic populations
Diana Romero, PhD, assistant professor, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health (Mailman), to conduct secondary analyses of the National Survey of Family Growth, exploring social and economic status as related to sexual and reproductive health and family growth
Ilyas Washington, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmic science in ophthalmology (P&S), to launch research on age-related macular degeneration
Patrick Wilson, PhD, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences (Mailman), to examine situational factors that promote high-risk sex among HIV-positive men who have sex with other men
Konstantina Alexandropoulos, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology, was awarded a five-year, $2 million grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the role of the novel adapter protein Chat-H in chronic inflammation associated with a number of autoimmune conditions and immunodeficiencies.
Ottavio Arancio, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, has received a two-year, $376,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging. Funds will be used to develop and generate new molecules that enhance a specific signaling pathway in the synapse that Dr. Arancio has already identified, via mouse model, as dysfunctional during the plaque disposition process in Alzheimer’s disease, disrupting both memory and brain plasticity.
The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded Victoria Arango, PhD, professor of clinical neurobiology in psychiatry, a five-year, $2.4 million extension of funding for postmortem brain studies of suicide victims. Her work, now in its 22nd year, focuses on the biochemistry underlying impaired serotonin transmission in people who suffered from depression or schizophrenia.
Timothy Bestor, PhD, professor of genetics & development, was awarded a two-year, $443,000 grant by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to investigate the host defense system that defends the genome against transposons – “jumping genes” that can move around in the genomes of cells –and prevents them from causing mutations.
Adam M. Brickman, PhD, assistant professor of neuropsychology in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, has been awarded $770,000 over five years by the National Institute on Aging to study the impact of age on structural markers of pathology in the brain and how these age-related changes impact cognitive abilities in older adults.
Truman Brown, PhD, professor of radiology and Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has received a four-year, $5.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. The award will help fund Dr. Brown’s investigations of diffuse large B cell lymphoma, the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, via magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Findings will help identify patients unresponsive to traditional chemotherapy treatments and inform efforts to design novel therapies for these individuals.
Hina Chaudhry, MD, Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine-Cardiology, has been granted $2 million over five years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to examine the link between expression of the regulatory gene Cyclin A2 to cardiac repair and regeneration in damaged hearts.
Adi Cohen, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine-endocrinology, has been awarded $642,000 over five years by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Studies investigate the development of osteoporosis in otherwise healthy premenopausal women who present with low-trauma fractures and do not have a known underlying cause (such as celiac disease or anorexia nervosa).
Wei Dong, PhD, associate research scientist, department of otolaryngology/head & neck surgery, has received a two-year, $161,000 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to probe the mechanics of the cochlea, the auditory portion of the inner ear, and to clarify how sound energy radiates from it.
David Fidock, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and of medicine, has been awarded $201,000 by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to develop a new screening mechanism to identify chemical entities with specific antimalarial properties. He has also been awarded $160,000 from the Medicines for Malaria Venture to investigate fatty acid biosynthesis as a potential target for new antimalarial drugs. Existing medications for malaria are inadequate because of their cost and toxic side effects, as well as growing levels of drug resistance.
Ilya Finkelstein, PhD, postdoctoral research scientist, department of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has won a three-year, $142,000 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to conduct studies in DNA repair, specifically looking at how repair proteins locate and respond to double strand breaks. Mutations in the damage recognition process are implicated in several types of cancer.
Michael E. Goldberg, MD, David Mahoney Professor of Brain and Behavior in Neuroscience, Neurology, and Psychiatry, has received a two-year, $467,000 grant from the National Eye Institute to study how the brain knows where the eye is positioned in space, which allows the brain to analyze the environment for perception and action. Findings may help inform the design of rehabilitative strategies for the kinds of spatial behavior problems brought on by neurological events such as strokes.
Paul Gordon, MD, assistant professor of neurology, has received an additional $56,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to carry out his five-year study, begun in 2003, on the use of minocycline (an FDA-approved agent for infection) to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Christopher Henderson, PhD, professor of pathology (in neurology, neuroscience, and the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease), is the recipient of a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He will study the relationship between the Fas death receptor – a cell surface protein that helps trigger cell death – and the motor neuron degeneration characteristic of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The long-term goal is to use motor neuron-based cell and animal models to better understand molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in ALS and to validate these as targets for clinical intervention.
Dawn Hershman, MD, Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine (P&S) and Epidemiology (Mailman) and co-director of the Breast Cancer Program of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, has received the 2007 Advanced Clinical Research Award in Breast Cancer from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. This annual award, given to only two cancer investigators nationally, supports original research of significant promise that currently lacks funding. Dr. Hershman is receiving $450,000 over three years to conduct research on the incidence, predictors, and treatment of nervous system disease induced by Taxane, a cancer drug that blocks cell growth by stopping cell division.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has awarded a five-year, $1.4 million institutional research training grant to Oliver Hobert, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics. The award will support predoctoral and postdoctoral students in CUMC’s stem cell biology and cell specification lineage program, which Dr. Hobert directs.
Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, professor and chair of genetics & development, was awarded $1.3 million over four years by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to extend studies linking regulation of bone mass to the hormone leptin. Research will examine whether bone cells play key roles in the expression of leptin and other fat-derived hormones.
Petra Kaufmann, MD, assistant professor of neurology and Irving Fellow, has been awarded an additional $32,000 by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to further her ongoing clinical trial of high-dose coenzyme Q10 in the treatment of ALS, now in its fourth and final year.
David Kimhy, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry, is the recipient of a five-year, $883,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Kimhy will study the cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms of stress regulation during recovery from psychosis in schizophrenia.
Francis Y. Lee, MD, MS, PhD, associate professor of clinical orthopedic surgery, has received a four-year, $1.1 million research project grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to study inflammatory bone loss resulting from bone-prosthesis integration. Dr. Lee is one of fewer than two dozen orthopedic surgeons with an R01 award from the NIH at the present time.
Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Lieber Professor of Psychiatry, Lawrence C. Kolb chair of psychiatry, and director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Lorna Role, PhD, professor of pathology & cell biology in the Department of Neuroscience, are two of only 23 nationwide recipients of Distinguished Investigator Awards from NARSAD - the Mental Health Research Association. Each receives a one-year, $100,000 research grant. Dr. Lieberman will examine whether an experimental medicine called AL-108, when administered with antipsychotic drugs, enhances cognition in patients with schizophrenia. Dr. Role, recipient of the Sidney Baer Foundation Award for Distinguished Investigator of NARSAD, will help clarify the relationship between the Nrg1 gene and schizophrenia. NARSAD also issued two-year monetary awards to 16 young investigators here, for a total of $960,000 in NARSAD funds to Columbia and NYSPI for psychiatric research this year.
Joyce Lustbader, PhD, senior research scientist, department of obstetrics & gynecology, is the recipient of a two-year, $161,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Funds will be used to study the structural and functional interactions between gonadotropins—hormones that stimulate the reproductive organs—and their receptors.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has awarded $1.8 million over five years to Andrew Marks, MD, chair of physiology & cellular biophysics and Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Molecular Cardiology (in Medicine). Funds will support predoctoral and postdoctoral students in CUMC’s translational cardiovascular research training program. Dr. Marks also received a five-year, $7.9 million extension of funding from NHLBI to continue study into the molecular triggers that prompt heart arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Dodi Meyer, MD, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics-community pediatrics, has been awarded a five-year, $250,000 grant by the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children, a collaborative program of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Health Resources Services Administration, U.S. Department of HHS. A health literacy program for low-income families with children in Northern Manhattan will be developed and implemented.
Edward Nunes, MD, professor of clinical psychiatry, was granted $876,000 over five years by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to expand his research and research mentorship program in the field of drug abuse treatment. A specialist in treating co-occurring psychological problems in substance-dependent patients, Dr. Nunes studies behavioral and pharmacological treatment combinations for drug dependence.
Alessandra Pernis-Lowell, MD, associate professor of medicine-molecular medicine, has been awarded a $435,000 grant from the Alliance for Lupus Research to study how Rho GTPases, molecules that control a wide range of cellular processes, contribute to defects in the appropriate regulation of T-cells in lupus. The goal is to develop therapeutic approaches to lupus that target Rho GTPase-mediated pathways. The project began in February 2007 and will extend through January 2009.
Vincent Racaniello, PhD, Higgins Professor of Microbiology, is the recipient of a one-year, $362,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the origin and development of disease caused by enteroviruses, which have been implicated in illnesses as non-threatening as mild upper respiratory infections and as serious as viral meningitis, polio, cardiomyopathy, and juvenile diabetes.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has awarded Michael R. Rosen, MD, Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Professor of Pharmacology and professor of pediatrics, a $3.1 million, four-year renewal of funding to study the mechanistic determinants of pacing-induced cardiac memory, which involves the electrical remodeling of ventricles of the heart. His team will attempt to clarify mechanisms that initiate short-term cardiac memory, extend this process from short to long-term, and promote both maintenance and reversal of long-term cardiac memory.
Rodney Rothstein, PhD, professor of genetics & development, was recently awarded a three-year, $789,000 grant by the National Cancer Institute. Funds will be used to screen for genetic interactions in yeast using genes commonly overexpressed in cancer cells. Goal is to identify novel therapeutic targets that selectively kill malignant cells.
Rakesh Sahni, MD, associate professor of clinical pediatrics-neonatology and perinatology, has received a two-year, $428,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to further define the physiological mechanisms underlying sudden infant death syndrome. The autonomic reactivity of low-birth-weight infants during the thermal stress associated with prone sleeping will be examined, looking at relationships among body position, body temperature, and cardiorespiratory and neuroelectric activity. The long-term goal is to develop infant profiles for SIDS screening.
Ann Marie Schmidt, MD, Gerald & Janet Carrus Professor of Surgical Sciences (in surgery), was awarded a $1.25 million JDRF Scholar Grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Funds will support intensive research into the reasons behind vascular injury in type 1 diabetes. Dr. Schmidt was one of only six scientists to receive an earlier 2007 JDRF award of $250,000 annually for up to five years for pioneering work with type 1 diabetes and its complications.
Robert Schwabe, MD, assistant professor of medicine-digestive and liver diseases, has been awarded $1.3 million over five years by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to examine the relationship between the endocannabinoid system – a network of chemicals that regulates neuron exchange – and liver scarring, a major cause of mortality in end-stage liver disease.
Steven Spitalnik, MD, professor of pathology, has received a two-year, $458,000 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to work on design and engineering of antibodies that will allow use of incompatible blood products in individuals with ongoing conditions that require transfusion.
Kimara L. Targoff, MD, instructor in pediatric cardiology, has been awarded $647,000 over four years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the regulation of cardiac development by Nkx genes in the zebrafish embryo. With he benefits of thismodel organism, Dr. Targoff is interested in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human congenital heart disease.
Vadim S. Ten, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics-neonatology and perinatology, has received a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to clarify immune response mechanisms behind the brain injury that occurs when a newborn receives insufficient oxygen during the birth process. Dr. Ten’s research has potential for therapy to help protect the growing brain and minimize lifelong disability among compromised infants.
Marcella Walker, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine-endocrinology, has been awarded $643,000 over five years by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to study bone quality and osteoporosis/fracture risk among Chinese-American women. The goal is to hasten development of diagnostic and treatment guidelines directly relevant for this at-risk segment of women.
The National Cancer Institute has awarded Timothy C. Wang, MD, Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine, a five-year, $1.3 million extension of funding to continue studies of inflammation in mouse models of gastric cancer. Dr. Wang is studying how infection with helicobacter pylori – bacteria linked to certain ulcers – can lead to the chronic inflammatory response that progresses to stomach cancer. The focus of Dr. Wang's work is how pro-inflammatory cytokines interact with a signaling molecule (NF-kappa B) to promote the development of gastric cancer stem cells.
Ronald Wapner, MD, professor of obstetrics & gynecology, has been awarded a five-year, $5.4 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to evaluate the accuracy, efficacy and clinical advantages of prenatal diagnosis using microarray technologies (gene chips)compared with conventional cytogenetic analysis using microscopy.
Debra J. Wolgemuth, PhD, professor of genetics & development, has received a five-year, $1.6 million competitive renewal of funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to examine the function of the A-type cyclin class of cell cycle regulators in the development of the male germ line and sperm production in mammals.
Howard Worman, MD, associate professor of medicine-digestive and liver diseases and pathology & cell biology, received a three-year, $330,000 grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. His research will examine how inhibiting mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase – an enzyme that mediates diverse biochemical and molecular processes – may lead to treatment for Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, a rare but devastating genetic disorder that typically appears in childhood or adolescence.
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Angela Aidala, PhD, associate research scientist in sociomedical sciences, has been awarded $443,000 over two years by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study and evaluate different models of care—including housing-based interventions—for homeless, HIV-positive, substance using adults with co-occurring mental illness.
Bruce Armstrong, DSW, associate clinical professor of population and family health, in January received a two-year, $650,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. The award supports the Center for Community Health and Education's "Young Men's Health Initiative," increasing access to quality community-based sexual health services for adolescent and young adult males in Harlem and Washington Heights.
Neil Boothby, EdD, professor of clinical population & family health and director, Program of Forced Migration and Health, received $48,000 over two years from the US Institute for Peace to create a system for rapid identification of child protection concerns within conflict-affected areas. This grant supplements an existing three-year, $1.2 million grant from USAID and the Oak Foundation to develop evidence for effective protection programming for children in countries affected by crisis.
Nancy Cauthen, PhD, deputy director, National Center for Children in Poverty, received $49,999 from the Louisiana state department of social services to build an interactive web-based calculator to model the impact of federal and state policies on the budgets of low- to moderate-income families. Goal is to help Louisiana state officials assess the effectiveness of its work support programs.
Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, professor of clinical epidemiology (Mailman) & medicine (P&S) and director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, has received a total of $5.9 million dollars in additional funding from the CDC to support ongoing programs in Mozambique and Nigeria. She also received $400,000 from the Department of Defense to renovate a day hospital in Maputo, Mozambique, in a new collaboration to support programs for HIV prevention, care and treatment. In addition, Dr. El-Sadr is the recipient of $200,000 from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to determine if HIV-infected patients initiating anti-retroviral therapy and multiple micronutrient supplements, per national guidelines, experience improvements in outcomes, performance measures and quality of life.
Lynn Freedman, JD, MPH, professor of clinical population & family health and director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program, received $35,000 from UNICEF to assist the Government of Angola with a baseline assessment for a program to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity.
Joseph Graziano, PhD, associate dean for research and professor of environmental health sciences, and professor of pharmacology (P&S), has been awarded $723,000 by the NIH’s Fogarty International Center for his ongoing efforts to reduce water-borne arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. Funds will underwrite field work and research, training, and educational programs that address this complex environmental problem and its multi-faceted public health ramifications.
Denise Kandel, PhD, professor of sociomedical sciences in psychiatry, has received a five-year, $616,000 continuation of funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to extend her familial and population studies of drug use. She is studying the development of nicotine dependence in adolescence and the risk factors for substance abuse, and is moving into testing epidemiological hypotheses at the molecular level in animal models.
W. Ian Lipkin, MD, has been awarded $1.76 million over two years by the U.S. Department of Defense to build and equip laboratory space for the Northeast Biodefense Center facility in the Mailman School. This space will be dedicated to the development and implementation of cutting-edge diagnostic technologies and passive immunotherapeutics, and will ultimately serve as the site for the new WHO Collaborating Centre on Diagnostics, Surveillance and Immunotherapeutics for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
Miguel Muñoz-Laboy, DrPH, MPH, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences, has received $81,000 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the behaviors of the male partners of male-to-female transgender individuals, describe the ways they construct their personal identities, and explore the social geography of HIV risk in this population.
Frederica Perera, DrPH, professor of environmental health sciences, has received $225,000 over three years from the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund to support the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health's "Mothers and Newborns Study," which examines the effects of prenatal and postnatal exposures to a variety of pollutants on children's respiratory health, cognitive development, and cancer risk.
Karolynn Siegel, PhD, professor of sociomedical sciences, has been awarded an additional $78,000 by the National Institute of Mental Health for her previously funded study of men who have sex with both men and women.
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The federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau has awarded the College of Dental Medicine a five-year, $1 million grant for leadership training in pediatric dentistry, promoting careers in dental education, research, administration, and child advocacy. Project directors are Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH, chair, section of social & behavioral sciences and professor of clinical dentistry and clinical health policy & management (Mailman), and Steven Chussid, DDS, director, division of pediatric dentistry and the pediatric dentistry residency program, and associate professor of clinical dentistry.
The Dental Pipeline Program, led jointly by Allan Formicola, DDS, MS, professor of dentistry, and Howard Bailit, DMD, PhD, adjunct professor of dentistry, has received a $4 million extension of funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to improve dental health for low-income and underserved populations. This program, the largest initiative ever funded by a major foundation in the field of dentistry, was originally created with a $19 million RWJF grant in 2001.
Jeremy Mao, DDS, PhD, associate professor of dentistry, was awarded a four-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. His focus is on developing engineered soft tissue grafts from autologous adult stem cells for surgical reconstruction of soft tissue defects and disfigurations, such as those due to combat injuries, accidents, or cancer surgery.
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Masthead photos: (from left to right) Luisa Borrell, Allan Formicoloa, Michael Rosen & Hina Chaudhry
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