| CUMC Celebrates - - October 26, 2007 |
Lee Goldman, M.D.
Executive Vice President, Health and Biomedical Sciences
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Four colleagues are newly elected to the world’s largest general scientific society, the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science, bringing the medical center’s total AAAS Fellows to 23. They are:
- Martin Chalfie, PhD, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences and a faculty member in the neurobiology & behavior doctoral program, was cited for contributions to neurobiology and developmental biology.
- Ruth L. Fischbach, PhD, MPE, professor of bioethics (in psychiatry and sociomedical sciences, Mailman), was named for her contributions to medical ethics and for her research on issues in bioethics.
- Stephen P. Goff, PhD, the Higgins Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and professor of microbiology, was chosen based on his work in molecular biology and virology.
- James E. Rothman, PhD, the Clyde’56 and Helen Wu Professor of Physiology (Chemical Biology), department of physiology & cellular biophysics, was cited for contributions to the understanding of protein trafficking.
American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Barry Honig, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, and Allan G. Rosenfield, MD, dean of the Mailman School, DeLamar Professor of Public Health, and professor of obstetrics & gynecology (P&S), were inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in an October 6 ceremony in Cambridge, Mass. The Academy is an independent research center conducting multidisciplinary studies of problems in science, technology, and global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture; and education.
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS
Shi Du Yan, MD, associate professor of clinical pathology, has been named associate editor of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (JAD). The JAD is an international multidisciplinary journal that strives to facilitate progress in understanding the etiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, genetics, behavior, treatment and psychology of Alzheimer's disease.
Eric Kandel, MD, University Professor, psychiatry, physiology & cellular biophysics, and biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has won the National Academies’ 2007 National Communication Award for the year’s best book. Dr. Kandel was honored by the National Academies—which consists of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine—for his personal memoir “In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of the Mind.” The National Communication Awards, now in their 5th year, recognize excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the general public. Dr. Kandel will receive his award, which includes $20,000 in prize money, at a ceremony in Irvine, Calif. on Nov. 14.
Robert Klitzman, MD, associate professor of clinical psychiatry, is the author of the new book “When Doctors Become Patients,” to be published this fall by Oxford University Press. The book is a systematic, integrated look at what happens to doctors both personally and professionally when they get sick, focusing on the ramifications of their illnesses for their patients specifically and for the health care system in general.
Erica Kovacs, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychology (in psychiatry), has been elected to the executive council of the American Psychological Association’s Division 33 as a member-at-large for two years. Division 33 is the entity concerned with research and practice in mental retardation and developmental disabilities.
Milan Stojanovic, PhD, assistant professor of medicine–nephrology, is one of 14 finalists for the 2007 NY Academy of Sciences’ Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists. The Blavatnik Awards recognize achievements of young scientists and engineers who have contributed significantly to interdisciplinary research. Each finalist will receive $5,000 in unrestricted funds; winners will be announced at a city-wide gala in November.
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COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE
Faculty and officers of administration with 25+ years of full-time service (below) were among those feted at the College of Dental Medicine’s 90th anniversary gala held Oct. 20 in Low Library. The event kicked off the college’s $15 million capital campaign.
- Dory Calev, DDS, associate professor of clinical dentistry – endodontics
- Thomas J. Cangialosi, DDS, professor of clinical dentistry – orthodontics and associate dean for postdoctoral education
- Martin J. Davis, DDS, professor of clinical dentistry – pediatrics and associate dean for students and alumni affairs
- Stella Efstratiadis, DDS, professor of clinical dentistry – orthodontics
- Allan J. Formicola, DDS, professor, vice dean, Center for Community Health Partnerships, and former CDM dean (1978-2001)
- Richard Lichtenthal, DDS, James Winston Benfield Associate Professor of Clinical Operative Dentistry – Restorative Dentistry
- Letty Moss-Salentijn, DDS, PhD, Dr. Edwin S. Robinson Professor of Dentistry (in Anatomy and Cell Biology) and senior associate dean, academic affairs
- Douglas M. McAndrew, manager, CDM biomedical communications
- Ronnie Myers, DDS, associate professor of clinical dentistry – oral surgery and associate dean for clinical affairs
- Zoila E. Noguerole, CDM administrative manager
- David J. Zegarelli, DDS, professor of oral surgery
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Lisa Hogarty, Columbia University’s EVP for student and administrative services for the past five years, has been named chief operating officer of CUMC, effective December 1. Before coming to Columbia, she served in comparable executive administrative positions at Continuum Health Partners and Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Christopher S. Ahmad, MD, has been promoted to associate professor of clinical orthopedic surgery. He is director of pediatric and adolescent sports medicine and associate director of sports medicine. Dr. Ahmad specializes in advanced arthroscopic surgical techniques for sports-related injuries of the knee, shoulder, and elbow, with particular interest in shoulder instability, rotator cuff pathology, and ACL injuries.
Jean C. Emond, MD, Thomas S. Zimmer Professor of Reconstructive Surgery (in Pediatrics), has been named vice chair and chief of transplantation for the department of surgery earlier this year. Dr. Emond specializes in living donor liver transplantation and liver transplantation in children and adults, among other things. He will lead a new transplantation initiative at CUMC/NYPH, soon to be announced.
Joshua E. Hyman, MD, director of the pediatric orthopedic trauma service, has been promoted to associate professor of clinical orthopedic surgery. Dr. Hyman is a pediatric specialist, with interest in hip disease and dysplasia, complex pediatric spinal disorders (scoliosis), limb lengthening and deformity, club foot and other foot deformities, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease, and fractures and sports injuries.
Francis Y. Lee, MD, PhD, was recently named vice chairman of research, department of orthopedic surgery. He is associate professor of clinical orthopedic surgery, chief of the tumor and bone disease service, and director, Center for Orthopedic Research. Dr. Lee specializes in pediatrics, with expertise in spine deformities and complex developmental orthopedic disorders, musculoskeletal tumors, and bone disease. He is conducting both basic and clinical studies on musculoskeletal disorders.
William N. Levine, MD, has been promoted to professor of clinical orthopedic surgery. He is director of sports medicine, assistant director for the Center of Shoulder, Elbow and Sports Medicine, and head team physician for all Columbia University athletes. Dr. Levine specializes in shoulder and elbow surgery, sports medicine, and arthroscopy of all joints, and arthroscopic and reconstructive knee surgery.
William B. Macaulay, Jr., MD, director, Center for Hip and Knee Replacement, has been promoted to professor of clinical orthopedic surgery. A specialist in hip and knee replacement, he is currently conducting outcomes studies and clinical trials research involving femoral neck fractures.
Marya Pollack, MD, MPH, has been promoted to assistant clinical professor of psychiatry. A graduate of Mailman and NYU’s medical school, she is an attending psychiatrist at Washington Heights Community Service, NY State Psychiatric Institute.
Robert J. Strauch, MD, has been promoted to professor of clinical orthopedic surgery. He specializes in hand and microvascular surgery, with focus on nerve problems of the upper extremity (including carpal tunnel syndrome) and congenital hand disorders.
Peter Tang, MD, MPH, recently joined orthopedic surgery as assistant professor of clinical orthopedic surgery. He specializes in hand, upper extremity and microvascular surgery, with expertise in nerve decompression and repair, tendon repair and transfer, mass excision, ligament repair and reconstruction, finger, wrist, and elbow arthroscopy, and arthritis reconstruction and joint replacement. A graduate of Harvard and Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr. Tang completed residency and fellowship training (in orthopedic surgery and hand/microvascular surgery, respectively) at UPMC in Pittsburgh. His research involves ligament healing and surgical reconstructions.
Anne L. Taylor, MD, professor of medicine and associate dean for faculty affairs at the University of Minnesota medical school, will join P&S on November 23 as vice dean for academic affairs. Her prior academic and administrative positions were at U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Case Western and the University Hospitals of Cleveland. A Hofstra graduate, she completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and a clinical cardiology fellowship at the U. of Chicago, with cardiovascular research training at Johns Hopkins and the U. of Iowa. Her extensive research has focused on cardiovascular diseases in minorities and women.
Howard Worman, MD, has been promoted from associate professor to professor of medicine-digestive & liver diseases, pathology & cell biology.
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COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS
Richard C.E. Anderson, MD, assistant professor of neurological surgery, has received a one-year, $50,000 Irving Institute clinical and translational research grant for study of the cell adhesion molecule CD24 and its potential as a target for antibody-based immunotherapy of pediatric medulloblastoma, the most common primary central nervous system tumor arising in childhood.
Barbara Barlow, MD, professor of surgery at Harlem Hospital, professor of epidemiology (Mailman), and director, Injury Free Coalition for Kids, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has received nearly $700,000 for playground construction projects this year from the Allstate Foundation. An independent charitable organization funded by contributions from Allstate Corporation subsidiaries, the Foundation is also providing $112,000 in grants to support community-based teen safe driving programs developed by Coalition affiliates.
Andrea Califano, PhD, professor of biomedical informatics, and Aris Floratos, PhD, executive research director of the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, have been awarded a two-year, $888,000 grant by the Serious Adverse Event Consortium (SAEC). Funds will be used to analyze genome-wide data on single nucleotide polymorphisms, with the goal of identifying and validating DNA variants useful in predicting the risk of drug-related serious adverse events.
Huai Y. Cheng, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine, division of geriatric medicine & aging (Allen Pavilion), has received a three-year, $192,000 geriatric academic career award from HHS/Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Health Professions. Dr. Cheng will use funds to initiate an educational program for CUMC staff in teaching evidence-based geriatric medicine (EBM), focusing on appraising relevant therapeutic trials and improving the translation of knowledge to the treatment of older adults.
Together with a consortium involving Mayo Clinic and UCLA, Raphael Clynes, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and microbiology, has received a three-year, $585,000 award from the Charles A. Dana Foundation for work on experimental cancer therapeutics (inducing active immunity in cancer patients undergoing passive immunotherapy with anti-tumor antibodies).
E. Sander Connolly, MD, associate professor, neurological surgery, has been awarded an added $1.5 million by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for ongoing study of the complement cascade (a biological system that clears pathogens from an organism) as a target for therapeutic intervention against progressive cell death often seen after stroke.
Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD, Percy & Joanne Uris Professor of Clinical Medicine and director, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, has received a $2 million MERIT award from NCI to extend studies of a novel biological mechanism he uncovered—aberrant somatic hypermutation—which may be responsible for extensive genetic damage in AIDS-related non-Hodgkins lymphoma. MERIT Awards provide long-term support to investigators with impressive records of scientific achievement in research. Fewer than 5 percent of NIH-funded researchers receive them.
Suzette Evans, PhD, professor of clinical neuroscience (in psychiatry), has been awarded $2.1 million over four years by the National Institute of Drug Abuse to study sex differences in stress and impulsivity in cocaine abusers.
Aris Floratos, PhD, executive research director of the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, has received a one-year, $338,00 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Funds will be used to deploy and extend information technologies produced by NCI's caBIG initiative to support the storage, management and analysis of clinical and genomic array data.
Henry N. Ginsberg, MD, Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine - Preventative Medicine & Nutrition, and director, Irving Center for Clinical Research, has received a supplemental $242,000 from the National Center for Research Resources for an ongoing study using investigator networks to translate research findings into clinical practice at the community level.
Ira Goldberg, MD, Dickinson W. Richards Jr. Professor of Medicine, has received two postdoctoral fellowship awards from the American Diabetes Association. A two-year fellowship will allow Dr. Goldberg to probe the effects of diabetes on the heart and blood vessels. A four-year award will facilitate study of how prevention of fat uptake from blood into fatty tissues alters obesity and insulin actions.
Wei Gu, PhD, professor of pathology (Institute for Cancer Genetics), has received $1.5 million over five years from the NCI to examine the role of HAUSP in the activation and stabilization of the tumor suppressor gene p53. HAUSP is a subgroup of enzymes that remove ubiquitin, the protein that marks others for destruction and degradation.
Gregg Gundersen, PhD, professor of pathology & cell biology, was awarded a four-year, $1.4 million renewal by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for ongoing study of how integrins—a major family of cellular adhesion receptors—work with the microtubule cytoskeleton to coordinate cell migration.
Wayne Hendrickson, PhD, University Professor, department of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has been awarded a supplementary $196,000 by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for ongoing work clarifying the structural biology of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), a family of transmembrane receptors that sense molecules outside the cell and activate cellular responses. These are implicated in mood disorders.
Ulrich Jorde, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine – cardiology, has received a four-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study lipoprotein oxidation and utilization during exercise in congestive heart failure.
Arthur Karlin, PhD, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, and Neurology, and Director of the Center for Molecular Recognition, has received a five-year, $7.2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study allosteric modulation of cardiovascular ion channels and a four-year $1.2 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the modulation of the BK voltage- and calcium-gated potassium channel by its auxiliary subunits.
Robert S. Kass, PhD, Hosack and Alumni Professor of Pharmacology, and chair of pharmacology, has been awarded $1.8 million over five years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Research will focus on the biophysical and structural basis of cardiac arrhythmias caused, in part, by inherited mutations of the SCN5A gene. Novel mutation-targeted therapeutic strategies for arrhythmia management will also be sought.
Angel V. Peterchev, PhD, instructor in clinical psychiatry, is the recipient of $420,000 over two years from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. A novel, functionally improved device for delivery of transcranial magnetic stimulation—a technique shown to be promising in the study of the brain and in the treatment of psychiatric and neurological illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia – will be developed.
Dorien Schrijvers, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow, department of medicine –molecular medicine, has received a one-year, $20,000 grant from the Fulbright Scholars Program’s Commission of Educational Exchange, to continue study of the relationship between cell death and insulin resistance, examining their implications for destabilization and progression of atherosclerotic plaques.
Tracie Seimon, PhD, associate research scientist, department of medicine, has been awarded a three-year, $198,000 scientist development grant by the American Heart Association. Dr. Seimon will investigate how pattern recognition receptors—proteins expressed by immune cells that recognize pathogens—contribute to the programmed cell death of specific immune cell types known as macrophages and ultimately to atherosclerosis.
Elizabeth Shane, MD, professor of medicine – endocrinology, has received $572,000 over three years from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to evaluate a new noninvasive imaging technology—ultra-high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography— as a biomarker of bone strength in postmenopausal women with and without chronic kidney disease.
A multidisciplinary team led by Ira Tabas, MD, PhD, professor and vice chairman of research, department of medicine, Alan Tall, MD, professor of medicine, division of molecular medicine, and Domenico Accili, MD, professor of medicine and co-director of research, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, has received a $10.8 million, five-year grant from NIH to investigate why people with type 2 diabetes are susceptible to heart disease, the leading cause of death for those with diabetes.
C. Dominique Toran-Allerand, MD, ScD, professor of pathology & cell biology, obstetrics/gynecology and neurology, has received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the impact of 17alpha-estradiol, a novel estrogen, on new neuron formation in the adult hippocampus, exploring its potential as an antidepressant. She is also recipient of a four-year, $1 million National Institute on Aging grant, enabling her to further studies of the protective effects of estradiols in Alzheimer’s disease.
Dennis Vitkup, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical informatics, has received a three-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Funds will be used to develop new methods for reconstruction and analysis of cellular metabolic networks in hundreds of sequenced organisms.
Howard Worman, MD, professor of medicine-digestive & liver diseases, pathology & cell biology, will receive $1.8 million over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, to study nucleocytoplasmic interactions and dynamics in the childhood genetic disorder Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy. Gregg Gundersen, PhD, professor of anatomy & cell biology (in pathology & cell biology), is a co-investigator on the project.
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Robyn Gershon, DrPH, professor of clinical sociomedical sciences, received $75,000 from the National Science Foundation to study knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions of essential personnel with respect to avian influenza and SARS outbreaks.
Sherry Glied, PhD, professor and chair, health policy & management, is the recipient of $100,000 in funds from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to provide cost-benefit analyses regarding mental health issues.
Janlori Goldman, JD, research scientist, received $117,000 from the Health Privacy Project for work on health privacy, public health and civil liberties, and protecting privacy and patient autonomy in networked health information environments.
Jane Knitzer, EdD, clinical professor of population & family health and director, National Center for Children in Poverty, received $45,000 from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation to explore use of home visits to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable families.
Paula Madrid, PhD, associate research scientist, National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), received $25,000 from the National Philanthropic Trust, an independent public charity, for the testimony therapy initiatives of NCDP’s Resiliency Project, which she directs. The Project provides services to mediate mental and behavioral consequences of 9/11 on adults, children, families, and communities.
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH, professor of clinical sociomedical sciences, received $115,000 from the American Legacy Foundation (ALF) to publish a history of the organization’s priority populations initiative (PPI) in peer-reviewed literature. The ALF, founded in 1999 with tobacco-industry master settlement funds, is an independent public health foundation with national programs that address health effects of smoking. PPI addresses tobacco use in communities that have disproportionate health burdens from smoking and often have less access to tobacco cessation and prevention services.
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Masthead photos: (from L. to R.: Irwin Mandel, Riccardo Dalla-Favera, Robyn Gershon, Timothy Pedley)
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