| CUMC Celebrates - November 12, 2007 |
Lee Goldman, M.D.
Executive Vice President, Health and Biomedical Sciences
PROMOTIONS, TENURE, PROFESSORSHIPS
GRANTS
John Bilezikian, MD, chief of endocrinology division, director of metabolic bone diseases program, and professor of pharmacology, has been appointed Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine. Dr. Bilezikian, a graduate of Harvard and P&S and a faculty member since 1975, is internationally known for his research on metabolic bone diseases, particularly in the areas of osteoporosis and primary hyperparathyroidism. From 1979-2004, he ranked among the top five percent of NIH grantees in the United States. He has edited or co-edited more than 20 textbooks and volumes and has published over 500 articles over the course of his career.
Christine Chen, ScD, has been promoted to associate professor of clinical occupational therapy. Dr. Chen previously held academic appointments at Northwestern, SUNY Buffalo, and NYU. Her research interests include outcome measurement and instrument development, application of psychometric theories to outcome assessments, and effectiveness of rehabilitation services.
Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, chair of genetics & development and the Paul A. Marks Professor in the Basic Sciences, has been awarded tenure. Dr. Karsenty, a leader at the forefront of the skeletal biology field, has made major contributions to the understanding of genetic and degenerative bone diseases. He recently authored a groundbreaking study identifying bone as an integral part of the endocrine system.
William B. Macaulay, Jr., MD, director, Center for Hip and Knee Replacement and professor of clinical orthopedic surgery, has been named the first Anne Youle Stein Professor of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery. A 1992 P&S graduate, Dr. Macaulay has been a faculty member since 1999. He has been prominently featured in the New York Times and by CBS News as one of the nation's leaders in hip and knee replacement and hip resurfacing.
Stanley J. Myers, MD, former vice chair of rehabilitation medicine, has been named the A. David Gurewitsch Professor Emeritus of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine. Dr. Myers has been a faculty member since 1969; his areas of clinical and research expertise include neuromuscular disease, aerospace medicine, muscular dystrophy, and spinal injury.
Lawrence Shapiro, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmic science (in ophthalmology) and biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has been awarded tenure. A structural biologist, Dr. Shapiro focuses on understanding intercellular adhesion, a function that underlies the formation of connections between cells in tissues and in neural circuits.
Michael Sisti, MD, co-director, Center for Radiosurgery, NYPH, has been named the first James G. McMurtry Associate Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery (in Otolaryngology/Head/Neck Surgery). A graduate of the Cooper Union School of Engineering and P&S - and one of only a few neurosurgeons with background in engineering - Dr. Sisti specializes in treating malignant, benign, and functional brain tumors using Gamma Knife and fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery technologies.
M. Elizabeth Sublette, MD, PhD, has been promoted to assistant professor of clinical psychiatry. Previously a research fellow in child psychiatry and neuroscience, she studies the role of fatty acids in mood disorders and suicide risk. She received an MD/PhD from SUNY Health Science Center, completed a psychiatry residency at North Shore/Long Island Jewish Hospital, and headed the affective disorders inpatient unit at Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY. She was appointed a NARSAD young investigator earlier this year.
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Richard Baer, PhD, professor of pathology in the Institute for Cancer Genetics, has been granted a five-year, $2.4 million extension of funding by the NCI to continue a long-standing cancer biology training program for scholars planning cancer research careers.
Truman Brown, PhD, professor of radiology and Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded $150,000 by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to develop software for the integration of metabolic information into the neuroimaging technique known as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
Kenneth M. Carpenter, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychology (in psychiatry), has received a five-year, $905,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to explore and develop an experimental model of how human language and cognitive processes can affect or promote behavioral change during treatment.
James Cimino, MD, professor of biomedical informatics and medicine, has received two grants from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). A three-year $402,000 grant will fund creation of a management system to promote interface between medical librarians at academic institutions and the systems personnel who manage infobuttons, context-specific links placed in clinical information networks that retrieve information from online health resources. A two-year, $337,000 grant will allow development of new, more effective search strategies for use of the Unified Medical Language System's metathesaurus, an electronic vocabulary database managed by NLM that contains information on biomedical and health-related concepts.
Davangere P. Devanand, MD, professor of clinical psychiatry and neurology, has received a $4.1 million five-year continuation of funding from the National Institute on Aging for a long-term study of patients with mild cognitive impairment and healthy comparison subjects to evaluate clinical, neuropsychological, olfactory, brain imaging and abnormal protein markers of likely conversion to Alzheimer's disease.
Charles Emala, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology, is the recipient of a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Dr. Emala will explore novel cellular signaling pathways in airway smooth muscle that may reverse bronchospasm in asthmatic and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patients.
Dennis Lee Fowler, MD, U.S. Surgical Professor of Clinical Surgery, has received a three-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to develop an insertable robotic effector platform and integrate it with a remotely controlled camera system for minimal access surgery.
Christian Habeck, PhD, assistant professor of neurology in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, has been granted $1.6 million in funds over five years by the National Institute on Aging to test the combined use of multivariate analysis statistical methods and arterial spin labeling MRI, a relatively new type of MRI imaging technique, in the detection of Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages.
Dawn Hershman, MD, Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine (P&S) and Epidemiology (Mailman), has been awarded $295,000 over two years by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to design interventional strategies for improvement of post-treatment care for Latina breast cancer survivors. Focus is on overcoming and understanding barriers to effective treatment and promoting better adherence within this population to lifestyle, screening, surveillance, and pharmacological guidelines.
Shunichi Homma, MD, Margaret Milliken Hatch Professor of Medicine, and associate chief, cardiology division, has received a two-year, $14 million continuation of funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a large clinical trial comparing warfarin versus aspirin in treatment of patients with low left ventricular ejection fraction.
Jonathan Javitch, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology (in the Center for Molecular Recognition and in physiology & cellular biophysics), has been awarded $615,000 over five years by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study the molecular mechanisms of drug abuse, focusing on how psychostimulants (e.g., cocaine and amphetamines) act upon the dopamine system.
Howard B. Lieberman, PhD, professor, radiation oncology, Center for Radiological Research (P&S) and professor, environmental health sciences (Mailman), has been awarded a five-year, $1.8 million NCI renewal to further study the activities of HRAD9, a gene known to promote survival and genomic integrity after radiation or chemical exposure. The possible roles of HRAD9 in prostate cancer, specifically as a transcription factor or regulator of cell cycle progression, will be examined.
Jennifer Manly, PhD, associate professor of neuropsychology (in neurology, the Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute), is the recent recipient of $7.4 million over five years from the National Institute on Aging. Funds will be used to probe the genetic epidemiology of non-familial Alzheimer's disease in African-Americans, with emphasis on potential modification of genetic risk for AD by cardiovascular risk factors and cerebrovascular disease.
Igor Matushansky, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine - oncology, has been awarded a two-year, $110,000 NCI grant to explore whether the signaling pathway known as Wnt/beta-catenin has tumor suppressor capabilities in high-grade undifferentiated sarcomas. It is hoped that by elucidating this signaling pathway's role in the development of sarcomas - a family of cancers historically unresponsive to established treatments - novel therapeutic options will also be identified.
Alfred I. Neugut, MD, PhD, Myron M. Studner Professor of Cancer Research in Medicine and professor of epidemiology (Mailman), has received a five-year, $2.3 million renewal of funding from the NCI for CUMC's training program in cancer-related population sciences.
Owen O'Connor, MD, PhD, assistant professor of clinical medicine - hematology and medical oncology; director, lymphoid development and malignancy program, Herbert Irving Cancer Center; and chief, lymphoma service, has been awarded $1 million over three years by the FDA to lead and conduct an international, registration-directed multi-center Phase II study of the novel antifolate pralatrexate in patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphoma.
Konstantin Petrukhin, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology, has received a two-year, $201,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. A novel substance for the protection of retinal photoreceptors will be sought, with an overall goal of working towards identifying effective treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the most common form of blindness in the US.
Vincent Racaniello, PhD, Higgins Professor of Microbiology, has been awarded a five-year $1.7 million renewal by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to extend studies of the human rhinovirus. He will work to establish a reliable mouse model of the common cold, clarify how the virus replicates, and identify new therapeutic targets.
James E. Rothman, PhD, Clyde '56 and Helen Wu Professor of Physiology (Chemical Biology), department of physiology & cellular biophysics, has received a one-year, $201,000 supplement from the National Human Genome Research Institute/NIH Roadmap Initiative, further supporting the Molecular Libraries Screening Centers Network Center at Columbia.
Michael Shelanski, MD, PhD, Delafield Professor of Pathology (Center for Neurobiology and Behavior and in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain) and chairman, department of pathology, has received a supplemental $161,000 in funds from the National Institute on Aging for the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia.
Jingshi Shen, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow, department of physiology & cellular biophysics, has been awarded a two-year, $180,000 grant by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases. Dr. Shen studies, at the molecular level, the specifics of how glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) is translocated within fat and muscle cells to facilitate sugar uptake. Imbalances in this process may lead to type-2 diabetes.
Joanna Steinglass, MD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry, is a recent recipient of $886,000 in funds over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health. Insights into the cognitive neuroscience behind anorexia nervosa - particularly, whether patients with this disorder have learning disturbances that render them especially vulnerable to the disease - will be sought.
Alan Tall, MD, Tilden-Weger-Bieler Professor of Medicine, molecular medicine division, and professor of physiology & cellular biophysics, has received $2.1 million over four years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the molecular mechanisms responsible for the migration and extrusion of HDL cholesterol from macrophages (cells that ingest pathogens) to apolipoprotein A-1, which has been associated with reduction of arterial plaque. Results are expected to yield greater mechanistic insights into the atherosclerotic process and its cardiovascular complications.
Myrna M. Weissman, PhD, professor of psychiatry (P&S) and epidemiology (Mailman), and chief, division of epidemiology, NY State Psychiatric Institute, has received a four-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to confirm previous associations between parental remission from depression and psychological and behavioral improvements in their offspring. It is hoped that corroboration of this link will lead to a highly effective non-pharmacological strategy to help treat symptomatic children of depressed individuals.
Ping Wu, PhD, assistant professor of clinical epidemiology (in psychiatry & Mailman), has received a $50,000 supplement from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for his studies of risk and protective factors for and against Ecstasy abuse in young people, as well as trends and co-existing disease patterns to characterize this epidemic.
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Leslie L. Davidson, MD, professor of clinical epidemiology (Mailman) and clinical pediatrics (P&S), has been awarded $2.6 million over five years to study how children with neurodevelopmental disorders in South Africa are affected cognitively, socially, and functionally by the prevalent health issues (e.g., HIV/AIDS), socioeconomic stresses, barriers to care, and other environmental and psychosocial factors in their country.
Sherry Glied, PhD, professor and chair, health policy & management, has been awarded $1.7 million in funds over five years by the National Institute of Nursing Research. An analysis of the hospital costs of antibiotic resistance, and its distribution among payers, will be performed.
Jennifer Hirsch, PhD, associate professor of sociomedical sciences, is the recipient of a five-year, $2.5 million award for the Social Science Training and Research (STAR) Partnership, which will spearhead collaboration between the department of sociomedical sciences and Hanoi Medical University. Through in-country training and collaborative research, the STAR Partnership will create and sustain a national center of excellence for social science approaches to the study of HIV prevention, treatment, and care in Vietnam.
Dorothy Hung, PhD, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences, has received a five-year, $531,000 grant from the HHS/Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The project will investigate organizational and financial strategies for improving the quality of preventive services and behavior change interventions in primary care settings.
Victoria Raveis, PhD, associate professor of clinical sociomedical sciences, has been awarded $167,000 in supplemental funds by the NCI. Funds, which are earmarked for the training and research mentorship of a minority social scientist, will go towards an ongoing research project to provide problem-solving, skill-based training for low-income familial caregivers caring for older post-treatment cancer patients. The program focuses on disease management and care-provision issues that may emerge during cancer survivorship.
Patrick Wilson, PhD, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences, has received a four-year, $963,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STDS and TB Prevention, for a minority HIV/AIDS research initiative (MARI). The MARI project will explore the social and situational circumstances in which young black men who have sex with men meet same-sex partners and engage in sexual behaviors. End goal is to achieve greater understanding of the contextual factors associated with risky sexual behavior in this population.
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Kristine M. Gebbie, RN, DrPH, Elizabeth Standish Gill Professor of Nursing, is the recipient of a $1.1 million grant over five years from the National Institute of Nursing Research, funding CUMC's interdisciplinary research and training program in reducing antimicrobial resistance. Dr. Gebbie also recently received a three-year, $240,000 award from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for public health law collaborations on oral health issues.
Patricia Stone, PhD, MPH, MS, associate professor, has been awarded $1.5 million over three years by the National Institute of Nursing Research to update earlier studies of the long-term health and economic costs of hospital-associated infections. Results will inform future efforts to establish effective infection control guidelines, improve patient outcomes, and reduce hospital infection rates. Dr. Stone is also recipient of a two-year, $470,000 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In a collaboration with Columbia's business school, she will explore the use of "queuing theory", a mathematical analysis of wait times for service, to inform nursing staff decisions in the hospital and help improve the quality of bedside nursing. These research results will also guide development of hospital information technology systems.
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Masthead photos: (from L. to R.: Spencer Amory, Jennifer Hirsch, Patricia Stone, Shinuchi Homma)
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