| CUMC Celebrates - March 11, 2009 | Submit news for future issues |
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Dear Colleagues, We are committed to Columbia University Medical Center's world-renowned faculty and furthering their contributions in the health sciences. This month, CUMC is proud to observe Women's History Month by honoring the innovative research, dedicated teaching, and unparalleled patient care provided by our many women faculty. Only 160 years ago, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman awarded a medical degree in the United States. Today, women are excelling in medicine, and women faculty at CUMC have made exceptional accomplishments. In the past year alone, women at CUMC have been rewarded for achievements in genetics and biostatistics; they have redefined the field of public health through the creation of innovative models of prevention, care, and treatment for HIV and tuberculosis; they have developed novel teaching practices in dental medicine; and they have developed new techniques for the surveillance of the spread of hospital diseases, to name just a few of their advances. To continue our support for and celebration of women's accomplishments in healthcare careers, the Office of the Executive Vice President is sponsoring a number of events over the next few months to support and advance women at CUMC. Please join us for one or all of these events: | |||
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Monday, March 16, 4:30-6 p.m. Careers in Academic Medicine - A Networking Event for Women This program, co-sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs, will provide an opportunity for women medical students to connect with women faculty members to talk about the rewards and challenges of careers in academic medicine. Register for Women in Academic Medicine. Thursday, March 19, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Mentoring 101 Finding your way to a career in academic medicine can be confusing as you balance research, clinical, teaching, and service responsibilities while advancing your career. Mentors can be critical in achieving success and maintaining balance. While some mentoring relationships are assigned and others are cultivated outside of formal programs, strategies for success apply to all mentor-mentee relationships. This workshop will introduce some of these strategies and provide materials to use in informal or formal mentoring relationships to ensure that both the mentee and the mentor make the most of their time together. Register for Mentoring 101. Thursday, March 26, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Balancing Work & Life: Services to Support You Careers in academic medicine are challenging, and working in an academic medical center can often feel as though you have little time left for family. These sessions will provide information about institutional support available to you as you work to create a work-life balance. Register for Balancing Work & Life. Thursday, April 23, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Balancing Work and Life: A Panel and Discussion This panel discussion will build on the March 26 presentation by offering an opportunity to discuss the challenges of balancing work and life with several faculty members who have successfully navigated these challenges. Register for Balancing Work and Life: A Panel and Discussion. | |||
To learn more and register for these and other events, visit the program calendar at the Academic Affairs website.
NEW INITIATIVES | |||
| P&S In conjunction with the narrative medicine program at P&S, Columbia University's School of Continuing Education this fall will begin a master of science degree in narrative medicine, the clinical discipline that enhances the practice of doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists and other caregivers with the knowledge of how to interpret and respond to patients' stories. The new master's is the first degree offered by the narrative medicine program at Columbia, which was founded by Rita Charon, MD, professor of clinical medicine-general medicine, to fill a need for meaningful ways to encourage patients and caregivers to voice their experiences. | |||
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APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS & RECRUITMENTS | |||
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P&S
Wayne Hendrickson, PhD, University Professor and professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, was also appointed to the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics in July 2008 and named the Violin Family Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, effective Dec. 1, 2008. Dr. Hendrickson, a leading authority in the structure and biological activity of macromolecules, participated in a groundbreaking study illustrating how HIV evades the human immune system, helped identify the HIV protein gp120, and conducted studies establishing the technique known as the anomalous dispersion effect as the preferred method for determining protein crystal structure, effectively making the structural genomics concept an experimental reality. | |||
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AWARDS & HONORS | |||
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P&S
The Healthy Living Project, a program designed and evaluated by the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies of Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for inclusion in the 2008 Compendium of Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Interventions. To be included, programs must be scientifically proven to reduce HIV or STD-related risk behaviors or promote safer behaviors. The Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars Program has named recipients of its 2009 awards, designed to support physician-scientists in bringing new treatments to patients. This is the second year of the program, which provides four young faculty members with stipends of $60,000 for up to three years to conduct translational research. This year's recipients:
Richard N. Rosenthal, MD, professor of clinical psychiatry, received the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry's 2008 Founders' Award at its 19th annual meeting and symposium, held in December in Boca Raton, Fla. He was selected for his significant and outstanding contributions to addiction science, education, treatment, and public policy. Dr. Rosenthal also delivered the keynote address at the meeting, discussing the pharmacology and ethics of performance-enhancing drug use by normal, healthy individuals. Peter Wyer, MD, associate clinical professor of medicine, has founded a new section at the New York Academy of Medicine. The Section on Evidence-Based Health Care, an outgrowth of a collaboration led by Dr. Wyer within the Academy's Section on Emergency Medicine since 1997, will pursue a broad agenda of multi-specialty and multi-disciplinary practice and training initiatives. Dr. Wyer will co-chair the new section. Richard G. Younge, MD, MPH, assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Center for Family and Community Medicine, chaired the planning subcommittee for the New York State Department of Health Minority Health Council's first New York State Health Disparities Summit, held in Albany in January. Dr. Younge also served as the moderator of the event, which brought together more than 200 public health leaders to begin the process of developing a comprehensive plan to eliminate health inequities in the state. MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH A Mailman School report has been used as the basis for a congressional resolution outlining a new framework for women's health and making women's health needs a key part of the national health reform debate. Nearly 40 public health school deans have endorsed the report, which was co-authored by Wendy Chavkin, MD, professor of clinical population and family health. John Santelli, MD, MPH, chair and professor of population & family health, has been named chair of the American Public Health Association's science board. The board is composed of 16 members, representing five core areas of public health (behavioral and social sciences; biomedical sciences and clinical practice; environmental and occupational health; epidemiology and statistics; and health management and social policy), who participate in the association's policy development process by ensuring that recommendations are evidence-based. The chair is appointed on an annual basis. COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE Courtney H. Chinn, DDS, MPH, assistant professor of dental medicine (in community health), is one of two dental professionals chosen to head the New York state leadership for the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists' Head Start Dental Home Initiative. The Dental Home Initiative is designed to provide Head Start and Early Head Start children with coordinated, family-centered, and continuously accessible oral health care. Six states currently participate in the program; another 12, including New York, have been selected for a spring launch. Plans are under way to eventually include all 50 states in the project. Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH, professor of clinical dental medicine, chair of the social and behavioral sciences section, and professor of clinical health policy & management (Mailman), chaired the most recent semi-annual meeting of the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce. The European-based taskforce, aligned with the World Health Organization and the World Dental Federation, was established four years ago in a coordinated global action to make tangible improvements in child oral health worldwide by 2025. | |||
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GRANTS | |||
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CUMC
The Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research Quality has awarded a $39,450 conference planning grant to an interdisciplinary team of CUMC researchers, including Patricia Stone, PhD, MPH, associate professor of nursing; Elaine Larson, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical and therapeutic research (Nursing) and epidemiology (Mailman); Sherry Glied, PhD, chair and professor of health policy & management (Mailman); and Lisa Saiman, MD, MPH, professor of clinical pediatrics (P&S). The conference, "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Changes in Reimbursement for Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs): Setting a Research Agenda," will bring together a group of approximately 30 national health policy experts and researchers to discuss the impact of CMS policy shifts on hospitals and potential responses to the change, as well as to develop a white paper on the subject. The conference will be co-sponsored by the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Antimicrobial Resistance at Columbia. P&S Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD, the Uris Professor of Pathology and of Genetics & Development and director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, received a $6.25 million Specialized Center of Research Program (SCOR) Award from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to support research on diffuse large B cell lymphoma, the most common form of human lymphoma. The program involves projects led by Dr. Dalla-Favera and Dr. Owen O'Connor, HICCC, Columbia University; Dr. Ari Melnick, Weill-Cornell Medical School; and Dr. R.S.K. Chaganti, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Wei Gu, PhD, professor of pathology in the Institute for Cancer Genetics, has received $1.6 million over five years from the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Gu will study the precise mechanisms by which two oncoproteins known as Mdm2 and Mdmx deactivate the tumor suppressor p53, with the overall goal of exploring their potential as therapeutic targets for cancer treatment. Wayne Hendrickson, PhD, University Professor, professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, and the Violin Family Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, has received a four-year $1.3 million extension of funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for an ongoing study of the structural biology of G-protein coupled receptors. Frequently implicated in mood disorders, GPCRs sense molecules outside the cell and activate cellular responses accordingly. Barry Honig, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has been awarded a $1.1 million renewal of research funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for ongoing computer studies on the structure and function of proteins. The results will be applied to the study of protein-protein interactions in human B cells. Richard Mayeux, MD, MS, the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Epidemiology, director of the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, and co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, has received a five-year $5.6 million MERIT (Method To Extend Research In Time) award extension from the National Institute on Aging to continue studies of the genetic epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease in Hispanics. The project has been funded by the NIA since December 1998. David Paik, MD, associate research scientist in ophthalmology and lecturer in medicine, has received a two-year $413,000 exploratory and development grant from the National Eye Institute. Using breakthrough technology that does not involve ultraviolet light exposure, Dr. Paik will work to develop a simple treatment for diseases of corneal destabilization, specifically keratoconus, a degenerative disorder in which the corneas become cone-shaped, substantially distorting vision, and keratectasias, abnormal protrusions of the corneas, occurring post-LASIK surgery. Alessandra Pernis-Lowell, MD, associate professor of medicine-molecular medicine, has been awarded a two-year $549,000 renewal of funds from the Alliance for Lupus Research to study the role of Rho GTPases, molecular switches that are implicated in many common cellular functions (including genetic expression and cell proliferation and death) in the development of lupus. Serge Przedborski, MD, PhD, the Page & William Black Professor of Neurology (in pathology and in the Center for Neurobiology & Behavior) and the co-director of the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease, has received a four-year $1.8 million continuation of funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to advance an ongoing study of pro-inflammatory enzymes in ALS. Using an animal model, Dr. Przedborski will attempt to build upon previous laboratory studies linking mutations in superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD-1) to the development of ALS, seeking to further clarify the nature of the toxic activity and its impact on motor neurons and working to demonstrate the precise molecular mechanisms involved. Dr. Przedborski also has received a $386,000 exploratory/development grant from NINDS for a new ALS drug discovery project. Under the auspices of this project, Dr. Przedborski will test a novel cell-based screen for ALS-fighting compounds, with the goal of identifying neuroprotective agents for successful treatment of the disease. MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Through a research project cooperative agreement, William T. Friedewald, MD, the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Clinical Professor of Epidemiology, interim chair of the Department of Epidemiology, clinical professor of biostatistics, and clinical professor of medicine-general medicine (P&S), has been awarded a $1.1 million supplement by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. Funds will support the data coordinating center of a traumatic brain injury clinical trials network. Andrew Rundle, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology, received $249,000 over two years from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine the association between the built environment (the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity and form the physical characteristics of a city) and childhood fitness and obesity in New York City. COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE Panos N. Papapanou, DDS, PhD, professor of dental medicine, chair of the Section of Oral and Diagnostic Sciences, and director of the Division of Periodontics, has received a $119,000 grant from Colgate-Palmolive to investigate gene expression signatures in gingival tissues during the development of bacterially induced inflammation. | |||
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CORRECTION | |||
| Jeremy Mao, DDS, PhD, professor of dental medicine-orthodontics, will headline the New York Academy of Dentistry's annual conference in February 2010, not 2009 as reported in the February issue. | |||
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Produced by the CUMC Department of Communications | 212-305-3900 | Previous issues
View newsletter on the web http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/celebrates/
Produced by the CUMC Department of Communications | 212-305-3900 | Previous issues
View newsletter on the web http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/celebrates/