The COPD Foundation, founded and chaired by Byron Thomashow, MD, clinical professor of medicine-pulmonary, allergy, and critical care, has joined forces with WebMD to launch the “Lung Health Check,” an educational platform to teach users the key symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their specific risks for developing lung disease. The site also suggests ways to prevent or manage illness and serves as a gateway to additional information and resources. The new partnership was announced at a press conference May 17 in San Diego at the American Thoracic Society’s annual meeting and international conference.

At the College of Dental Medicine’s May 21 graduation ceremonies, Sidney B. Eisig, DDS, the George Gutmann Professor of Clinical Craniofacial Surgery, director of the Division of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, and director and chairman of the Section of Hospital Dentistry, was presented with the 2009 Edward V. Zegarelli Award, given for dedicated and inspired teaching.

Lois Jackson, DDS, assistant clinical professor of dental medicine-pediatric dentistry, received a 2009 Columbia University Alumni Medal from Columbia University President Lee Bollinger at last month’s commencement exercises. She will be recognized again at an official ceremony and dinner at Low Library in early November.

Murray Schwartz, DDS, clinical professor of dental medicine-periodontics, was honored with the Allan J. Formicola Faculty Award at the College of Dental Medicine’s postdoctoral graduation ceremony June 12. He was chosen for his commitment to excellence in dental education and his many accomplishments in postdoctoral dental instruction.

Two P&S faculty members were honored by President Lee Bollinger at the Columbia University commencement this year. Wendy Chung, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics in medicine (molecular genetics), and Joseph Tenenbaum, MD, the Edgar Leifer Professor of Clinical Medicine, received 2009 Presidential Awards for Excellence In Teaching.  

The following faculty members were honored at this year’s P&S commencement ceremonies May 20:

• Eric J. Hall, PhD, DSc, professor emeritus of radiology and radiation oncology, and Alfred Jaretzki III, MD, professor emeritus of clinical surgery, received P&S Distinguished Service Awards for the preclinical years and clinical years, respectively.
  
  
• Jai Radhakrishnan, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine, received the Charles W. Bohmfalk Award for excellence in teaching students during their preclinical years. Deborah L. Cabaniss, MD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry, received the Bohmfalk Award for her accomplishments in clinical instruction.
  
  
• David Roye, MD, the St. Giles Foundation Professor of Clinical Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, was honored with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.
  
  
• Aniruddha Das, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, and Eric Greene, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, received Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Research Awards for the basic sciences. R. Graham Barr, MD, DrPH, the Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine, received a Lamport Award for clinical sciences.

Andrew Blitzer, MD, DDS, professor of clinical otolaryngology, received the prestigious de Roaldes Award from the American Laryngological Association. Established in 1907 and named for pioneering otolaryngologist Arthur Washington de Roaldes, the award recognizes accomplishments in laryngology. Dr. Blitzer, the association’s president-elect, also has been chosen for the presidency of the American Bronchoesophagological Society.

Four members of the Department of Neurology were elected to membership in the American Neurological Association, the oldest professional and scientific neurological organization worldwide. Thomas H. Brannagan III, MD, associate professor of clinical neurology; Lawrence J. Hirsch, MD, associate professor of clinical neurology; Pietro Mazzoni, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology; and Nikolaos Scarmeas, MD, associate professor of clinical neurology, will be inducted into the ANA during the association’s 134th annual meeting in October.

The Doris Duke Fellowship program at Columbia was well represented by its award-winning P&S student fellows this past year. At the 35th annual Eastern-Atlantic Student Research Forum, held in late February at the University of Miami, awards were received by Ryan Cassilly (best overall clinical science presentation), Leslie Lee (first place, outstanding clinical science oral presentation), and Catherine Forster (second place, outstanding clinical science oral presentation). Two months later, at the 50th annual National Student Research Forum in Galveston, Texas, five Doris Duke fellows, including repeat winners Leslie Lee (best poster presentation in cardiology, Oslerian Essay Award for Translational Research) and Catherine Forster (Oslerian Essay Award for Translational Research), were singled out for their work. Lamont Barlow received the prize for best poster presentation in oncology research, while Anthony Ding received a second place award for his oral presentation in surgery and orthopedic medicine. David Kent received two awards: best oral presentation in medical humanities and public health and second place for best oral presentation overall.

Nuria Flames, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow in biochemistry & molecular biophysics, is one of four stem cell scientists named to the New York Stem Cell Foundation’s Stanley and Fiona Druckenmiller Fellowship Program this year, joining a select group of 17 individuals statewide (which includes 2007 Druckenmiller Fellows Keiichi Inoue, PhD, associate research scientist in pathology & cell biology, and Darja Marolt, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow in biomedical engineering). Over the next three years, under the tutelage of Oliver Hobert, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, Dr. Flames will use fellowship funds to further her work developing innovative ways to produce dopaminergic neurons to treat Parkinson’s disease.

Wahida Karmally, DrPH, director of nutrition and associate research scientist in the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and special lecturer in the College of Dental Medicine, was elected to fellowship in the National Lipid Association, joining more than 150 physicians and allied healthcare professionals nationwide who have distinguished themselves among their peers for contributions to the field of lipidology. A nonprofit medical society with more than 3,500 members, the NLA works to prevent cardiovascular disease and reduce illness and deaths stemming from cholesterol and triglyceride disorders.

Andrew Marks, MD, professor and chair of physiology & cellular biophysics and the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Molecular Cardiology (in Medicine), was awarded an honorary degree by Amherst College at the school’s commencement ceremonies in May. He was recognized for “breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of heart disease and muscular dystrophy.” Dr. Marks is best known for identifying the drug used in the first drug-eluting coronary stents now commonly used in angioplasties.

In late May, Jay P. Mohr, MD, the Daniel Sciarra Professor of Neurology, became the first non-European recipient of the European Stroke Conference’s prestigious Johann Josef Wepfer Award, which recognizes scientific work in the field of cerebrovascular diseases and significant contributions to knowledge about treatment of acute stroke. He was also an honoree at the American Heart Association’s annual “Heart of the Hamptons” gala June 20.

Craig Smith, MD, the Calvin F. Barber Professor of Surgery and interim chair of surgery, has been named to the presidency of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Appointment to this position is one of the highest professional honors a cardiothoracic surgeon can achieve and represents years of excellence and commitment to the field. Dr. Smith is currently vice president of the organization and will assume the presidency in May 2011.

Magda Sobieszczyk, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine-infectious diseases, has been chosen to participate in the Association of American Medical Colleges 2009 professional development seminar for early career female medical faculty. The three-day program, designed for assistant professors who have potential for significant careers in academic medicine, focuses on career and management skills development. This year’s seminar is scheduled for mid-July in Washington, D.C.

Anne Taylor, MD, vice dean for academic affairs and professor of medicine-cardiology, was one of 15 individuals elected to the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars this year. Members of the JHU Society of Scholars are former postdoctoral fellows, postdoctoral degree recipients, house staff, and junior or visiting faculty who served at least a year at Johns Hopkins and gained distinction elsewhere for work in their respective fields. Dr. Taylor, a research fellow in JHU’s Department of Cardiology in the early 1980s, was officially inducted into the society at a May 20 ceremony in conjunction with the school’s commencement ceremonies.

Andrew Hull Yood, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, was honored in the spring with an award from the Dominican Medical Association. Cited for his commitment to the field of psychiatry and exemplary service to the Dominican community, Dr. Yood was recognized at the organization’s annual gala in April.

Mailman School of Public Health

Ana Abraido-Lanza, PhD, associate professor of sociomedical sciences, received the 2009 Mailman School of Public Health’s Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Abraido-Lanza was selected by this year’s graduating class for teaching abilities, mentorship abilities, and contributions to health policy, to community service, and to the advancement of public health education and research. She has contributed broadly to the CUMC community through her work as director of Mailman’s Initiative to Maximize Student Diversity and for her expertise in immigrant and Latino health issues. Dr. Abraido-Lanza received her award at the Mailman School’s 2009 commencement ceremonies May 19.

Wendy Chavkin, MD, professor of clinical population & family health and obstetrics & gynecology (P&S), was honored by the Public Health Association of New York City at its 2009 annual awards ceremony June 4. The association celebrates its commitment to improving the health of New York City residents and honors individuals and organizations for contributions to the field of public health.

Sherry Glied, PhD, professor and chair of health policy & management, received the Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize from the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health at George Washington University, the publisher of the journal Women’s Health Issues. The Gibbs Prize recognizes the best original research paper on women’s health care or health policy published in the journal during the year. Dr. Glied’s manuscript titled “Women’s Health Insurance Coverage: 1980-2005,” published in the January-February 2008 issue, was recognized as the best and most important journal entry of that year.

Grace Kodindo, MD, assistant clinical professor of population & family health, was awarded the prestigious Millennium Development Goal 3 Champion Torch in recognition of her efforts to secure comprehensive reproductive health care for women worldwide. Dr. Kodindo received her award at a May 4 ceremony in Copenhagen.

Three faculty members were honored with awards at this year’s commencement exercises May 20:

• Sally Aboelela, PhD, assistant professor of clinical nursing, received the Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Award, acknowledging her dedication to nursing education, exemplary teaching skills, and ability as a mentor to inspire students.
  
  
• Elaine Larson, RN, PhD, professor of pharmacological & therapeutic research and of epidemiology (Mailman), received the 2009 Dorothy H. and Thomas L. O’Neil Distinguished Faculty Award, which honors a faculty member who exemplifies nursing scholarship, educates with wisdom, mentors with grace, seeks answers to important clinical questions, and remains focused on the ultimate goal of quality patient care.
  
  
• Mary Tresgallo, DNP, MPH, was honored with the school’s Outstanding Attending Nurse Award for exceptional service to the School of Nursing and for her work educating and mentoring future generations of expert nurse clinicians.

Kavita Ahluwalia, DDS, MPH, assistant professor of clinical dental medicine-community health, has received a $50,000 continuation of funds by the American Legacy Foundation for a new project testing the deployment of home health care workers in tobacco control for seniors.

David Albert, DDS, MPH, associate professor of clinical dental medicine-community health, has received a $50,000 funding renewal from the New York State Department of Health for the College of Dental Medicine’s preventive dentistry program.

Laurence Abbott, PhD, the William Bloor Professor of Theoretical Neuroscience and professor of physiology & cellular biophysics (in biological sciences), received $656,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for an advanced graduate training program in theoretical neuroscience.

Asa Abeliovich, MD, associate professor of pathology & cell biology, has received $956,000 over three years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Funds will be used to address the key functions and roles of autophagy, a catalytic process involving the breakdown of cellular components via the digestive particles known as lysosomes, in the development of Parkinson’s disease. Building on earlier observations that have linked Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases with altered intracellular protein degradation, Dr. Abeliovich will examine whether defects in autophagy ultimately lead to key aspects of neurodegenerative pathology, including the accumulation of disease-associated proteins. 

Aniruddha Das, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, has been awarded $1.6 million over four years by the National Eye Institute. Dr. Das will work to characterize a novel mechanism of brain arousal that causes anticipatory blood flow into brain regions before expected neuronal activity. This signal challenges the current understanding of neuroimaging (including fMRI). Dr. Das’ goals are to understand this mechanism of arousal and to elucidate the physiological basis of neuroimaging signals. Findings may have significant public health implications for the understanding and treatment of attention-deficit disorder and related conditions and may help revolutionize how fMRI is processed and interpreted.

David Friedman, PhD, professor of clinical psychology (in psychiatry), has received a five-year $2.9 million award from the National Institute on Aging to examine the role of compensation, or the use of brain regions and processes not drawn upon by younger people, in handling the memory and intellectual problems associated with aging. Dr. Friedman will work to determine which types of older adults are likely to produce compensatory brain activity and the circumstances under which such compensation occurs. Findings are expected to shed light upon the reasons behind individual differences in age-related memory decline and the nature of the cognitive processes recruited when compensatory activity is engaged.

Michael D. Gershon, MD, professor of pathology & cell biology, has received a four-year $1.4 million extension of funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to further studies of neural control of gastrointestinal activity.

Michelle Gill, PhD, postdoctoral research scientist in biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has received a three-year $149,000 national research service award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to clarify how voltage gated sodium channels are inactivated in the body and how the malfunction of this process leads to disease. The work has potential implications for the treatment of cardiac arrythmias and epileptic seizures.

Oliver Hobert, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, has been awarded $1.6 million over five years by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Funds will support a genetic analysis of dopaminergic neuron specification in the C. elegans.

Andrew S. Kanter, MD, MPH, assistant professor of clinical biomedical informatics and of clinical epidemiology (Mailman), has received a three-year $1.2 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support the Columbia Global eHealth Program. Goals of the program are to design, implement, and evaluate information technology for health projects in the developing world, in addition to fostering collaboration in eHealth among the biomedical informatics and epidemiology departments and the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics & Development and department chair, has been awarded a five-year $2 million extension of funds by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to continue and expand his studies exploring the relationship of bone mass and gut-derived serotonin, a hormone that inhibits bone formation.

Jan Kitajewski, PhD, professor of clinical pathology in obstetrics & gynecology, and Carrie Shawber, PhD, associate research scientist in obstetrics & gynecology, have received a five-year $1.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. The funds will be used to explore the relationship between dysfunction in the Notch signaling pathway, an important cellular signaling system evident in most complex organisms, and lymphoangiogenesis, the development of new lymphatic vessels from pre-existing ones. Lymphoangiogenesis may play a role in tumor metastasis and the abnormal spread and proliferation of cells.

Frances R. Levin, MD, the Kennedy-Leavy Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, has received a $54,000 supplement from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for a clinical research fellowship program in substance abuse disorders, bringing the award’s overall total to $1.8 million.

Elan Louis, MD, professor of neurology and of epidemiology (Mailman), has received $3 million over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to support a study probing the environmental epidemiology of essential tremor.

Benjamin Ohlstein, MD, PhD, assistant professor of genetics & development, has received $1.6 million over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders. Dr. Ohlstein will work to develop a paradigm of human intestinal stem cells and their progeny using the relatively simple but functionally relevant Drosophila midgut as model system. Goals are to determine the cellular and molecular mechanisms that maintain Drosophila intestinal stem cells; to identify the effects of nutrients, insulin signaling, and developmental signaling pathways on stem cell division, stability and differentiation; and to determine how intercellular signals and environmental factors control the differentiation of enteroendocrine cells. This research may have significant ramifications for the understanding and treatment of numerous human digestive and endocrine system disorders, including diabetes, intestinal cancers, and malabsorption syndromes.

Elizabeth Olson, PhD, assistant professor of otolaryngology/head & neck surgery and of biomedical engineering, has been awarded a $75,000 supplement by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to support her studies of auditory mechanics using measurements of pressure and motion.

Connie Woo, PhD, postdoctoral research scientist in medicine-molecular medicine, has received a research fellowship from the Heart and Stroke Research Foundation of Canada. Dr. Woo will use the fellowship to further studies of the role of innate immunity in stress-induced apoptosis and plaque progression in atherosclerosis. Dr. Woo will undertake the work in the laboratory of Ira Tabas, MD, PhD, the Richard M. Stock Professor of Medicine.

Mailman School of Public Health

Melissa Begg, ScD, professor of clinical biostatistics, has been awarded $412,000 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for the Biostatistics Enrichment Summer Training Diversity Program. The program – BEST – provides research and educational opportunities in biostatistics, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary disease for underrepresented populations in hopes of building a more diverse research workforce by influencing career choices.

Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology and of medicine (P&S) and director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, has received $3.9 million over four years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Funds will be dedicated to work with the Enhance Prevention in Couples HIV/AIDS program in Lesotho, South Africa, permitting the evaluation of combined biomedical and behavioral interventions to prevent HIV transmission in HIV discordant couples.

Mary Gamble, PhD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences, has received $2.4 million over five years from the National Cancer Institute to test the use of folic acid and creatine to lower blood arsenic levels. The goal is to reduce risk for arsenic-induced health outcomes that include premalignant skin lesions; cancers of the skin, lung, bladder and liver; and non-carcinogenic heath outcomes such as cardiovascular disease. Chronic arsenic exposure affects more than 140 million people worldwide.

Andrew Rundle, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology, has been awarded $1.1 million over two years by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders to examine correlations between neighborhood environments and obesity disparity rates in New York City.

Yuanjia Wang, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics (in psychiatry), has received a two-year $132,000 award from the National Institute on Aging to develop novel statistical methods for longitudinal genetic studies.

Under the sponsorship of Nancy Reame, PhD, the Mary Dickey Lindsay Professor of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, doctoral student Kelli Hall received a $41,000 research fellowship award from the National Institute of Nursing Research to complete her dissertation study, titled “Psychological Symptoms and Oral Contraceptive Continuation in Young Minority Women.”

CLARIFICATION: In the May issue, Dr. Rachel Moresky’s grant from the GE Foundation was listed as a P&S award. Dr. Moresky has appointments in both P&S and the Mailman School of Public Health, but the grant is for a public health project and will be administered through the Mailman School.