| CUMC Celebrates - October 10, 2007 |
Lee Goldman
EVP & Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences & Medicine
GRANTS
College of Physicians & Surgeons
Mailman School of Public Health
School of Nursing
GIFTS
College of Physicians & Surgeons
Mailman School of Public Health
College of Dental Medicine
GRANTS
Alexander Banks, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow in medicine–endocrinology, is the recipient of $101,000 over two years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for his work on the role of the longevity proteins known as Sirtuins in regulating metabolism through the Forkhead family of transcription factors.
Timothy Bestor, PhD, professor of genetics & development, has received a two-year, $362,000 grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute. Funds will be used to develop and apply new technologies for profiling the human genome’s patterns of methylation (substitution or attachment of methyl groups to specific positions in the genome) to identify the methylation abnormalities that occur in breast cancer.
Kalyani Bharadwaj, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow in medicine – preventive medicine & nutrition, has been awarded a two-year, $80,000 postdoctoral fellowship by the American Heart Association (Heritage Affiliate). Funds will be used to study the pathways of cardiac lipid accumulation in lipotoxic cardiomyopathy, a weakening or unfavorable change in the heart muscle due to elevated levels of fat in the heart.
William S. Blaner, PhD, professor of nutritional medicine – preventive medicine and nutrition, has received a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He will further clarify the molecular and cellular processes necessary to facilitate retinoid metabolism and storage in the liver.
Yun-Beom Choi, MD, PhD, instructor in neurology, has received a five-year, $843,000 career development award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study molecular mechanisms behind development and maintenance of key structural changes associated with long-term memory storage. The interaction of two cell adhesion molecules linked to autism (neurexin and neuroligin), as well as CASK, a scaffolding protein found in synapses, will be examined to help clarify this process.
Wendy Chung, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics in medicine, received a three-year, $405,000 clinical scientist development award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support her research in identification of breast cancer susceptibility genes.
Katherine Crew, MD, assistant professor of medicine, has been awarded a $375,000 early career award by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She will evaluate whether high doses of vitamin D can reduce breast density - an important predictor of breast cancer susceptibility - in women who are at elevated risk for the disease. She also received a three-year career development award (American Society of Clinical Oncology Foundation), a five-year mentored research scholar award (ACS), and two one-year pilot awards (Jean Sindab African American Breast Cancer Project, Women at Risk Breast Cancer Program) for her work on vitamin D and its role in breast cancer.
Richard Deckelbaum, MD, Robert R. Williams Professor of Nutrition (in pediatrics), professor of epidemiology (Mailman), and director, Institute of Human Nutrition, was awarded a supplemental $78,000 over two years for graduate training program in nutrition.
Thomas G. Diacovo, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics & pathology and director of neonatal and critical care research, division of neonatology, was granted $750,000 by NYSTAR (NY State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation). He will develop and test potential anticoagulant drugs and non-invasive imaging techniques to locate clots within the body, using genetically altered mice developed in his laboratory.
Emily Dimango, MD, assistant professor of medicine–pulmonary, allergy & critical care, has received a three-year, $600,000 award from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, the drug discovery/development subsidiary of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She will study the effect of proton pump inhibitors on respiratory exacerbations in cystic fibrosis.
Jean Gautier, PhD, associate professor of genetics & development (Institute for Cancer Genetics), received a five-year, $1.4 million funding extension from the National Cancer Institute to study regulation of the DNA damage response by the MRN-ATM pathway. This pathway is involved in sensing, signaling, and repairing DNA double-strand breaks; its deregulation is associated with a number of inherited cancer susceptibility syndromes.
Ali Gharavi, MD, Marc Anthony Zambeti Assistant Professor of Medicine, has been awarded $435,000 over two years by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Gharavi will study genetic determinants of renal developmental disorders—the most common cause of end-stage kidney disease in children—such as renal agenesis (congenital absence of one/both kidneys) and renal hypoplasia (kidney underdevelopment).
Joseph A. Gogos, MD, PhD, assistant professor of physiology & cellular biophysics (Center for Neurobiology and Behavior), has been awarded a four-year, $1.3 million grant by the National Institute of Mental Health. His work will help clarify the role of the gene DISC1—strongly implicated in mental illness—in neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity, and also shed light on its contributions to psychiatric disorders.
Rachel Gordon, MD, MPH, assistant professor of clinical medicine – infectious diseases, has received a five-year, $622,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She will probe the reasons behind high rates of staph infection among heart failure patients receiving ventricular assist devices, as a bridge to or substitute for transplantation.
Max Gottesman, MD, Charles H. Revson Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and Microbiology (Institute of Cancer Research) and director, Institute of Cancer Research, has received a supplemental $39,000 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for endocrinology research training program.
Tanya Goyal, PhD, associate research scientist in the department of medicine, has received a four-year, $607,000 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the effect of a previous hypertension diagnosis on resting blood pressure during doctor’s visits.
Patricia Hametz, MD, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, recently received $1.3 million from the NY State Department of Health for her work with the Activ8Kids program, NY’s obesity prevention program for school-age children. She was also awarded $10,000 by General Mills to lead targeted interventions at local elementary schools in order to reduce childhood obesity.
George Hripcsak, MD, professor and chair of biomedical informatics, has been awarded a one-year, $6.4 million funding extension by the National Library of Medicine for P&S’ biomedical informatics training program.
Susan Hodge, DSC, professor of clinical biostatistics (in psychiatry), received a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Funds will support a research training program in the genetic epidemiology and statistical analysis of psychiatric and other complex diseases.
Arianna Kim, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology, has received a two-year, $161,000 grant from NCI to explore, in non-melanoma skin cancers, the role of Chk2 (a key DNA damage signal transducer) in cancer cell senescence, the state of permanent proliferative arrest.
Jan Kitajewski, PhD, associate professor of pathology and obstetrics & gynecology, and Thomas Diacovo, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and pathology, will share a two-year, $800,000 award from the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. They will explore the potential of Notch genes as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in human breast cancer. Notch inhibitors will also be developed to inhibit tumor angiogenesis associated with breast cancer.
Ronald Liem, PhD, professor of pathology, has received a five-year, $2.2 million funding extension from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a training program in cellular, molecular, and biophysical studies.
Richard Mann, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, is recipient of a $1.2 million renewal of funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. This will enable extension of studies probing the molecular mechanisms of appendage development in the fruit fly model system Drosophila. Findings are expected to yield important insights into several kinds of human birth defects.
Pietro Mazzoni, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology, has been awarded a two-year, $50,000 grant by the Gatsby Initiative in Brain Circuitry for a pilot study on the factors that determine the natural speed of reaching movements. Understanding how humans normally control speed when reaching for objects will shed light on movement-related abnormalities evident in neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
Sara Morrison, MPH, neurobiology & behavior doctoral student, department of neuroscience, has received $92,000 over three years from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the neural mechanisms underlying simple and complex reinforcement learning.
Hasina Hamilton Outtz, BA, third-year student in the MD/PhD program, was awarded a five-year, $230,000 award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to examine the connection between signaling of the Notch gene and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR-1) in angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones).
Laszlo Papp, MD, associate professor of clinical psychiatry, has received a three-year, $725,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a multi-modal treatment for late-life generalized anxiety disorder, combining cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacological interventions.
Alessandra Pernis-Lowell, MD, associate professor of medicine-molecular medicine, has received a five-year, $1.8 million extension of funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to continue studies of the molecular machinery that goes awry during the autoimmune disease process, focusing on the relationship among the novel protein known as IBP, T-cell dysfunction, and autoimmunity.
Adam Ratner, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics and microbiology, has received the Clinical Innovator Award from the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute. The grant, totaling $300,000 over three years, will support original research into the impact of secondhand smoke on flight attendants.
Jason Shapiro, MD, MA, postdoctoral research scientist, department of biomedical informatics, has received a two-year, $267,000 grant from the National Library of Medicine. He will examine how computer-based health information exchange is impacting the quality, safety, and cost of emergency health care delivery in NYC.
The Health Resources Services Administration, U.S. Department of HHS, has awarded P&S and Ellen Spilker, director of financial planning, $229,000 and $90,000 to establish scholarships for disadvantaged students in dentistry and medicine, respectively.
Milan Stojanovic, PhD, assistant professor of medicine–nephrology, has been awarded $510,000 over three years by the NCI. Funds will help develop a new proof-of-concept paradigm for personalized anti-cancer therapy. Dr. Stojanovic is also recipient of a five-year career development award from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and a one-year grant from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International to investigate glucose-triggered movement of nanoassemblies for insulin delivery.
Michael Shelanski, MD, PhD, Delafield Professor of Pathology (Center for Neurobiology and Behavior and in the Taub Institute on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain) and chairman, department of pathology, has been awarded $6 million in extended funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The funds will support continuation of CUMC’s medical scientist training program.
David Sulzer, PhD, associate professor of clinical neuroscience, has received a five-year, $2 million extension of funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for his work studying the presynaptic mechanisms of dopamine neurotransmission.
Ira Tabas, MD, Richard J. Stock Professor of Medicine (pathology & cell biology and physiology & cellular biophysics) and vice chair of research, department of medicine, has been awarded a $10.8 million program project grant over five years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Funds will be used to probe the mechanisms of atherogenesis—the process by which plaques are formed in the inner lining of the arteries—and abnormal lipoprotein metabolism in type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.
Edward Thorp, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow, department of medicine, received a two-year, $80,000 postdoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association (Heritage Affiliate). He will study efferocytosis—the process of clearing disintegrating cells—in cardiovascular disease.
Marcella Walker, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine-endocrinology, has been awarded the new Mary and David Hoar Fellowship in the Prevention and Treatment of Hip Fractures from the NY Community Trust and the NY Academy of Medicine. A total of $100,000 over two years will be used to study properties of bone that protect against hip fractures in women. Dr. Walker has also received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the National Osteoporosis Foundation to study bone quality in Chinese American women.
Hynek Wichterle, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, is recipient of a four-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He will study how embryonic stem cells can be programmed to differentiate into distinct subtypes of motor neurons found in the spinal cord as it develops. This will advance understanding of normal motor neuron function and of degenerative processes underlying motor neuron diseases.
Ismee A. Williams, MD, MS, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, has received a one-year, $50,000 clinical and translational science pilot award from the National Center for Research Resources, NIH. Funds will be used to study how alterations in fetal cardiac physiology—specifically, abnormal cerebral blood flow—impact neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with congenital heart disease.
Jason Wright, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, has received a one-year, $25,000 research grant from the Gynecologic Oncology Group, for work on a novel approach to serum analysis in ovarian cancer. Funds will give Dr. Wright and colleagues access to a large repository of ovarian cancer serum and tissue specimens.
The New York Academy of Medicine has awarded Roland S. Wu, MD, postdoctoral research fellow in the department of medicine, a one-year $60,000 Glorney-Raisbeck Fellowship in Cardiovascular Diseases. He will examine the relationship between the phosphorylation of (attachment of a phosphate group to) the protein known as p27kip1 and vascular smooth muscle proliferation and migration.
>Top
- Ginger Chew, ScD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences, received approximately $1.3 million over three years for the Rapid Allergenic Particle Identification (RAPID) project, a study of environmental sensors for personal exposure assessment.
- Frederica Perera, DrPH, professor & director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, received approximately $10.4 million over five years to study the role of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and diesel exhaust particulate in childhood asthma development. She has also been awarded a five-year, $4.9 million renewal of funding for her work on the health effects of early-life exposure to urban pollutants in minority children.
- Matthew Perzanowski, PhD, assistant professor, is a recipient of approximately $2.7 million over four years to study the risk factors accounting for neighborhood differences in asthma prevalence.
- Robin Whyatt, DrPH, professor of clinical environmental health sciences, was awarded approximately $3 million over five years to study phthalate exposure and inner city pediatric asthma.
Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD, associate professor of clinical epidemiology, has been awarded a one-year, $130,000 continuation of funding by the NIH’s Fogarty International Center. This will supplement and extend international training in the epidemiology of AIDS until the end of May 2008.
Luisa Borrell, MPH, DDS, assistant professor of epidemiology, has received a two-year, $322,000 award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to develop and test a new methodology for measurement and documentation of oral health disparities—specifically, in dental caries and periodontal disease—at the national level, over time, and across age, gender, and racial and socioeconomic groups.
Bruce Link, PhD, professor of epidemiology, is recipient of a $2.3 million funding extension from the National Institute of Mental Health to support research training in psychiatric epidemiology.
Richard Parker, PhD, professor & chair of sociomedical sciences, has received a supplemental $176,000 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for comparative analysis of responses by Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Afro-Brazilian religions, at the policy, institutional and population levels, to HIV/AIDS in Brazil. The project is in its third year.
>Top
This year Dr. Bakken has also received a $895,000 grant from NINR to renew the pre-and post-doctoral training grant for five years.
>Top
The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust has pledged $1.2 million in support of the CUMC Brain-Gut Initiative. This multi-disciplinary research program examines the neurobiological basis of nurture and focuses on developing new treatments for childhood developmental disorders.
David H. Koch pledged $1 million to the Paul Marks Scholars Fund. The new endowed fund will provide matching funds for academic departments to recruit outstanding young scientists and to retain those who have distinguished themselves as top physician-scientists. Paul Marks Scholars will embody CUMC's research mission to discover and develop innovative and effective biomedical opportunities in the service of society.
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation has pledged $1 million to support faculty recruitment in the areas of neuroscience and psychiatry. The Gatsby Charitable Fund will provide the means for faculty to develop innovative approaches to research on mind, brain and behavior.
The Robert W. Matschullat Family Fund has pledged $2 million to the department of pediatrics, division of infectious diseases, to establish The John M. Driscoll Jr., M.D. and Yvonne T. Driscoll, M.D. Professorship of Pediatrics Fund. The fund will support the division chief.
The Marriott Family and the Medical Illness Counseling Center have pledged $1.5 million to continue support of the Marriott Mitochondrial Disorders Clinical Research Fund. The fund focuses on genetic and clinical research on mitochondrial diseases.
>Top
The National Center for Children in Poverty received a $250,000 grant from an anonymous donor to support the Center's work on healthy child development and school readiness.
>Top
Procter and Gamble recently donated $150,000 to support student programs at the College of Dental Medicine. The gift will support the newly established Faculty Advisor Program that provides informal mentoring and career guidance to enhance the student environment. The P&G gift will also sponsor the White Coat Ceremony for our incoming Class of 2011 and will underwrite the Transition Ceremony that marks the transition from second year to third year, when students begin to care for patients.
>Top
212-305-3900
Masthead photos: (from L. to R.: Hynek Wichterle, Michael Shelanski, Richard Parker, Suzanne Bakken)
Previous issues
View newsletter on the web
http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/celebrates/