Columbia Faculty Kathryn Calame, Timothy A.
Pedley and Carolyn Westhoff
Elected to Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of
Sciences
NEW YORK – Three distinguished Columbia University Medical
Center faculty have been elected to the Institute of Medicine of
the National Academy of Sciences this year.
Election to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is one of the
highest honors in the fields of medicine and health, and CUMC
now has 49 members in this esteemed organization. The three CUMC
faculty – Kathryn Calame, Timothy Pedley and Carolyn Westhoff –
were among the 65 new IOM members announced Oct. 8, 2007,
raising its total active IOM membership to 1,538.
“Columbia’s new members were chosen through a highly selective
process that recognizes individuals who have made significant
contributions to advancing the medical science, health care, and
public health fields,” said Lee Goldman, M.D., executive vice
president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the
faculties of health and medicine at Columbia University. “We are
proud to have them in our midst.”
Kathryn Calame, Ph.D., is professor of microbiology and of
biochemistry & molecular biophysics at Columbia’s College of
Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Calame studies gene regulation in
the immune system, and her laboratory work focuses primarily on
transcriptional regulation of lymphocyte development. A major
focus of her current work is an unusual transcriptional
repressor called Blimp-1 (B lymphocyte induced maturation
protein). Her studies on Blimp-1 are revealing important aspects
of regulation in both B and T cells.
Timothy A. Pedley, M.D., is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor
of Neurology, chairman of the Department of Neurology at P&S,
and neurologist-in-chief at the Neurological Institute at New
York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Pedley’s clinical and research
interests are focused on epilepsy. His laboratory interests are
in the role played by the ionic microenvironment in abnormal
hippocampal and cortical excitability and in long-lasting
changes in the hippocampus induced by repeated seizures. He has
just begun a two-year term as president of the American
Neurological Association and was recently appointed to the
National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of
the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of
the National Institutes of Health.
Carolyn L. Westhoff, M.D., is professor of obstetrics and
gynecology at P&S and professor of epidemiology and of
population and family health at Columbia’s Mailman School of
Public Health. She studies the effect of obesity on
contraceptive effectiveness and leads several research projects
investigating contraception and the epidemiology of women’s
reproductive health. Most recently, Dr. Westhoff was the
principal investigator of a clinical trial of a novel oral
contraceptive initiation method known as Quick Start.
The Institute of Medicine is part of the National Academies,
which also includes the National Academy of Sciences, National
Academy of Engineering, and National Research Council. The IOM
structure is unique in its role as both an honorific membership
group and advisory organization. Members are expected to
volunteer on study committees to serve as a national resource
for independent, scientifically informed analysis and
recommendations on issues related to human health.
# # #
Columbia University Medical
Center provides international leadership in basic,
pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health
sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center
trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many
physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health
professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the
Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine,
the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research
centers and institutions.
www.cumc.columbia.edu
