Winter 2024/25 Alumni News

By Julia Hickey González, Alumni Writer

1954

Roy Vagelos was honored with an inaugural “Elimination Champion” Legacy Award in July 2024 by the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination for his immense contribution toward the elimination of hepatitis B in China. Dr. Vagelos received the award alongside Professor Zhao Kai of China, with whom Dr. Vagelos collaborated in the early 1990s to facilitate a transfer of necessary technology from the United States to China for producing high-quality vaccines to protect newborns and children from hepatitis B virus infection. By 1994, two factories were completed in China to make the vaccines. They are now capable of producing more than 20 million doses per year. It is estimated that the groundbreaking collaboration prevented more than five million deaths from hepatitis B in China, according to the Coalition. Dr. Vagelos, renowned for his visionary leadership in the pharmaceutical industry, has played a pivotal role in developing and distributing hepatitis B vaccines as CEO and chair of Merck. The Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, a program of The Task Force for Global Health, is a nonprofit bringing together global partners to achieve worldwide elimination of viral hepatitis. “With the exciting discoveries coming from academia and industry that can lead to improved drugs and vaccines, as well as improvements in distribution in developing nations, I am certain that diseases and deaths from hepatitis infections will ultimately be eliminated,” Dr. Vagelos told the Coalition.

1981

Two classmates—Alice Levine and Ellen Seely—were among 14 endocrinologists chosen for the Endocrine Society’s 2025 Laureate Awards, the top honors in the field. Established in 1944, the Society’s Laureate Awards recognize the highest achievements in the endocrinology field, including groundbreaking research and innovations in clinical care. The awards will be presented at the society’s annual meeting in July 2025. Dr. Levine will receive the Outstanding Educator Award, which recognizes achievement as an educator in endocrinology and metabolism. She is professor of medicine and oncological sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and director of the school’s Adrenal Center and Pituitary Center. She is also the systemwide director of the endocrinology, metabolism, and diabetes fellowship at the Mount Sinai Health System, the largest endocrine fellowship program in the country. Dr. Levine was the course director for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai endocrine pathophysiology course for 25 years, inspiring generations of medical students to pursue careers in the field. She received the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Teaching Award in 2011 and the Jacobi Medallion in 2017, the highest award conferred by its Alumni Association.

Dr. Seely will receive the Outstanding Mentor Award, which recognizes a career commitment to mentoring and a significant positive impact on mentees’ education and career. Dr. Seely is director of the Clinical Research, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension Division in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is known for her studies of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy but also has dedicated a substantial part of her academic career to nurturing the intellectual and professional growth of peers and juniors alike. She has received the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School, the Distinguished Member of the Society of Teaching Scholars at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, and the Mentoring Award from Women in Endocrinology.

1986

Frederick Ehlert, associate professor of medicine, has been appointed associate dean for admissions for the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. He has been a member of the admissions committee since 2007, and in that time, he has interviewed hundreds of prospective students and worked with previous admissions deans on the selection process. He is active in the VP&S alumni community, serving as Class of 1986 chair and as a member of the board of the Alumni Association. Dr. Ehlert has served on the Columbia faculty since 1993. He continues an active clinical practice in cardiac electrophysiology at VP&S. His area of expertise is pacemaker and defibrillator lead management, and he is one of the most experienced lead extractors in the country. He also maintains a commitment to undergraduate and graduate medical education and has served as clinical teacher, lecturer, formal preceptor, research mentor, and currently as the electrophysiology fellowship program director.

1988

Andrew Feigin has been appointed chief medical officer at Rho, a global contract research organization in North Carolina. Before joining Rho, Dr. Feigin, a neurologist, led a team that founded a contract research organization for a rare disease study group. After completing a fellowship in experimental therapeutics, he joined North Shore University Hospital and established a clinical trial program for patients with Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Tourette syndrome, and other movement disorders. Before joining Rho, he had been professor of neurology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine since 2017. He served as the site principal investigator on more than 30 clinical trials, notably spearheading the first phase 1 clinical trial using gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, the Movement Disorder Society, the Parkinson Study Group, and the Huntington Study Group. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles.

2001

William J. Mack became chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in September. Dr. Mack joined USC in 2010 as assistant professor of neurological surgery and was promoted in 2022 to professor of neurological surgery and physiology and neuroscience (clinical scholar). He has held numerous leadership roles at the medical school, including vice chair of academic affairs in the Department of Neurosurgery, director of the neurointerventional program, program director of the neuroendovascular surgery fellowship, and chair-elect of the Faculty Council. He has chaired the annual leadership conference for the Keck School’s Center for Gender Equity in Medicine and Science for the past two years. Dr. Mack is an elected member of the Society of Neurological Surgeons and the American Academy of Neurological Surgery. He has served as president of the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery and chair of the cerebrovascular section of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons/American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He has authored over 220 peer-reviewed publications based on NIH-funded translational research in cerebrovascular disease. He completed his neurosurgery residency at Columbia and a neurointerventional fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Mack earned a master’s degree in clinical and biomedical investigation and an MBA from USC.

2003

Andrew Bomback, a nephrologist and associate professor of medicine, is co-director of the newly named David Koch Jr. Glomerular Kidney Center at Columbia, alongside longtime inaugural director Gerald Appel, MD. The center, which was originally created in 2000, was the first of its kind in the United States to provide dedicated care for people with rare diseases of the kidney filters. A $20 million gift by the David Koch Jr. Foundation, announced in August 2024, will provide permanent support to build on Columbia’s groundbreaking work to develop innovative diagnostics and treatments for these rare kidney diseases and expand physician education and training. Dr. Bomback has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on chronic kidney disease, glomerular diseases, and hypertension. He is co-author of the textbook “Chronic Kidney Disease and Hypertension Essentials” and an editor of the National Kidney Foundation’s Primer on Kidney Diseases. He currently serves as principal or co-investigator on clinical trials of new treatments for IgA nephropathy, membranous nephropathy, lupus glomerulonephritis, hereditary nephritis, C3 glomerulopathy, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. He serves on the American Society of Nephrology’s Glomerular Diseases-Collaborative Steering Committee, which aims to promote high-quality care for people with glomerular diseases and stimulate opportunities to address gaps in knowledge, training, continuing education, and awareness across the spectrum of glomerular diseases.

2005

Yo-El Ju, a neurologist, was installed as the inaugural Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Ju is a physician-scientist whose discoveries have illuminated the complex relationship between sleep and neurodegenerative disease. The professorship was created to advance Alzheimer’s disease research. Alzheimer’s disease was Dr. Ju’s entry point into the world of sleep and neurodegeneration. In 2013, she and colleagues published the first study in people that showed an association between poor sleep quality and presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. In 2017, she published a paper that showed that disruption of the deep, restful phase of sleep is associated with higher levels of amyloid beta. Her work launched development of experimental sleep-based interventions to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s. Dr. Ju recently expanded her work to include other neurodegenerative diseases characterized by toxic accumulation of brain proteins. She leads an international consortium studying REM behavior disorder; about 80% of people diagnosed with the disorder go on to develop a neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia. The consortium is developing clinical, neuroimaging, and biofluid biomarkers of synuclein-associated diseases to prepare for a clinical trial to treat REM behavior disorder and prevent the development of serious neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Ju, who also is professor of anesthesiology, is a co-director of the Washington University Center on Biological Rhythms and Sleep and cares for patients with sleep disorders at the Washington University Sleep Medicine Center, which includes a specialty clinic for REM behavior disorder and other neurology patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She completed a neurology residency and clinical and research fellowships at Washington University and joined the faculty in 2011. Among her many honors are the Wayne Hening Sleep Medicine Investigator Award from the American Academy of Neurology and the Young Investigator Award from the World Association of Sleep Medicine.

2009

John Pepen joined the Commonwealth Health Physician Network’s surgical team in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He specializes in minimally invasive techniques and robotic technology. Dr. Pepen completed fellowship training in surgical critical care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is board-certified in general surgery and surgical critical care and experienced in minimally invasive and robotic-assisted surgery for a range of health issues, including appendicitis, hernia repair, gastrointestinal surgery, colorectal disease, and gallbladder disease.

2013

Simon Sung has joined Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia as associate professor of pathology. He joined Fox after serving on the VP&S faculty since 2018. Dr. Sung completed an anatomic pathology residency at Columbia, a fellowship in cytopathology at Weill Cornell, and a fellowship in general surgical pathology at Columbia. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles. He received the Sigmund L. Wilens Prize for Excellence in Pathology in 2013 and the Intersociety Council for Pathology Information Trainee Travel Award in 2016.

2018

Natalia Fontecilla Biles has joined Dockside Dermatology, a practice in Millersville, Maryland. After medical school, Dr. Biles completed a residency at Johns Hopkins University. She practices general dermatology. She says a research position at the NIH that focused on MRSA helped her decide on a specialty in dermatology. “I had no idea how complex the skin is, and I was obsessed,” she says. Dr. Biles is a Bethesda, Maryland, native.