Annual Report 2023–2024

Year in Research

Additional Stories

  •  VP&S Afternoon of Science Series Kicks Off: In July of 2023, VP&S began the Afternoons of Science lecture series offering a chance for basic science departments and institutes to share their latest research and vision for the future. Read about lectures from the Departments of Neuroscience and Physiology & Cellular Biophysics 

  • Could Drops Replace Eye Injections for Retina Disease?: A new study in mice, led by Maria I. Avrutsky, PhD, and Carol M. Troy, MD, PhD, suggests experimental eye drops may be more effective than injections for the treatment of retinal vein occlusion, a major cause of blindness. The study was published online in Frontiers of Neuroscience. 

  • Irving Institute Announces 2023-2026 Irving Scholars: The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research announced four new Herbert and Florence Irving Scholars for the 2023-2026 cohort. The scholars, who received career awards to support their clinical and translational research, are Elana J. Bernstein, MD, Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine; Kiran T. Thakur, MD, Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Neurology and Winifred Mercer Pitkin, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology; Joshua Weiner, MD, Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Surgery; and Kelley Yan, MD, PhD, Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine and Warner-Lambert Assistant Professor of Medicine (in the Columbia Center for Human Development) and assistant professor of genetics and development.  

  • New Research Shows Babies’ Immunological Weak Spot and Strength: Two studies led by Donna Farber, PhD, have found why babies are susceptible to repeated bouts of common respiratory infections—but also have a unique weapon to fight off new pathogens that healthy adults lack. The studies were published online in the journals Immunity and Natural Immunology. 

  • Why Do Some People Succeed in Maintaining Weight Loss?: Losing weight is often the easy part; keeping it off is usually a struggle. The POWERS study, led by Rudolph Leibel, MD; Dympna Gallagher, EdD; Michael Rosenbaum, MD; and Laurel Mayer, MD; investigates why some people succeed at keeping off more weight after periods of weight loss compared to others.  

  • These Bones Were Made for Walking: In a study published in Science, a team led by Tarjinder Singh, PhD, uncovered the genetic changes that made it possible for humans to walk upright and showed how slight variations in skeletal proportions are linked to arthritis. 

  • Righting a Historical Wrong: Lack of Diversity in Clinical Trials: Across the medical center campus, researchers are working to increase diversity in clinical trials. CUIMC is involved in three efforts to broaden participation in clinical trials—the National Cancer Institute’s Minority and Underserved Community Oncology Research Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, the multicenter Stand Up to Cancer Health Equity Initiative, and the Columbia-Pfizer Clinical Trials Diversity Initiative—along with efforts of individual departments and centers. 

  • Cancer’s Cloaking Device Revealed: A team led by Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD, has discovered how melanoma can hide from our immune system, pointing to ways drug developers might restore the tumor’s vulnerability. The study was published in Cancer Cell.  

  • Source of Hidden Consciousness in ‘Comatose’ Brain Injury Patients Found: In a study published in Brain, Jan Claassen, MD, has identified brain circuits that, when injured, make conscious patients with acute brain injury appear unresponsive, a phenomenon known as hidden consciousness.  

  • Zebrafish Can Repair Their Brains. Why Can’t We?: Columbia researchers have discovered a mechanism that promotes neurogenesis in the zebrafish brain and has the potential to be activated in people, possibly leading to brain repair and the slowing of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, led by Caghan Kizil, PhD, was published in npj Regenerative Medicine. 

  • Study Shows How Paxlovid Resistance Emerges in Persistent Infections: A study led by Sho Iketani, PhD; David Ho, MD; Haitao Yang, PhD; and several universities in China, investigated the way SARS-CoV-2 mutates in immunocompromised patients to escape Paxlovid. Published in Nature, the study could help chemists design better drugs that are more difficult for the virus to sidestep.  

  • Latest Obesity Drug Not Cost-Effective for Adolescents: Wegovy (semaglutide) produces the greatest weight loss in teenagers, but a study published in JAMA Network Open by Chin Hur, MD, MPH, finds that the trendy obesity drug is not cost-effective at its current price. 

  • New Device Rapidly Controls Postpartum Hemorrhage: A study led by Dena Goffman, MD, has shown that a new device can rapidly control postpartum hemorrhage, a major cause of severe maternal morbidity and death, in a wide range of patients. The study was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 

  • The Neuroscience of Venus Flytraps: Columbia scientists, Jennifer Gelinas, MD, PhD, and Dion Khodagholy, PhD, created recording devices to uncover electrical signals that help Venus flytraps ensnare prey. The devices have the potential to accelerate research with human subjects and lead to new discoveries in epilepsy and other brain disorders. Two studies about the research were published in Science Advances and Nature Materials. 

  • Mainstay Malaria Drug May Be Beginning to Fail in the Horn of Africa: A study involving Columbia researcher, David Fidock, PhD, finds that malaria parasites in Africa have developed resistance to artemisinin drugs, which could worsen malaria’s impact if partner drugs fail in the future. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

  • The Genesis of CRISPR’s Molecular Scissors: A new study by Samuel Sternberg, PhD, and Chance Meers, PhD, looks at the precursors of CRISPR-Cas9—which lurk inside so-called "jumping genes"—to unravel how CRISPR’s DNA scissors evolved. Their findings reveal how thousands of newly discovered DNA scissors work and how they might be engineered into new genome engineering technologies. The study was published in Nature. 

  • Engineering the Immune System to Fight Cancer: Biomedical engineer Santiago Correa, PhD, used his expertise in nanotechnology to create injectable biomaterials that reprogram the body’s immune system to fight cancer, autoimmune disease, and infection. 

  • Verbal Nonsense Reveals Limitations of AI Chatbots: A study led by Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, PhD, tracked how current language models, such as ChatGPT, mistake nonsense sentences as meaningful. The study was published in Nature Machine Intelligence.  

  • How an Audience Changes a Songbird’s Brain: Vikram Gadagkar, PhD, investigated brain activity in courting zebra finches finding that brain cells reflect re-prioritization when male birds sing to attract a mate. The results, published in Nature, could help explain what our brains are doing when they shift gears as different opportunities arise and as our priorities change.  

  • Columbia Researcher and NPR Ask Listeners to ‘Walk the Walk’ in Real-World Study: A study led by Keith Diaz, PhD, suggests that movement snacks as short as one minute of walking every hour may be enough to mitigate some of the harms of prolonged sitting. In a collaboration with the NPR podcast Body Electric, Diaz expanded the study from a laboratory setting to include participation from podcast listeners to better understand how well his intermittent walking regimens work in the real world. 

  • Not Getting Enough Sleep? Your Vascular Cells Are Drowning in Oxidants: A new study of sleep in women, led by Sanja Jelic, MD, shows that delaying bedtime by just 90 minutes each night damages cells that line the blood vessels, supporting the hypothesis that poor sleep is linked to heart health. The study was published in Scientific Reports. 

  • Targeting Cancer’s Hidden Masters: A study led by Andrea Califano, Dr, discovered that by identifying hidden regulators in each person’s cancer, researchers can identify the best drugs for that patient. The study was published in Cancer Discovery.  

  • Andrea Califano Receives Alfred G. Knudson Award from NCI: Andrea Califano, Dr, has been honored with the 26th Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics by the National Cancer Institute for his exceptional contributions to the field of cancer research. The award recognizes individuals who have advanced our understanding of cancer genetics. 

  • Andrea Califano Selected to Lead Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York: Columbia's Andrea Califano, Dr, will lead the new Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York in its mission to harness and engineer immune cells for the early detection and eradication of human disease. In his new role, Dr. Califano’s work will bring together scientists from several universities to engineer the immune system to detect and treat disease. 

  • A Potential Therapy for “Chemobrain”: A new study from the lab of Andrew Marks, MD, suggests that too much calcium inside cells may be to blame for cognitive impairments from chemotherapy, also referred to as “chemobrain.” The study was published in Science Translational Medicine. 

  • Long COVID in Kids: What Can Research Reveal?: To uncover the long-term effects of COVID-19 in children, a team of Columbia researchers led by Aimee Layton, PhD, was selected by the NIH RECOVER Initiative to help develop and conduct heart and lung testing for some children enrolled in the nationwide observational study. 

  • Engineered Bacteria Paint Targets on Cancer: Columbia bioengineers, Tal Danino, PhD, and PhD student Rosa Vincent, are the first to engineer tumor-colonizing bacteria (probiotics) to produce synthetic targets in tumors that direct CAR-T cells to destroy the newly highlighted cancer cells. The findings, published in Science, could make more cancers treatable with immunotherapies. 

  • Microscopy Innovators Aim to Reveal Brain’s Vast Wiring Diagram: As part of a new NIH consortium, a team led by Elizabeth Hillman, PhD, will trace how regions targeted by deep brain stimulation connect with the rest of the brain, information that could improve the treatment's efficacy. The team, with collaborators at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Rochester Medical Center, have been named by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as recipients of a 5-year, $24-million UM1 center grant, part of a new $150-million BRAIN CONNECTS initiative. 

  • Attacking the Roots of Pancreatic Cancer: In a study by Tannishtha Reya, PhD, a new mouse model may be critical for understanding the most aggressive types of pancreatic cancer and finding ways to prevent its growth and recurrence. The study is published in Cancer Cell. 

  • Common Blood Thinner May Double as Cancer Therapy: Warfarin, a widely used blood thinner, appears to have potent anti-cancer properties, according to a study by Wei Gu, PhD, which was published in Cell Metabolism. The study, conducted in human cells and in mice, found that the widely used blood thinner warfarin stops tumors from interfering with a self-destruct mechanism that cells initiate when they detect mutations or other abnormalities. 

  • Study Adds to Evidence That Parkinson’s Starts in the Gut: David Sulzer, PhD, and Dritan Agalliu, PhD, have found that neurons in the gastrointestinal tract of mice are damaged by an autoimmune reaction to a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease. Their study, published in Neuron, is adding to evidence that the disease may get its start in the gut, suggesting that an autoimmune reaction may be driving those early events. 

  • Baby Neurons in Adult Brains Are Needed to Maintain Memory: A new study in mice shows that new neurons created in the brain during adulthood are needed to maintain working memory—the temporary “sticky notes” of the brain. The study led by Alex Dranovsky, MD, PhD, was published in Molecular Psychiatry. 

  • Researchers at Columbia’s Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center Illuminate the Complexity of the Human Hypothalamus: A new BRAIN Initiative atlas from Hannah Glover, PhD, and Claudia Doege, MD, provides the first complete single-cell census of the hypothalamus throughout development into adulthood. The findings, published in Science Advances, pave the way to discovering novel cellular targets for obesity and metabolic disease.  

  • Blood Tests as an Alternative to Colonoscopy?: A cost-effectiveness study led by Columbia medical student Zainab Aziz and published in JAMA Open Network, suggests liquid biopsies are not yet up to the task of screening for colon cancer compared to the traditional treatments such as colonoscopies and stool testing.  

  • Origin Stories: In the lab, Mijo Simunovic, PhD, creates human stem cell models to understand early human embryogenesis. 

  • Soccer Heading Linked to Measurable Decline of Brain Structure and Function Over Two Years: A new study by Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD, links soccer heading to a decline in brain structure and function over a two-year period. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. 

  • Genetic Safeguard Protects Some Considered High Risk for Kidney Disease: Many Black Americans thought to have a high risk of developing kidney disease possess a genetic variant that eradicates the extra risk, a new study from Simone Sanna-Cherchi, MD, has found. The study was published in Nature Communications. 

  • Discrimination During Pregnancy May Alter Circuits in Infants’ Brains: Columbia, Yale, and CHLA researchers, led by Marisa Spann, PhD, have found that brain connectivity is different in infants born to mothers who felt stress from discrimination and acculturation while pregnant. The study was published in Neuropsychopharmacology. 

  • A Trillion Scents. One Nose.: A study by Stavros Lomvardas, PhD, and MD-PhD candidate Ariel Pourmorady, found that smell’s sensory magic emerges from an intricate developmental mechanism that tailors each of the nose’s sensory cells to detect a specific odor chemical. The study was published in Nature. 

  • What Makes Lymphoma Turn Lethal?: A new study led by Rebecca Leeman-Neill, MD, PhD, and Uttiya Basu, PhD, is helping to clarify how low-grade lymphoma changes as it develops into a more aggressive tumor, which could lead to the development of new treatments. The study was published in Nature Genetics. 

  • These Stem Cells Prevent Osteoarthritis: A team led by Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil, discovered stem cells in mice that are essential in maintaining healthy cartilage inside joints but go missing with age or after injury. The findings suggest that therapies can be developed to prevent osteoarthritis by keeping the cells alive or by introducing replacement cells into the joint. The study was published in Nature Communications. 

  • How a Healthy Microbiome Reduces Gut Inflammation: In a new study published in Immunity, Ivaylo Ivanov, PhD, has found that commensal gut bacteria induce their host to generate T cells that prevent inflammation and maintain the health of the gut.  

  • Relationships with Caring Adults During Childhood Provide a Buffer Against Depression, Anxiety: A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that positive relationships with parents and other adults during childhood are associated with better mental health in adulthood, regardless of adverse childhood experiences. The study was led by Sara VanBronkhorst, MD, MPH. 

  • Fishing for Insights into Human Disease: In this photo essay, Caghan Kizil, PhD; Brandon Pearson, PhD; Joanna Smeeton, PhD; and Kimara L. Targoff, MD, explain how they are using zebrafish and killifish to gain insights into human health and disease. 

  • Gone Fishing: Zebrafish Studies May Lead to New Treatments for Osteoarthritis: With an NIH "New Innovator" award, Joanna Smeeton, PhD, is investigating how fish make repairs to their joints after developing arthritis, and if we can adopt their techniques. 

  • Pathogens Are Picky Eaters and Their Choices Impact Our Health: Sebastián Riquelme, PhD, is one of the pioneers in the growing field of immunometabolism, investigating how the processes that turn food into energy impact the outcome of infectious diseases. 

  • Modifying Bacteria to Diagnose—and Treat—Colorectal Cancer: A team led by Tal Danino, PhD, designed a new approach to orally diagnose and treat colorectal cancer using genetically modified bacteria in the form of a pill. The study was published in Nature Communications

  • Freezing Time: A new device created by Xiangsong Feng, a postdoc in Joachim Frank’s lab, can capture life’s molecular moments in action, revealing mechanisms that last for just a fraction of a second. The study was published in Cell.  

  • Study Suggests New Way to Prevent Liver Metastases: A combination of a diabetes drug and a PI3K inhibitor may have the potential to prevent melanoma from spreading to the liver, according to a study led by Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD. The study was published in Nature Cancer. 

  • Columbia Healthy Aging Initiative Hosts Healthspan Extension Summit: The CUIMC Healthy Aging Initiative hosted its first Healthspan Extension Summit, highlighting the work of CUIMC researchers in basic, clinical, and population health sciences. 

  • What Reactivates Dormant Cancer Cells?: Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD; Dhiraj Kumar, PhD; and Filippo Giancotti, MD, PhD, have found a molecule that is responsible for arousing dormant cells from breast cancer and nudging them to create metastases. Silencing this molecule, called Malat1, in mice with breast cancer reduced metastases and improved survival, suggesting that a similar treatment could benefit patients. The study was published in Nature Cancer. 

  • Jazz Meets Neuroscience: Michael Shadlen, MD, PhD, and the Zuckerman Institute hosted Four-time Grammy winner Terri Lyne Carrington as the 2022–2023 Jazz Artist-in-Residence. Carrington exchanged music and ideas in performances and conversations about everything from rhythm and improvisation to songbirds and psychiatry.  

  • Inhalable Nanobubbles Deliver Cancer Treatment to Lungs: In tests with mice, inhalable exosomes created by Ke Cheng, PhD, successfully delivered cancer treatment to the lungs and suppressed tumor growth without toxic side effects. The study was published in Nature Nanotechnology. 

  • Can A Single Brain Region Encode Familiarity and Recollection?: A new study in mice reveals how the brain can identify familiar individuals and recall past experiences with them; the findings could shed light on disorders affecting memory. The study, led by Stefano Fusi, PhD, and Steven A. Siegelbaum, PhD, was published in Neuron. 

  • Study to Compare Ways to Improve Maternal Healthy Weight: Jennifer Woo Baidal, MD, is leading a study to promote healthy weight during pregnancy and improve health outcomes for pregnant people and their babies. 

  • Columbia Researchers Seek Answers for Rise of Colon Cancer in Younger Patients: A team of Columbia scientists including Yoanna Pumpalova, MD; Joel Gabre, MD; and Beatrice Dionigi, MD, is examining patient samples and experimenting with organoids to understand why colon cancer is on the rise in people under 50. 

  • Do Some Electric Fish Sense the World Through Comrades' Auras?: Nathaniel Sawtell, PhD, and Federico Pedraja, PhD, have uncovered evidence for a new form of collective sensing that appears to enable elephantnose fish to extend their perceptual reach. Their study was published in Nature. 

  • Illuminating the Neural Basis of Anorexia: A team of researchers led by Joanna Steinglass, MD, is finding that people with anorexia nervosa are guided by a deeper brain system when making food decisions, the dorsal striatum, rather than typical reward systems.  

  • Why Do Some Newborns Develop Severe Infections?: A new study from Emmanuelle Passegué, PhD, suggests that serious immune deficiency in newborns may originate from a system that protects the fetus in utero but lingers too long after birth. The study was published in Cell.  

  • Brain Waves Travel in One Direction When Memories Are Made and the Opposite When Recalled: A new understanding of brain waves may help explain how the brain quickly coordinates activity and shares information across multiple regions. The study from Joshua Jacobs, PhD, was published in Nature Human Behaviour.  

  • Touch and Pain Are More Entangled Than We Thought: Nikhil Sharma, PhD, conducted an analysis of more than 40,000 primary sensory neurons in the skin finding multiple different types of neurons, each sensing a more complex range of stimuli than previously assumed. The study was published in Cell.  

  • Endometriosis Apps, AI Help Researchers Understand the Condition: Noémie Elhadad, PhD, developed the app, Phendo, to gather data from patients around the world who suffer from endometriosis, helping manage symptoms and improve screening for the condition.  

  • Far-UVC Light Can Virtually Eliminate Airborne Virus in an Occupied Room: Far-UVC light dramatically reduced airborne virus levels in a room where people were working, in the first study of the new air disinfection technology outside of an experimental setting, led by David Brenner, PhD. The study was published in Scientific Reports. 

  • Chickadees are Memory Geniuses. Their Barcode-Like Neural Activity May Be To Thank.: Selmaan Chettih, PhD, and Emily Mackevicius, PhD, from the lab of Dmitriy Aronov, PhD, have found new patterns of electrical activity in the brain that may record and recall memories in birds and possibly humans. The study was published in Cell. 

  • A Pulse of Innovation: AI at the Service of Heart Research: BeatProfiler, a new research tool invented by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, PhD, and Barry Fine, MD, PhD, with the help of AI, speeds and simplifies the analysis of engineered heart tissue in the laboratory. 

  • Newly Found Genetic Variant Defends Against Alzheimer’s Disease: Caghan Kizil, PhD; Richard Mayeux, MD; and Badri N. Vardarajan, PhD, have identified a genetic mutation that fends off Alzheimer's in people at high risk and could lead to a new way to protect people from the disease. The study was published in Acta Neuropathologica.  

  • How a Calcium-Sensing Protein Multitasks: A new collaborative study conducted by Qing Fan, PhD, and Jonathan Javitch, MD, PhD, used cryoEM to visualize CaSR coupling to different G proteins. Published in Nature, the new details about how this important molecule takes on tasks beyond sensing calcium could spur the development of new drugs for breast cancer and other diseases.  

  • Clogged Arteries Worsened by Cells that Behave Like Cancer Cells, Study Finds: A team led by Muredach Reilly, MD, has found that cells inside clogged arteries have cancer-like properties that aggravate atherosclerosis, and anticancer drugs could be a new treatment. Their study was published in Circulation. 

  • Cognitively Stimulating Occupations May Protect Against Later-life Dementia: A study from Vegard Skirbekk, PhD, and Yaakov Stern, PhD, found that people with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s had a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia after age 70. The results were published in Neurology. 

  • Healthy Aging Summit Unites Medical Center in Shared Goals: The Healthspan Extension Summit brought together researchers from across the medical center to present findings in basic science, clinical medicine, and public health--and to discuss how these fields can ensure healthier, longer lives. 

  • Symposium Showcases and Honors Work of Postdoctoral Researchers: Five postdoctoral research scientists, Meng Feng, Elena Floris, Vikas Malik, Kirill Nadezhdin, and Ted Piorczynski, and two associate research scientists, Danique Jeurissen and Elanur Yilmaz, who work in Columbia medical and dental school labs took home honors at this year’s Postdoctoral Research Symposium. 

  • Faster Start with Opioid Treatment Is More Effective, Study Finds: A study from Matisyahu Shulman, MD, found that extended-release naltrexone initiated after just five to seven days of seeking treatment is more effective than starting treatment after the traditional interim stage of 10 to 15 days. The study was published in JAMA Network Open. 

  • Why Anger is Bad for Your Heart: A new study led by Daichi Shimbo, MD, suggests the connection between anger, heart attacks, and strokes may lie in the body’s blood vessels and arteries. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that a brief eight-minute bout of anger impairs the ability of blood vessels to dilate, raising the possibility that over time anger causes long-term vascular damage that has been linked to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, a precursor to heart attacks and strokes. 

  • Study Uncovers Brain Circuit That Controls Body’s Inflammatory Reactions: Hao Jin, PhD; Charles S. Zuker, PhD; and Mengtong Li, PhD, found that the mouse brain can direct the body's immune system to an unexpected degree, a discovery that could lead to new therapies for many immune disorders. The study was published in Nature. 

  • Physiological Questions, Inventive Approaches: Two VP&S scientists, Christine Iok In Chio, PhD, and Xuebing Wu, PhD, and two visiting VP&S scientists, Stéphane Nedelec and Ofer Yizhar, have received awards from the Schaefer Research Scholars Program. The annual Schaefer Scholar Awards are given to research scientists who have distinguished themselves in the science of human physiology and whose current work is of outstanding merit. 

  • Considering the Role of the Environment in Women's Health: The Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health, a new initiative led by Blair Wylie, MD, is bringing researchers in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology closer to understanding the impact of the environment on women's health.  

  • Columbia Molecular Geneticist Elected to the Royal Society: Longtime faculty member Lorraine Symington has been elected to the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences. The Royal Society recognized Symington for her work on the mechanisms of homologous recombination using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an experimental system. 

  • These Neurons Create Color in the Fruit Fly Brain: Rudy Behnia, PhD; Matthias Christenson, PhD; and Larry Abbott, PhD have identified brain-cell circuitry in fruit flies that converts waves of light entering the eye into color perceptions in the brain. Their findings were published in Nature Neuroscience. 

  • Living Drugs for the Skin, and Beyond: Aimee Payne, MD, PhD, joined the Columbia faculty in late 2023, as the Herbert and Florence Irving Professor and chair of dermatology at VP&S. In the lab, Payne is transforming cells into living drugs for autoimmune diseases of the skin. 

  • Can Observational Data Generate New Evidence in Women’s Health?: Faculty and students in biomedical informatics are exploring how observational health data and informatics methods could shed light on women's health issues, particularly endometriosis and PCOS. DBMI trainees and faculty collaborated in a three-day studyathon to research both conditions in an attempt to bridge the real-world evidence gaps. 

  • Improving Cell Therapy with T-cell “Super Soldiers”: A study led by Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD, suggests that changing a single letter in the DNA code of selected genes in T cells may supercharge cell therapies against cancer. The study was published in Nature Biotechnology. 

  • Omega-3 Therapy Prevents Birth-Related Brain Injury in Newborn Rodents: Richard Deckelbaum, MD, and Hylde Zirpoli, found that a novel omega-3 injectable emulsion reduces brain damage in newborn rodents experiencing lack of oxygen at delivery, a major cause of disability in human infants and children. The study was published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.  

  • The Gut’s Stem Cells Get a New Identity: Two independent studies by Timothy Wang, MD, and Kelley Yan, MD, suggest that research into the gut’s stem cells over the past 15 years has been marred by a case of mistaken identity: Scientists have been studying the wrong cell. Both studies were published in Cell. 

  • New Grant to Support Center for Patient Safety, Quality, and Equity: The EQUIP Center for Learning Health System Science, led by Jason Adelman, MD, will support researchers working to improve patient safety, particularly among groups that experience persistent health care disparities. 

  • Malaria Parasites Can Hide From Our Drugs. Now We Know Why.: A new study by Jennifer Small-Saunders, MD, PhD, shows that an ancient mechanism of regulating a cell’s protein repertoire allows malaria parasites to hide from fast-acting artemisinin drugs and survive. The study was published in Nature Microbiology. 

  • To Get Images of This Fast-Acting Brain Protein, Scientists Had to Slow It Down: A team led by Alexander Sobolevsky, PhD, captured new images of one of the brain’s fastest-acting proteins, the kainate receptor. The images, published in Nature, provide critical clues that may lead to targeted therapies for epilepsy and other brain disorders.  

  • Risk Factors for Long COVID Revealed: A new Columbia study led by Elizabeth Oelsner, MD, DrPH, sheds light on factors that may have predisposed some patients to recover more slowly after COVID-19. Published in JAMA Network Open, the study found that people with a milder infection—including those who were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and those who were infected with an Omicron variant—were more likely to recover quickly. 

  • Brain Health Is Rooted in State of Mind, Finds Study: New research from Caroline Trumpff, PhD, and Martin Picard, PhD, shows positive experiences may boost the brain’s energy transformation, possibly building resilience against brain disorders in later life. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

  • Four VP&S Physician-Scientists Named 2024 Gerstner Scholars: Four VP&S physician-scientists, Andrew Beenken, MD, PhD; Kathleen Capaccione, MD, PhD; Ryan Moy, MD, PhD; and Tristan Sands, MD, PhD, have been named 2024 Gerstner Scholars and will receive up to $300,000 to pursue promising research that has the potential to spark the development of new and better treatments for patients with kidney disease, cancer, and epilepsy. 

  • A New Viral Target Could Help Combat the Global Measles Resurgence: A multinational research team led by Matteo Porotto, PhD, has identified a novel viral target that could help combat the global resurgence of measles. The study was published in Science.  

  • Brain Imaging Reveals Curiosity as It Emerges: A study by Jacqueline Gottlieb, PhD, has discovered what happens in the human brain when curiosity arises, the first time the subjective feeling has been linked to a representation in the brain. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. 

  • Two VP&S Researchers Named HHMI Investigators: Samuel Sternberg and Dmitriy Aronov are among 26 leading scientists named new investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. HHMI investigators are established scientists who are working to push their research fields into new areas of inquiry. 

  • 2024 Herbert and Florence Irving Scholars Announced: Four faculty at VP&S, Barry Fine, MD, PhD; Gamze Gürsoy, PhD; Claudia Lugo-Candelas, PhD; and Meghna S. Trivedi, MD, have been named Irving Scholars and will receive funding to support their clinical research over the next four years. 

  • Bacteria Encode Hidden Genes Outside Their Genome—Do We?: Since the 1960’s, scientists understood genetic code by reading and decoding chromosomes as linear strings of letters. Samuel Sternberg, PhD, and MD/PhD student Stephen Tang, conducted a study showing that bacteria break the linear rule and can create free-floating and ephemeral genes, raising the possibility that similar genes exist outside of our own genome. The study was published in Science. 

  • Cancer Researchers Receive Pilot Grants from Velocity Fundraising: Four VP&S researchers were awarded pilot grants—made possible by proceeds from Velocity, Columbia’s annual cycling fundraiser—to support their early-stage cancer research. The new Velocity Fellows from VP&S are Francesca Bartolini, PhD; Rolando Perez-Lorenzo, PhD; and Xiao Zhao, MD. 

  • How Brain Cells Embody Thought: In a study from Stefano Fusi, PhD, and Daniel Salzman, MD, PhD, recordings from thousands of neurons have revealed how a person’s brain abstractly represents acts of reasoning. The study was published in Nature.  

  • One in Four Brain-Injured Unresponsive Patients Show Signs of Hidden Consciousness: A study by an international consortium including Jan Claassen, MD, shows as many as one-quarter of unresponsive patients with brain injuries have some level of awareness, a finding that could spur development of new treatments. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

  • Development is Stressful. Why Can’t Human Embryos Cope Better?: Human embryos often fail to cope with high levels of replication stress early in development. Lessons from cancer cells may help Dietrich M. Egli, PhD, and Juan-Manuel Schvartzman, MD, PhD, better understand the stress early human embryos are under and how they try to cope.  

  • Researchers Identify Most Common Long COVID Symptoms in Children and Teens: Researchers from the NIH RECOVER Initiative, led by Melissa Stockwell, MD, have identified long COVID symptoms in kids and teens, which could ultimately lead to improved diagnoses and treatments for millions. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

  • Mitochondria Are Flinging Their DNA into Our Brain Cells: A new study led by Martin Picard, PhD, finds that mitochondria in our brain cells frequently fling their DNA into the nucleus, where the mitochondrial DNA integrates into chromosomes, possibly causing harm. The study was published in PLOS Biology.