October Newsletter
MDS Center PROGRAMS
E.P. Evans MDS Center Hematological Malignancies Seminar Series:
“Genetic Predisposition to Myeloid Malignancy.”
Akiko Shimamura, MD, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Director, Bone Marrow Failure and MDS Program, Dana Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
Date: Wednesday, October 25
Time: 12:00PM
Location: ICRC first floor auditorium
Hosted By: Lei Ding, PhD
MDS Faculty Meeting Seminar:
Date: Tuesday, November 14
Time: 12:00PM to 1:30PM
Location: Black Building, Conference Room 1418
Speaker: Dr. Raul Rabadan
Talk Title: TBA
E.P. Evans MDS Center Trainee Workshop Series Presentations
Date: Wednesday, October 23
Time: 12:30 PM to 2:00PM
Location: Black Building room 1418
Pizza & refreshments provided
Presenter: Dr. Carolina Petrillo from Snoeck lab
MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Kimara Targoff new funding
Kimara Targoff, MD was recently a new R01 grant (HL162989-01A1) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute entitled “Mechanism of myocardial regeneration mediated by Nkx2.5 in zebrafish” and a second R01 (HL170188-01A0) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute entitled “Essential functions of extracellular matrix in outflow tract morphogenesis”
Kimara also received a second year of funding for her collaborative Research Initiatives in Science & Engineering (RISE) award from Columbia University. With Co-I, Dr. Nandan Nerurkar, the project focuses on the design and implementation of innovative mechanobiology tools to study cardiac chamber development.
Aaron Viny R37 MERIT Award
Congratulations to Dr. Arron Viny! He has been awarded the prestigious R37 MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) grant by the NCI. Awarded to early-stage investigators receiving an R01 score within the NCI payline for experienced investigators provides two additional years of funding. This seven-year award, totaling $3.7 million, will fuel Dr. Viny's research project entitled "The Role of the Cohesin Complex in Hematopoietic Transformation and Leukemia Maintenance.” This project aims to identify the epigenetic basis for the refractoriness of secondary AML arising from Stag2 mutant MDS and determine the dependency of Stag2-cohesin loss on leukemia maintenance https://www.cancer.columbia.edu/news/aaron-viny-md-awarded-r37-merit-grant-0
Winning Fellowships
“Modeling Human Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential (CHIP), MDS, and AML Using in Vitro Hematopoiesis from Gene-Edited Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells”
Lead Investigator: Yong-Oon Ahn, PhD, associate research scientist,
Emily Mace Lab
“Investigate the Impact of Genotoxic Therapies on rDNA Instability at the Single Cell Level and Its Role in Therapy-Induced MDS/AML”
Lead Investigator: Xiaolu Zhu, PhD, post-doctoral research scientist
Shan Zha, Lab
Winning Pilot Awards
“Predicting AML by Means of m6A and YTHDF Proteins Activity”
Lead Investigator: Sara Zaccara, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Systems Biology
“Nucleolar Dysfunction as a Therapeutic Liability in Cohesin Mutant MDS”
Lead Investigator: Aaron Viny, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine and Columbia Stem Cell Initiative
Co-Investigator: Hans Snoeck Willem, Byron M. Thomason Professor of Medicine (in Microbiology and Immunology)
Azra Raza, MD, and Abdullah Ali, PhD, Receive Funding to Develop Drug Discovery Platform
With funding from TFC Therapeutics, Dr. Raza and Dr. Ali will focus on developing new strategies to target tumor macrophage hybrid cells in order to prevent cancer metastasis and overcome resistance to traditional cancer therapies.
HICCC Seminar Series - Distinguished Speaker
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Ronald DePinho, MD
Genetics and Biology of Pancreatic Cancer
Professor and Past President, The University Of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Title: “Genetics and Biology of Pancreatic Cancer”
OTHER EVENTS
HICCC PROGRAMS
HICCC Seminar Series: Research-in-Progress
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Kathleen M Capaccione, MD, PHD
Associate Professor of Radiology Department of Radiology
Title: Potentiating KRAS^G12C inhibition with FAP targeted radiotherapy as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer
Sara Zaccara Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Systems Biology Department of Systems Biology
Program: Precision Oncology and Systems Biology
Title: Understanding the epitranscriptome and its implication in disease.
HICCC Seminar Series - Distinguished Speaker
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Ronald DePinho, MD
Genetics and Biology of Pancreatic Cancer
Professor and Past President, The University Of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Title: “Genetics and Biology of Pancreatic Cancer”
OTHER SEMINARS
The Biology of Aging Seminar Series
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Toren Finkel, MD, Ph.D
Distinguished Professor of Medicine,
Director of Aging Institute,
G. Nicholas Beckwith III and Dorothy B. Beckwith Endowed Chair of Translational Medicine,
University of Pittsburgh/UPMC
Title: "Lysosomes and aging: Underlying mechanisms and therapeutic potential"
Department of Genetics and Development Seminar Series
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Steven Munger, PhD
Associate Professor
The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME
Title: "The Stories that SNPs Tell: Genetic Diversity as a Tool for Discovery "
Department of Genetics and Development Seminar Series
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Marc Kirschner, PhD
Professor of Systems Biology
Harvard Medical School
John Franklin Enders Harvard University Professor
Title: “The Control of Cell Size”
Wednesday, December 7, 2023
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
ICRC 1st Floor Auditorium
Joshua J. Ofman, MD, MSHS
President, GRAIL LLC, an Illumina Company, Menlo Park, CA
Title: “Multi-Cancer Early Detection - Novel Approaches and Public Health Impact”
For more info: rk3244@cumc.columbia.edu
Wednesday, December 7, 2023
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Zoom registration: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mgvSKmi7SBmtBr4z-E6LaQ
Biomedical Engineering Tissue Talks presented by Sheila Chari
Cell Press
Title: "Publishing with Cell Press: Inside the Editorial Process"
For more info: bme@columbia.edu
Abraham Spector Prize Lecture and Symposium | Ophthalmology and CSCI
Thursday, October 19, 2023
1:30PM – 5:30 PM
Hybrid Event: Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center
173 Fort Washington Avenue
Zoom Link (Webinar ID: 915 2700 8775 I Passcode: 772400