2025 News

Two teams at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York to develop next-generation, personalized cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Aimee Payne, chair of the Department of Dermatology, leads a project to develop cell therapies that eliminate harmful cells in patients with pemphigus, myasthenia gravis, and other autoimmune diseases.

Catherine Spina, assistant professor of radiation oncology, and Jeremy Worley, assistant professor of systems biology, lead a team that is working to adapt chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy—which has shown remarkable success in treating blood cancers—for the treatment of solid tumors.

The researchers are among nine new investigators to receive funding from the Investigator Program(link is external and opens in a new window) at CZ Biohub NY. The program provides unrestricted funding to scientists, engineers, and technologists from Columbia, Rockefeller, and Yale to pursue innovative and high-impact research in systems immunology. CZ Biohub NY launched in 2023 with a mission to harness and bioengineer immune cells for the early detection, prevention, and treatment of a broad spectrum of age-related diseases.

Please access full article on CUIMC site

Cancer researcher Cory Abate-Shen has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Abate-Shen is professor of molecular pharmacology and therapeutics and the Robert Sonneborn Professor of Medicine, with additional appointments in the Departments of Urology and Systems Biology at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is also a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Institute for Cancer Genetics at Columbia. She is among 120 newly elected members announced(link is external and opens in a new window) by the academy on April 29, 2025.

Abate-Shen is an internationally recognized leader in genitourinary malignancies. Her innovative studies of genetically engineered mouse models for these cancers have led to the discovery of new biomarkers for early detection, as well as advances in cancer prevention and treatment. Her studies of castration-resistant prostate cancer led to the identification of lineage plasticity as a key mechanism of drug resistance, and her investigations of prostate cancer metastasis have elucidated new mechanisms of metastasis as well as potential new targets for treating bone metastasis.

In recognition of her achievements, Abate-Shen has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Sinsheimer Scholar Award, a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, and an American Cancer Society Research Professorship. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program, and most recently a recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Award.

Abate-Shen has served in various leadership roles in the American Association for Cancer Research, including as a member of its board of directors. She has also participated extensively in national grant review sections, including as chair of the NIH Molecular Oncology Study Section. She has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, as well as its Blue Ribbon Panel Working Group for the Cancer Moonshot Initiative.

The ISCB Fellows program recognizes excellence in computational biology, honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions through leadership, research, and service. ISCB Fellows have played a pivotal role in advancing bioinformatics and computational biology, shaping the field through innovation and collaboration. This prestigious distinction reflects a career of significant impact and a dedication to the scientific community.

Itsik Pe'er is a leading computational geneticist whose work has reshaped our understanding of human genetics and microbial dynamics. He pioneered identity-by-descent (IBD) analysis, enabling researchers to trace population history, detect genetic associations, and refine disease risk predictions. His contributions extend to microbiome research, where his FEAST tool and modeling approaches have advanced studies of microbial evolution and health. A dedicated mentor and educator, Pe'er has trained the next generation of leaders in genomics and computational biology while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across genetics, machine learning, and mathematical modeling.

Visit the ISCB website to see the full list of 2025 ISCB Fellows