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Survivors of breast cancer have a one in six chance of developing breast cancer in the other breast. But a study conducted in mice suggests that survivors can dramatically reduce that risk through treatment with moderate doses of radiation to the unaffected breast at the same time that they receive radiation therapy to their affected breast. The treatment, if it works as well in humans as in mice, could prevent tens of thousands of second breast cancers.

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Columbia University Medical Center researchers have identified a gene, called matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), that appears to play a major role in motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The findings, made in mice, explain why most but not all motor neurons are affected by the disease and identify a potential therapeutic target for this still-incurable neurodegenerative disease. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Neuron.

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AML is a blood cancer, but for many patients the cancer may originate from an unusual source: a mutation in their bone cells. In a study published today in the online edition of Nature, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center found that a mutation in the bone cells called osteoblasts, which build new bone, causes AML in mice. The mutation was found in nearly 40 percent of patients with AML or myelodysplastic syndrome, a precursor condition, who were examined as part of the study.

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One of the nation’s leading experts in hearing loss, Lawrence Lustig, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and otolaryngologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, effective July 1, 2014. Dr. Lustig is currently professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.

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NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center has named leading physician-scientist Dr. Gary Schwartz chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine and associate director for research of its Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. He assumed his new role on January 1, 2014.

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Giving young children the influenza and pneumococcal vaccines together appears to increase their risk of fever, according to a study led by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study looked at children 6–23 months old, and was published online on Jan. 6, 2014, in JAMA Pediatrics.

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The ADEAGies Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Dental Education Association, is recognizing Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine for its Community DentCare program, which provides low- or no-cost dental care to children, adults, and seniors in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx.

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Using high-resolution fMRI imaging in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in mouse models of the disease, researchers have clarified three fundamental issues about Alzheimer's: where it starts, why it starts there, and how it spreads. In addition to advancing understanding of Alzheimer's, the findings could improve early detection of the disease, when drugs may be most effective. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

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For discoveries about how the brain calculates and remembers where it is—which could be part of the foundation of memory—Columbia University will award the 2013 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Edvard I. Moser, PhD, and May-Britt Moser, PhD, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway, and John Michael O’Keefe, PhD, of University College London in the UK. Their work, conducted in animal models, may lead to new treatments for Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders that affect the brain's spatial capabilities.

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For the first time, scientists have succeeded in transforming human stem cells into functional lung and airway cells. The advance, reported by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers, has significant potential for modeling lung disease, screening drugs, studying human lung development, and, ultimately, generating lung tissue for transplantation. The study was published today in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

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An international team of scientists, including researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, has identified a key metabolic enzyme that common malaria parasites require for survival at each stage of infection in humans. The findings raise the possibility of a new approach to combating malaria, one of the world’s deadliest diseases. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Nature.

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A single overactive enzyme worsens the two core defects of diabetes—impaired insulin sensitivity and overproduction of glucose—suggesting that a drug targeting the enzyme could help correct both at once, according to mouse studies done by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center. The findings were published today in the online edition of Cell Metabolism.

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Philipp E. Scherer, PhD honored with Columbia’s top award for excellence in diabetes research for helping create a new understanding of fat and its role in diabetes/ metabolic diseases. He helped transform the scientific concept of fat as an inert storage depot to one of it as an endocrine organ that exerts control over the brain, muscles, and other organs.

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Scientists from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have used stem cells created from the skin of patients with a rare form of diabetes—Wolfram syndrome—to elucidate an important biochemical pathway for beta-cell failure in diabetes. The findings were published in Diabetes.

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A Columbia-led research team has clinically validated a new method for predicting time to nursing home residence or death for patients with Alzheimer’s. The method uses data from a single patient visit, and is based on a complex model of Alzheimer’s progression developed by consecutively following two sets of Alzheimer’s patients for 10 years each.

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Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have devised a hair restoration method that can generate new human hair growth, rather than simply redistribute hair from one part of the scalp to another. The approach could significantly expand the use of hair transplantation to women with hair loss, who tend to have insufficient donor hair, as well as to men in early stages of baldness. The study was published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Despite major efforts to keep operating rooms sterile, surgical wound infections remain a serious and stubborn problem, killing up to 8,200 patients a year in the U.S. Columbia University Medical Center research published in PLOS ONE suggests that narrow-spectrum UV light could dramatically reduce such infections without damaging human tissue.

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Researchers have found that the skeleton, acting through the bone-derived hormone osteocalcin, exerts a powerful influence on prenatal brain development and cognitive functions such as learning, memory, anxiety, and depression in adult mice. Findings from the mouse study could lead to new approaches to the prevention and treatment of neurologic disorders. The study was published today in the online edition of Cell.

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A new genetic test may help determine which men with early prostate cancer can avoid surgery or other invasive treatment.

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Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) has launched a three-year Doctor of Medicine (MD) program for PhD-trained biological scientists. The accelerated curriculum prepares graduates for physician-scientist careers that combine their knowledge of fundamental biomedical science with an understanding of how diseases and their treatments affect humans.

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A team of Columbia University Medical Center researchers, led by Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel, MD, has found that deficiency of a protein called RbAp48 in the hippocampus is a significant contributor to age-related memory loss and that this form of memory loss is reversible. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine.

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High-risk pregnant women are being recruited for a clinical trial that aims to give parents detailed information about genetic abnormalities found with the latest prenatal genetic testing, known as microarray.

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Researchers have created a fleet of molecular “robots” that can home in on specific human cells and mark them for drug therapy or destruction. The nanorobots—a collection of DNA molecules, some attached to antibodies —were designed to seek a specific set of human blood cells and attach a fluorescent tag to the cell surfaces. Details of the system were published July 28, 2013, in the online edition of Nature Nanotechnology.

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Celiac disease patients with ongoing intestine damage have a greater than 2-fold increased risk of lymphoma vs. celiac patients whose intestines healed. Findings will be published in the Aug. 6 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

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A team of researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center researchers has identified 18 new genes responsible for driving glioblastoma multiforme, the most common—and most aggressive—form of brain cancer in adults. The study was published August 5, 2013, in Nature Genetics.

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Scientists have identified new genetic mutations that can cause pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare fatal disease characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs. The mutations, found in the gene KCNK3, appear to affect potassium channels in the pulmonary artery, a mechanism not previously linked to the condition. Cell culture studies showed that the mutations’ effects could be reversed with a drug compound known as a phospholipase inhibitor. The study was published today in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Key molecular pathways that lead to late-onset Alzheimer's disease have been identified by neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center. Published in Nature, findings present a new approach to Alzheimer’s research and highlight several new potential drug targets.

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Researchers have identified a genetic mutation that causes congenital malformations of the kidney and urinary tract, a common form of birth defect and the most common cause of kidney failure in children. It is the first time that a specific genetic mutation has been linked to a non-syndromic form of urinary tract malformation. The findings were published in the July 17 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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New Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University Medical Center is developing a different approach to cancer clinical trials, in which therapies are designed and tested one patient at a time. The patient’s tumor is “reverse engineered” to determine its unique genetic characteristics and to identify existing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs that may target them.

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A series of studies conducted by Randy Bruno, PhD, and Christine Constantinople, PhD, of Columbia University’s Department of Neuroscience, topples convention by showing that sensory information travels to two places at once: not only to the brain’s mid-layer (where most axons lead), but also directly to its deeper layers. The study appears in the June 28, 2013, edition of the journal Science.

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Researchers have demonstrated that a protein called caspase-2 is a key regulator of a signaling pathway that leads to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. The findings, made in a mouse model of Alzheimer's, suggest that inhibiting this protein could prevent the neuronal damage and subsequent cognitive decline associated with the disease. The study was published this month in the online journal Nature Communications.

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Elevated antibodies to gluten proteins of wheat found in children with autism in comparison to those without autism. Results from a new study also indicated an association between the elevated antibodies and the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms in the affected children. They did not find any connection, however, between the elevated antibodies and celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder known to be triggered by gluten.

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One in four people who survive a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) suffer from symptoms of PTSD within the 1st year post-event, and one in nine experience chronic PTSD more than a year later. The data, e-published by PLOS ONE, suggest that each year nearly 300,000 stroke/TIA survivors will develop PTSD symptoms as a result of their health scare.

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A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY).

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Obese adolescents are more likely than their normal-weight counterparts to have hearing loss, according to results of a new study. Findings showed that obese adolescents had increased hearing loss across all frequencies and were almost twice as likely to have unilateral (one-sided) low-frequency hearing loss.

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Columbia University announced today that Christian S. Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent, has been named dean of the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine. A leading expert on pain management and on jaw disorders, Dr. Stohler is currently dean of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Columbia Psychiatry researchers have identified what they think may be a mechanism underlying the development of compulsive behaviors. The finding - published in Science - suggests possible approaches to treating or preventing certain characteristics of OCD.

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The more heart attack-induced PTSD symptoms a patient has, the worse their sleep likely was in the month following their heart attack. New findings from a research team at Columbia University Medical Center’s Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

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Allergens? No. Inflammation? No. An over-active gene that interrupts lipid synthesis appears to be the cause of 20-30% childhood asthma cases.

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Researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret “high-dimensional” data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry. The method, published today in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology, has particular relevance to cancer research and therapeutics.

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Columbia University has signed a licensing agreement with Varian Medical Systems for novel imaging software that facilitates 3-D segmentation, the process by which anatomical structures in medical images are distinguished from one another—an important step in the precise planning of cancer surgery and radiation treatments.

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Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes appears to increase the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death among people with high blood sugar, partly by stimulating the production of calprotectin, a protein that sparks an inflammatory process that fuels the buildup of artery-clogging plaque.

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A massive study analyzing gene expression data from 22 tumor types has identified multiple metabolic expression changes associated with cancer, as well as hundreds of potential drug targets that could cut off a tumor’s fuel supply or interfere with its ability to synthesize essential building blocks. Published in Nature Biotechnology.

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An excess of the brain neurotransmitter glutamate may cause a transition to psychosis in people who are at risk for schizophrenia.The findings suggest 1) a potential diagnostic tool for identifying those at risk for schizophrenia and 2) a possible glutamate-limiting treatment strategy to prevent or slow progression of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

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The following research from clinician-scientists at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, April 6–10, 2013, in Washington, DC.

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African-Americans with a variant of the ABCA7 gene have almost double the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease compared with African-Americans who lack the variant. The largest genome-wide search for Alzheimer’s genes in African-Americans, the study was led by Columbia University Medical Center. It will be published in JAMA (4/10/13 issue).

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Depressive symptoms after heart disease are associated with a markedly increased risk of death or another heart attack. However, less has been known about whether treating heart attack survivors for depressive symptoms could relieve these symptoms, be cost-effective, and ultimately, reduce medical risk? Columbia University Medical Center’s Karina W. Davidson, PhD and her research team now report a patient-centered approach that answers these questions in the affirmative.

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More symptoms of depression and lower cognitive status are independently associated with a more rapid decline in the ability to handle tasks of everyday living, according to a study by Columbia University Medical Center researchers in this month’s Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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Researchers have developed biodegradable nanoparticles that are capable of delivering inflammation-resolving drugs to sites of tissue injury. The nanoparticles, which were successfully tested in mice, have potential for the treatment of a wide array of diseases characterized by excessive inflammation, such as atherosclerosis. The study was published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

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Philip and Cheryl Milstein have made a $20 million commitment to Columbia University Medical Center. The pledge, through their family foundation, is the latest gift from the Philip Milstein family and is intended to support the medical center’s campus revitalization, specifically, the new Medical and Graduate Education Building.