Our Diverse Research Portfolio Promotes Enhanced Care

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Department of Pediatrics Annual Report – 2022

Infectious Diseases

Department of Pediatric Annual Report 2022 Banner

The Division of Infectious Diseases reflects the multidisciplinary approach essential to the practice of medicine and medical research. Our faculty are involved in patient care, hospital epidemiology, basic science, clinical research activities, clinical trials, and teaching. Division members have diverse and interrelated interests ranging from very basic mechanisms of molecular pathogenesis to the cascades of care required to ensure that adolescents receive appropriate treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). We are actively engaged in medical education with undergraduate, graduate, medical, and postdoctoral students from all of Columbia's health sciences divisions. The division staffs NewYork-Presbyterian’s antibiotic stewardship program, which reviews antibiotic use and positive cultures daily and guides providers on appropriate and safe antibiotic use. Division members have diverse research interests and collaborate widely with other investigators at Columbia, as well as at other institutions.

Honors and Awards

Natalie Neu, MD, MPH

  • Named as Associate Director of the Clinical Research Resource (CRR)
  • Named participating faculty member of the Integrating Special Populations (ISP) Resource of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, home to Columbia’s NIH-NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award program hub
  • Elected as a fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society

Alice Prince, MD

  • Symposium Speaker at the Pittsburgh International Lung Conference
  • Guest speaker at the Gordon Conference of Biology of Acute Respiratory Infection in Ventura, California
  • Invited Talk Klebsiella International Seminar Series, University of Michigan

Sebastian Riquelme Colet, PhD

  • Symposium Chair at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation North American Meeting
  • Invited Speaker at the Gordon Conference on Immunometabolism in Rhode Island

Lisa Saiman, MD, MPH

  • Selected to be the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society Liaison to the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America Board of Trustees
  • Named 2022 NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital Physician of the Year, recognized for her collaborative, empathetic, and compassionate approach to patient care

Lawrence Stanberry, MD, PhD

  • Co-convener and moderator, COVID-19 Vaccines: Unfinished Business. A Virtual Global Health Symposium: March 28 - April 1, 2022, Columbia University

Tania Wong, PhD

  • Invited Talk: Infection program seminars, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Australia

Jason Zucker, MD, MS

  • Named Vice Chair NIH Funded, ACTG run trial for tecovirimat – Study of Tecovirimat for Human Monkeypox Virus (STOMP)
  • Member of the ACIP Working Group for MPOX vaccination
  • Moderator IDWeek session on MPOX
  • Participated as Moderator – IDWeek session on interactive STI cases

Major Grants

  • Varicella zoster virus identification program. Merck. Principal Investigator: Anne Gershon, MD.
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. Principal Investigator: Anne Gershon, MD.
  • NYC Prevention Training Center providing clinical insight for PrEP program implementation. Principal Investigator: Alwyn Cohall, MD; Medical Director: Natalie Neu, MD, MPH.
  • Project STAY (Program to Assist Youth) Specialized Care Clinic. New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. C31376GG. Multi Principal Investigators: Maria V. Espinal, MPH, and Alwyn Cohall, MD; Medical Director: Natalie Neu, MD, MPH.
  • Project STAY (Program to Assist Youth) Youth Access Program. New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. C027235B. Multi Principal Investigators: Espinal and Alwyn Cohall, MD; Medical Director: Natalie Neu, MD, MPH.
  • National Network of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinical Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC). CDC. 1NU62PS924586. Principal Investigator: Alwyn Cohall, MD. Natalie Neu, MD, MPH; Medical Director: Natalie Neu, MD, MPH.
  • National Network of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinical Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC- Supplement). CDC. 1NU62PS924586 CDC. Principal Investigator: Alwyn Cohall, MD; Medical Director: Natalie Neu, MD, MPH.
  • Innate immune clearance of host-adapted pulmonary pathogens. NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. R35HL135800-07. Principal Investigator: Alice Prince, MD.
  • CFTR modulator/potentiator therapy and susceptibility to S. aureus infection. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Principal Investigator: Alice Prince, MD.
  • Impact of nucleotide metabolism on bacterial clearance. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. 1R35GM146776-01. Principal Investigator: Sebastian Riquelme Colet, PhD.
  • Regulatory T cells influence susceptibility to P. aeruginosa infection. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Principal Investigator: Sebastian Riquelme Colet, PhD.
  • Assessing effectiveness of infection prevention and control in CF. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Principal Investigator: Marianne Muhlebach, MD; Co-Principal Investigator: Lisa Saiman, MD, MPH.
  • Training in pediatric infectious diseases. NIH T32 Training Grant. Principal Investigators: Alice Prince, MD, and Lisa Saiman, MD, MPH.
  • Program in vaccine education. Pfizer. Principal Investigator: Lawrence Stanberry, MD, PhD.
  • Understanding the immunometabolic response to Klebsiella pneumonia infection. NIH/NHLBI. 1K99HL157550-01A1. Principal Investigator: Tania Wong, PhD.
  • Using shared decision making to increase equitable testing of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents and young adults in the emergency department. CaMPR-ISP award. CUIMC. Co-Principal Investigator: Jason Zucker, MD, MS; Co-Principal Investigator: Lauren Chernick, MD, MSc.
  • A digital patient decision aid to increase sexually transmitted infection testing in the emergency department: The STIckER study. NIH. Co-Principal Investigator: Jason Zucker, MD, MS; Co-Principal Investigator: Lauren Chernick, MD, MSc.

Selected Publications

Gershon A, Gershon M. Varicella vaccine: A molecular variant that may contribute to attenuation - Commentary. mBio. 2022:13(6).

Rosenberg G, Riquelme S, Prince A, Avraham R. Immunometabolic crosstalk during bacterial infection. Nat Microbiol. 2022;7(4):497-507. doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01080-5. Epub 2022 Apr 1. PMID: 35365784.

Caverly LJ, Riquelme SA, Hisert KB. The impact of highly effective modulator therapy on cystic fibrosis microbiology and inflammation. Clin Chest Med. 2022;43(4):647-665. doi: 10.1016/j.ccm.2022.06.007. PMID: 36344072.

Branche AR, Saiman L, Walsh EE, Falsey AR, Sieling WD, Greendyke W, Peterson DR, Vargas CY, Phillips M, Finelli L. Incidence of respiratory syncytial virus infection among hospitalized adults, 2017–2020. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;74(6):1004-1011.

Makadzange AT, Gundidza P, Lau C,  Beta N, Myburgh N,  Elose N, James W, Stanberry L, Ndhlovu C. Vaccine adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination with inactivated vaccines in Zimbabwe. Vaccines. 2022;10(10):1767. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10101767.

Thomson MC, Stanberry LR. Climate change and vector-borne diseases. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(21):1969-1978. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra2200092.

Wong T. Klebsiella pneumoniae induces host metabolic stress that promotes tolerance to pulmonary infection. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.03.009.

Wong T, Chan LC, Prince A, Yeaman MR, Archer NK, Aman J, Proctor RA. Staphylococcus aureus adaptive evolution, immune evasion, immunometabolism and host genetics: Recent insights impacting vaccine development. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2002;12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.1060810.

Thornhill JP, Palich R, Ghosn J, Walmsley S, Moschese D, Cortes CP, Galliez RM, Garlin AB, Nozza S, Mitja O, Radix AE, Blanco JL, Crabtree-Ramirez B, Thompson M, Wiese L, Schulbin H, Levcovich A, Falcone M, Lucchini A, Sendagorta E, Treutiger CJ, Byrne R, Coyne K, Meyerowitz EA, Grahn AM, Hansen AE, Pourcher V, DellaPiazza M, Lee R, Stoeckle M, Hazra A, Apea V, Rubenstein E, Jones J, Wilkin A, Ganesan A, Henao-Martínez AF, Chow EJ, Titanji BK, Zucker JE, Ogoina D, Orkin CM, Share-Net writing group. Human monkeypox virus infection in women and non-binary individuals during the 2022 outbreaks: A global case series. Lancet. 2022;S0140-6736(22)02187-0. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02187-0. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36403584. 

Torres HM, Ellsworth G, Zucker J, Glesby MJ. Approaching monkeypox: A guide for clinicians. Top Antivir Med. 2022;30(4):575-581. PMID: 36375131. 

DeLaurentis CE, Kiser J, Zucker J. New perspectives on antimicrobial agents: Tecovirimat for treatment of human monkeypox virus. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2022;e0122622. doi: 10.1128/aac.01226-22. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36374026.

Highlights

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Columbia's experts discuss where we've been and what we can expect when it comes to controlling the COVID pandemic, as well as variants, new vaccines, boosters, breakthrough infections, and other potential scientific discoveries.