CPMI Supported Faculty

2024

2023

Dr. Kwong received his PhD from Columbia University in 1995 and continued as a postdoc with Wayne A. Hendrickson until 2000, when he left Columbia to found and to lead the Structural Biology Section at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health. Since 2016, Kwong has also been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University.

In 2023, he was recruited back to Columbia University to be Co-Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. Kwong is internationally recognized for his work defining structural aspects of the HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins and their interactions with antibodies. His awards include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2003), the Norman P. Salzman Award in Virology (2012), election to the American Academy of Microbiology (2014), and multiple NIAID Merit and NIH Director’s Awards. For the last several years, he has focused on applying the atomic-level tools of structural biology to the development of effective vaccines against HIV-1 and other viral pathogens. At Columbia University, his efforts initially focused on Antibodyomics, the informatics of antibody recognition, development, and improvement. Since formally returning to Columbia University in 2023, he has been working on structural vaccinology. 

For more information, please visit the Kwong-Shapriro Lab here.

2022

Dr. Hashim M. Al-Hashimi is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and grew up in Greece, Italy, Jordan, and the UK. Dr. Al-Hashimi received his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from Yale University in 2000. There, he developed NMR spectroscopic methods to study the structure and dynamics of proteins. Between 2000 and 2002, Dr. AlHashimi was a postdoctoral fellow at the Memorial SloaneKettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he turned his attention toward studying the structural dynamics of nucleic acids. A year into his postdoctoral training, Dr. Al-Hashimi accepted an offer to join the faculty at the University of Michigan. There he rose through the ranks and, seven years later, was named the Robert L Kuczkowski Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics. In 2014, Dr. Al-Hashimi joined the faculty at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he was the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry and Director of the Duke Center for RNA Biology.

He joined the Columbia faculty on May 1, 2022. As a principal investigator, Dr. Al-Hashimi and his trainees pioneered the development and application of NMR and other biophysical approaches for visualizing how the three-dimensional structures of DNA and RNA molecules change with time at the atomic level. These technological advances resulted in a deeper and more quantitative understanding of many fundamental cellular processes, including the mechanisms of cancercausing mutations and gene regulation by non-coding RNAs. Dr. Al-Hashimi also pioneered approaches for identifying RNA-targeting therapeutics using RNA dynamics, and in 2009, he co-founded Nymirum Inc to enable RNA-targeted drug discovery.

He is the recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, the Founder’s Medal in NMR Spectroscopy, the Agilent Thought Leader Award, and the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology. He is a Fellow of the Biophysical Society and the International Society of Magnetic Resonance. Popular Science Magazine listed Dr. Al-Hashimi among the ‘Brilliant 10’ scientists and engineers in the USA. The appointment was made possible by financial support from the Diana and Roy Vagelos Precision Medicine Fund.

For more information, please visit the Al-Hashimi lab website here.

2021

Dr. Gamze Gursoy is the Herbert Irving Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Informatics (and in Computer Science) at Columbia University. She was previously a K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow at Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program of Yale University with Mark Gerstein. She obtained her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from University of Illinois at Chicago under the supervision of Jie Liang and her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Gürsoy’s lab’s overarching research goal is to harmonize diverse fields such as biology, bioinformatics, molecular biology, engineering, and cryptography to achieve two fundamental aims: (1) to increase biomedical data access to a wider group of scientists while preserving privacy of research participants; and (2) to uncover the molecular underpinnings of gene dysregulation via knowledge gained from functional genomics data. They create modular and privacy-enhancing omics and clinical data analysis tools, which can be adapted to new data modalities and analysis needs as they arise, by combining knowledge in molecular biology and applied cryptography. They also develop computational and biochemical technologies to pinpoint genetic and epigenetic determinants of chromatin organization. Dr. Gürsoy leads a group of computational and experimental scientists, creating opportunities for training in cross-disciplinary studies in her lab. More information about her group can be found here.

Dr. Gürsoy’s work has been recognized with many honors, most recently a 2022 NIGMS Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, a 2020 NHGRI Pathway to Independence Award, a 2018 NIH/IBM Big Data to Knowledge Young Investigator Award, and a 2017 University of Illinois Outstanding Dissertation Award. She led teams to win first and third place in NHGRI iDASH Secure Genome Analysis Competition in 2018 and 2019, respectively. She is also recognized by her contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM and selected as one of the inaugural Intersections Science Fellows in 2021.

For more information, please visit the G2 Lab website here.

TJ Singh is an Assistant Professor of Computational and Statistical Genomics at Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) and an associate faculty member at the New York Genome Center (NYGC). He has an interdisciplinary appointment at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, Mathematics, and Economics at Williams College in 2012. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute with Dr. Jeffrey Barrett in 2016. He continued his training at the Analytical and Translational Unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T. with Dr. Mark Daly and Dr. Benjamin Neale as a post-doctoral fellow (2017 - 2020) and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School (2020 - 2022).

As part of global collaborative efforts, he has analyzed large-scale sequence data to identify protein-coding variants in individual genes that confer substantial risk for psychiatric disorders. He is interested in using genome sequencing as a foundational tool to understand the etiology of mental illnesses.

For more information, please visit the Singh Lab website here.

2020

Professor Kristin Baldwin, a leading neuroscience researcher, joined Columbia’s Department of Genetics and Development in early 2020. Dr. Baldwin’s research focusses on pluripotent stem cells to model and study epigenetic changes occurring in the brain genome and the cardiovascular system. She completed post-doctoral work with Richard Axel, and she returns to Columbia from Doris Neuroscience Center, Scripps Research where she is currently a professor in the Department of Neuroscience.

BALDWIN LAB AT A GLANCE

Our lab was the first to show that a full mouse could be successfully cloned from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Ever since, we've leveraged the potential of reprogramming to explore questions of basic biology and translational medicine. From neuronal diversity to cardiovascular disease, from autism to the mutational spectra of aging, our lab tackles a wide variety of projects through the biologic alchemy of molecular reprogramming.

For more information, please visit the Baldwin lab website here.

Educated at Wake Forest University and Emory University, Chris completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University where he interrogated neural circuits in epilepsy using state-of-the-art genetic, electrophysiological, and optical methods. He joined the Institute for Genomic Medicine and Department of Neurology at Columbia in June of 2020. His lab uses rodent models and human brain organoids to understand disease mechanisms and explore avenues for personal/precision medicine. His goal is to increase our understanding of how neural networks give rise to normal and pathological conditions, with an emphasis on elucidating the genetic underpinnings of neurological diseases. In his spare time, he enjoys wrangling his toddlers.

For more information, please visit the Makinson Lab website here.

Hemali Phatnani, PhD, has joined the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center, and the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease at the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University as Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences in the Department of Neurology, in the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine. Dr. Phatnani has also been appointed as a CTNI Scholar in the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative (CTNI).

Dr. Phatnani will retain a joint appointment at the New York Genome Center as the Director of the Center for Genomics of Neurodegenerative Disease. In that role, Dr. Phatnani established the NYGC ALS Consortium involving clinicians, scientists, geneticists, computational biologists and industry partners, providing a framework to apply clinical and functional genomics together with bioinformatics to study ALS disease mechanisms.

Her research focuses on gene regulatory mechanisms that underlie the complex interactions between motor neurons and non-neuronal cells in the brain and spinal cord of ALS patients and mouse models of disease. The goal of her research is to apply state-of-the-art genomics and bioinformatics to understand the role of cell-cell interactions in ALS pathophysiology.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Tom Maniatis at Harvard and Columbia Universities, Dr. Phatnani studied ALS disease mechanisms using stem cell-derived motor neurons and genomic profiling methods to study the complex interplay between motor neurons and astrocytes in ALS disease progression. She received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Duke University, where she characterized the interactions between RNA polymerase and proteins involved in the mechanistic coupling of RNA transcription and processing. She earned a BSc degree in Life Sciences from Bombay University.

For more information, please visit the Phatnani Lab here.

Dr. Bradley Miller is an Assistant Professor is the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is a principle investigator in the Kang Miller lab and also a practicing psychiatrist focused on depression and anxiety. Brad attended New York University as an undergraduate and received the Sherrington Award for his work on synaptic plasticity. He then completed the MD/PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis where he received the O’Leary Award for his research. As a graduate student working with Aaron DiAntonio and Jeffrey Milbrandt, he discovered a signaling pathway that drives axonal degeneration, an important component of diverse neuropathologies including neurodegeration, axonal injury, and chemotherapy induced axonal damage. This work led to new treatment approaches for axonal degeneration.

Brad then joined Columbia University for clinical training in the psychiatry residency program. He subsequently completed a Postdoctoral T32 Research Fellowship in Affective Disorders under the mentorship of René Hen. He then joined the faculty in the Columbia Department of Psychiatry after receiving a K08 from the National Institutes of Mental Health. At Columbia, Brad’s has focused on the pathophysiology of mood disorders and the mechanisms of treatment. To determine the function of the serotonergic system, he undertook a large scale in vivo imaging study of serotonergic neurons during emotional behaviors. This revealed that serotonergic neurons have highly heterogeneous response profiles, and as a whole the serotonergic system responds to emotionally salient stimuli (both positive and negative). Brad was also part of a large collaborative effort to identify rare human mutations that increase the risk for depression. He is now studying the circuit effects of these mutations using mouse models. Brad’s lab now uses a variety of in vivo imaging and circuit manipulation approaches to investigate the pathophysiology of depression and Alzheimer’s disease. His work has been recognized and supported by a BBRF NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, and the NIMH.

For more information, please visit the Kang Miller Labs here.

2019

Christine Kim Garcia, MD, PhD, is the Frode Jensen Professor of Medicine, Director of the Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative, and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Medicine within the Department of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Her laboratory studies the genetic basis of monogenic lung disease, with a specific focus on familial pulmonary fibrosis. Her group has identified several rare variants in genes belonging to the telomere, surfactant, and spindle pathways. She received her MD and PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she completed residency in internal medicine and fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

In 2019 she moved to Columbia and has been a member of the Center for Precision Medicine and Genomics and an affiliate of the Institute for Genomic Medicine. Dr. Garcia has received a number of awards and honors, including the Irene and Arthur Fishberg Prize from VP&S (2022), American Society for Clinical Investigation (2012), Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award (2008), President’s Research Council Distinguished Young Investigator Award from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (2006), Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Medical Scholar Award (2004), Parker B. Francis Fellowship Award in Pulmonary Research (2003) and Alpha Omega Alpha (1991). She currently co-chairs the NIH Clinical Genetic (ClinGen) Pulmonary Domain Executive Committee.

For more information, please visit the Garcia Lab here.

Dr. John is the Robert L. Burch III Professor of Ophthalmic Sciences at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.  Dr. John earned his Ph.D. in Biology and Human Genetics at McGill University in 1992. He trained under the eminent human geneticists Rizma Rozen and Charles Scriver, as well as Nobel Laureate Oliver Smithies. He has accumulated a wealth of experience in molecular biology, physiology, population genetics, animal models of complex diseases, and ocular diseases with a focus on glaucoma.  As a Professor and Principal Investigator at The Jackson Laboratory, Dr. John pioneered the use of mice for glaucoma research by adapting tools from the human clinic, as well as developing new tools and mouse models.

For more information, please visit the John lab here.

2018

Yueqing Peng is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology and a faculty member at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Columbia University. His laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach including electrophysiology, calcium imaging, optogenetics, chemogenetics, pharmacology, viral-based neural tracing, molecular biology, and mouse genetics to study the neurobiology of sleep. In collaboration with other faculty members at Columbia, his group is also interested in understanding the relationship between sleep abnormalities and neurological/psychiatric disorders.

For more information, please visit the Peng Lab here.

Sam was born and raised in Lancaster, PA. He earned his B.A. in biochemistry from Columbia University in 2007, where he trained with Professor Ruben Gonzalez, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014, under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Professor Jennifer Doudna. He was awarded graduate student fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, and received the Scaringe Award from the RNA Society and the Harold Weintraub Graduate Student Award from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. After a brief postdoc and book writing stint, Sam spent a year working at Caribou Biosciences, a Bay Area biotech start-up focusing on genome engineering applications, as a Scientist and Group Leader of Technology Development. He started his independent career in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia in February, 2018, where he was a Sloan Research Fellow in Chemistry and Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. He is the recent recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and the NSF CAREER Award, and he was named an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2024.

Sam's doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on the mechanism of nucleic acid targeting by RNA-guided bacterial immune systems (CRISPR–Cas) and on the development of these systems for genome engineering applications. His work has been published in the journals Nature, Science, and Cell, and been covered in The New York Times, Science News, The Scientist, and various other news outlets. His lab employs a range of biochemical, biophysical, genetics, molecular biology, and structural techniques to investigate CRISPR–Cas and transposon biology, with an eye towards applying mechanistic knowledge for genome engineering technology development.

Sam is committed to being a supportive mentor and effective lab manager, and to nurturing a collaborative research environment. He has closely mentored over two dozen undergraduate and graduate students, and has participated in numerous mentorship programs, including Student Mentoring and Research Teams (SMART) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP) at Berkeley. The desire to work with students in the lab was a major driver of Sam’s decision to transition from industry back to academia.

Outside of the lab, Sam is a passionate advocate for science communication and science outreach. He regularly presents to public audiences on the discovery of CRISPR–Cas immune systems and the ensuing gene-editing revolution, including a TEDMED talk in 2015, and he co-authored a pop-sci book with Jennifer Doudna on the same topic, titled A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution.

Aside from science, Sam is an avid squash player, enjoys playing saxophone and piano, reads voraciously, and roots for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Sam’s CV can be found here.

For more inforation, please visit the Sternberg Lab here.