Leadership

Dr. Maniatis is recognized as one of the pioneers of modern molecular biology, having led the development of recombinant DNA methods and their application to the study of the mechanisms of gene regulation. He co-authored the definitive laboratory manual on genetic engineering, entitled the Molecular Cloning Manual, along with Joe Sambrook and Ed Fritsch in 1982. This three-volume manual, published by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, set a standard for international dissemination of recombinant DNA methods. Dr. Maniatis’ research has led to major advances in understanding the mechanisms of gene expression at the level of RNA transcription and splicing. His current research is focused on the role of single cell diversity in neural connectivity, and on the molecular mechanisms that underlie the neurodegenerative disease ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

Dr. Maniatis’ research contributions have been acknowledged by membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and by numerous awards, including the Eli Lilly Research Award in Microbiology and Immunology, the Novartis Drew Award in Biomedical Research, the Richard Lounsbery Award for Biology and Medicine, and the Lasker Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science. He has received honorary PhD degrees from the Cold Spring Harbor Graduate School, the University of Athens, and the Rockefeller University.

After receiving his BA and MS degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his PhD in molecular biology from Vanderbilt University, Dr. Maniatis carried out postdoctoral studies at Harvard University and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He has held faculty appointments at Harvard University, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the California Institute of Technology during his career.

Katrina Armstrong, MD, is interim president of Columbia University and leads Columbia University’s medical campus as the Chief Executive Officer of CUIMC, which includes the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S), the School of Nursing, the College of Dental Medicine, and the Mailman School of Public Health. She also is Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences for Columbia University and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. As VP&S dean, Dr. Armstrong leads the nation’s second oldest medical school and the first to award an MD degree. She is an internationally recognized investigator in medical decision making, quality of care, and cancer prevention and outcomes, an award-winning teacher, and a practicing primary care physician.

She has served on multiple advisory panels for academic and federal organizations and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Before joining Columbia, Dr. Armstrong was the Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Before joining Harvard, she was Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Associate Director of the Abramson Cancer Center, and Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Yale University (BA degree in architecture), Johns Hopkins (MD degree), and the University of Pennsylvania (MS degree in clinical epidemiology). She completed her residency training in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins.

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.