A Natomy of Taste

248 Years Strong PS& Columbia Spring/SUmmer 2015 Medicine Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons DARK CHOCOLATE BiTTER POTATO CHIPS SALTY of Tas my te to a n JELLY BEANS A SWeeT LEMONS & LIMES SOUr Tomatoes UmAmi • FROM THE DEAN ColumbiaMedicine Chairman, editorial Board Thomas Q. Morris, MD Dear Readers, Alumni Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine editor itelson Bonita Eaton Enochs F Excellence and success are two terms we proudly use to ike describe our programs and the individuals and teams that staff Science editor / M Susan Conova them. Neuroscience is one of many fields at Columbia in which imes T the two terms intersect, and we measure our excellence and Contributing Writers success in discoveries, grants, published papers, national and Alla Katsnelson Joseph Neighbor anhattan international recognition of our faculty, and reputation. M Sharon Tregaskis We also increasingly use the term partnership to describe our research, patient care, and community programs, and that term also applies to Alumni news editor Marianne Wolff, MD Columbia neuroscience, a field that has become increasingly interdisciplinary. The P&S faculty who are members of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute Alumni Writer Peter Wortsman will move to the Jerome L. Greene Science Center when it opens in the next few years on Columbia’s new Manhattanville campus. The move of many of our neuroscience labs Design and Art Direction to Manhattanville will enable Morningside and CUMC colleagues to work in partnership Eson Chan and in close proximity. It also will free up space on our campus that will enable us to editorial Board undertake the largest faculty recruitment effort in nearly 20 years, as much impact as Alex Bandin’16 Stephen Nicholas, MD building an entire new research building. Ron Drusin, MD Stephen E. Novak Kenneth Forde, MD Carmen Ortiz-Neu, MD A few examples of Columbia’s strength in neuroscience are reported in this issue. Bruce Forester, MD Ajay Padaki’16 The researchers who are profiled study important brain functions from different per- Oscar Garfein, MD Richard Polin, MD spectives to illuminate the science behind movement and taste, showing the benefits of Sankar Ghosh, PhD Donald Quest, MD interdisciplinary—and intercampus—partnership in neuroscience. Lee Goldman, MD Alan Schechter, MD Angelina Gomes’16 John Schullinger, MD Neuroscience and other areas of study find us crossing campus boundaries on a routine Tom Hickernell, MD Elyse Seidner-Joseph, MD basis. Long an active partner with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in patient care, we are Robert Kass, PhD Joseph Tenenbaum, MD now partnering more and more with our Morningside colleagues in research and education. Matthew Lee’15 Emily Vail, MD The Columbia-wide precision medicine initiative is a good example of that. In this issue you Jay Lefkowitch, MD Tyler Vestal’16 Lisa Mellman, MD can read a Q&A with David Goldstein, the leader of our new Institute for Genomic Medicine, who explains the importance of the institute’s work to our overarching goals for precision Columbia Medicine is published twice a year for alumni, medicine. Tom Maniatis, leader of Columbia’s precision medicine initiative, and geneticist faculty, students, and other supporters of the College of Physicians & Surgeons. It is published by the college and Wendy Chung attended the January announcement at the White House of the federal gov- the P&S Alumni Association through the P&S Office of ernment’s plans to support precision medicine. Columbia’s intellectual resources in part- Communications. Additional content can be found in the nership with the government’s commitment should speed the growth of this important field. online edition at columbiamedicinemagazine.org. Our work with the Morningside campus extends beyond neuroscience, precision Lee goldman, mD medicine, and other formal academic collaborations. We have begun conversations with Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine Morningside for new joint degrees that will take advantage of the combined strengths and Chief Executive of Columbia University Medical Center of our campuses. What results from those conversations will offer our students more Catherine Freeland robust choices as they pursue their individual definitions of excellence and success. Assistant Vice Dean These partnerships reinforce our commitment to serving our students, patients, Marketing and Strategic Communications College of Physicians & Surgeons neighbors, and others who indirectly benefit from our programs, and we welcome your support of Columbia’s unique pursuit of excellence and success. Address correspondence to: Bonita Eaton Enochs, Editor Columbia Medicine With best wishes, College of Physicians & Surgeons 630 W. 168th St., Box 27 New York, NY 10032 212-305-3900 email: [email protected] Lee Goldman, MD, Dean Join the medical school’s Facebook page at [email protected] www.facebook.com/columbiaps Alumni should update their addresses by writing the Alumni Association at the address above or calling the alumni office Bonita Eaton Enochs, Editor at 212-305-3498. send letters to: Columbia Medicine College of Physicians & Surgeons Faculty and staff should contact their departmental administrators to update their addresses, which are obtained 630 W. 168th St., P&S Box 27 through the Columbia University personnel system. New York, NY 10032 All others with address changes should contact Email: [email protected] P&S Communications at 212-305-3900. Vol. 35 No. 1 Spring/Summer 2015 in thisIssue departments features 12 From the Tongue to the Brain By Alla Katsnelson Charles Zuker’s research has provided significant knowledge about taste, the last of the five senses to be understood on a 9 molecular level. 2 p&S news 9 Clinical Advances • 3-D Printing of Baby’s Heart Guides Surgery • Miniature Microscopes Improve GI Diagnosis, Treatment • A New Place for Family Eye Care 18 22 Alumni news & notes mind in motion • Launch of Wu Center for By Sharon Tregaskis Global Health Initiatives To understand how the • Profile: Stanley Chang’74 brain controls movement, Mark Churchland is 34 in memoriam trying to reverse engineer the motor cortex. Faculty and alumni who have died 40 p&S Club Corner COver photogrAph by Jörg meYer. ArTicle, pAge 12. News from around the College of Physicians & Surgeons PS& news Precision Medicine: A White House Initiative and a Conversation with David Goldstein Federal Government’s wo Columbia faculty members participated in and Pat Johnson Distinguished University Professor with New Focus on President Obama’s presentation of details of the appointments in molecular genetics & microbiology and Precision Medicine T precision medicine initiative he announced during biology. Here are answers to questions posed to him about this year’s State of the Union address. Columbia Univer- the promise of precision medicine and his vision for the Dovetails with sity’s precision medicine initiative was announced by CU Institute for Genomic Medicine. P&S Strategic Plan President Lee Bollinger in early 2014, and the P&S strategic plan has identified precision medicine as a priority. Much of your research has been in the field of pharma- Tom Maniatis, PhD, director of Columbia’s university- cogenetics, looking for clues in a patient’s genetic traits wide precision medicine initiative and chair of the Depart- or disease profile to predict responsiveness to a par- ment of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics at P&S, and ticular drug protocol. How is that going? Wendy Chung, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics There has been a lot of enthusiasm and even hype for and of genetics & development at P&S, were invited to this work, and the reality is that we still have very few the White House to participate in the announcement. Dr. real-world examples. And while I would not want to add Chung directs the clinical genetics program at Columbia to the hype, I do personally expect that to change before and conducts research on the genetic basis of metabolic too long. There’s every reason to believe that under- disorders. Both are members of the Columbia precision standing the exact underlying molecular cause of a con- medicine task force. Columbia’s precision medicine initia- dition will guide how we treat it, and we in fact already tive has gained steam with the arrival in January of David see very clear examples of this in some of the work we B. Goldstein, PhD, as founding director and others are doing in epilepsy. of Columbia’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, a university-wide program Why the move to Columbia? to integrate genetics and genomics into The work that needs to be done in precision medicine goes research, patient care, and education at beyond the boundaries of a single investigator’s lab, no Columbia University Medical Center matter how big that laboratory is. The vision Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. has outlined is the most integrative and comprehensive I’ve “My hope in coming to Columbia is seen, bringing in the Morningside campus, CUMC, and that we will be able to ensure that all NewYork-Presbyterian with a charge to pursue clinically patients who could benefit from genome applied investigations. As soon as I heard President Bol- sequencing will have their genomes linger articulate his vision, I knew I wanted to be involved. not only sequenced, but carefully inter- preted,” says Dr. Goldstein. What is your own vision for the institute? Dr. Goldstein, author of more than We’re going to pick a few key clinical areas where we think 200 papers on the clinical applications we can make a really big difference. One major focus will be of genomic analysis in AIDS, hepati- on epilepsy and using comprehensive genomic approaches tis C, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, was to figure out what’s wrong with kids who have serious recruited from Duke University, where genetic diseases. A more general focus will be to carefully Tom Maniatis EYER M he was director of the Center for Human interpret the genomes of all patients with unresolved or RG Jö Genome Variation and the Richard undiagnosed genetic diseases.

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