A team of researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Center(CUIMC)and Columbia Engineering has been awarded up to a$38.95 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health(ARPA-H)to build aliving knee replacement from biomaterials and human stem cells,including apatient’s own cells.ARPA-H is afederal funding agency that funds transformative biomedical and health research breakthroughs,rapidly translating research from the lab to applications in the marketplace.The Award The award,part of the ARPA-H’s Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis(NITRO)program,will support the development of NOVAJoint,a revolutionary biocompatible,low-cost,patient-specific knee joint replacement.This high-risk project builds upon more than two decades of collaborative musculoskeletal research at Columbia in engineering and medicine,and promises to offer atransformative solution for the more than thirty million people in the U.S.who suffer from osteoarthritis.NITRO is the first Health Science Futures specific program under the new ARPA-H agency,established by the Biden Administration.The project is led by Clark T.Hung,Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Orthopedic Science(in Orthopedic Surgery)at Columbia Engineering,and Nadeen O.Chahine,Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons,leaders in tissue regeneration and orthopedic research. 查看详细>>

Racial discrimination and bias are painful realities and increasingly recognized as detrimental to the health of adults and children.These stressful experiences also appear to be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy,altering the strength of infants’brain circuits,according to anew study from researchers at Columbia,Yale,and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.The study found similar brain changes in infants whose mothers experienced stress from adapting to anew culture during pregnancy.“A leading hypothesis would be that the connectivity changes that we see could reduce one’s ability to regulate their emotions and increase risk for mental health disorders,”says the study’s lead author Marisa Spann,PhD,the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.“It remains to be seen if the connectivity differences we found lead to long-term mental health outcomes in children.Our team and others in the field still have the opportunity to test this.”Previous research(link is external and opens in anew window)by Spann and colleagues has documented the impact of various forms of prenatal distress—depression,stress,and anxiety—on the infant brain.“We work with vulnerable and underrepresented populations,and the experience of stigma and discrimination are distressingly common,”Spann says.“This naturally led to discussions about the impact of other stressors,like discrimination and acculturation,on the infant brain.” 查看详细>>

Columbia University has announced that it will launch anew Columbia Global Center in Tel Aviv to build on its existing collaborations in Israel and facilitate further engagement and partnerships.“The Global Centers program was created 14 years ago to create vibrant hubs of activity in intellectually rich and often challenging locations,”said Columbia President Lee C.Bollinger.“The program has become foundational to Columbia’s mission to engage with the world,offering opportunities for our faculty,students,and alumni to engage fully with colleagues and communities across the globe.”The new Center will join anetwork of centers in Amman,Athens,Beijing,Istanbul,Mumbai,Nairobi,Paris,Rio de Janeiro,Santiago,and Tunis.Similar to other centers,the Tel Aviv Center will be ahub and gathering place,enabling Columbia to connect with individuals and institutions,as well as with the alumni community in Israel,drawing them closer to the ongoing life of the University.The Center will leverage Columbia’s expertise and experience and link faculty and students to experts and resources in Israel and the wider region.Among others,the Center’s initial priorities will include climate change,technology and entrepreneurship,and aspects of arts and the humanities,as well as biological science,public health,and medicine.An additional priority will be to offer collaborative learning and research opportunities,working with peers,for Columbia undergraduates and graduate students.“I am deeply proud of how the Columbia Global Centers have evolved and grown,each with its own distinctive features and priorities and together as avibrant network advancing Columbia’s mission and values,”said Bollinger.“It is more important than ever for Columbia to continue seeking to advance inquiry and learning across borders.I look forward with anticipation as the Tel Aviv Center takes shape in the months and years ahead as part of our broader Columbia Global efforts.” 查看详细>>

I think that we are far away from understanding the full range of possibilities and risks created by these technological breakthroughs,and this itself is both exciting and disquieting.While there are many ways in which these language models are profoundly valuable tools—in particular,for tasks involving the identification or execution of patterns and rules—they also have intrinsic limitations when it comes to anything requiring genuine understanding or factual accuracy.It is also difficult to predict ex ante or evaluate ex post how exactly the models approach particular questions or the mistakes they might make given the presently opaque nature of their processes,along with the complexity of the activities we might seek to offload upon them.Moreover,our existing legal institutions are ill-equipped for regulating these systems,as they were designed for the linear and comparatively transparent actions and activities of persons.It is thus important that we neither over-or underestimate the potential of these models—nor the challenges that they will raise for us—and proceed very carefully in thinking about how best to integrate AI into our world and lives,notwithstanding the present flurry of reactions and rhetoric in the public sphere.I‘m very excited about the emerging capabilities of generative AI.Finally,a machine that can take in simple instructions and produce abasic output.“Basic”might sound derogatory,but basic can be very useful—writing email text based on bullet points,summarizing areport into atweet,extracting all the names of people from awebpage,etc.These are annoying tasks that take people time,but don‘t really need our creativity or specialized cognitive skills.More than just awriting aid,generative AI can also be athinking aid.It can help with generating ideas,and you can either find agood one,or see away to easily improve one.It can help get out afirst draft—or even better suggest multiple first drafts for you to pick from.Then you can tell it which parts to improve and how to improve them.Generative AI isn‘t quite good enough to do atask to completion all on its own,but it‘s agreat collaborator to get you started.I‘m certainly excited.Think of aphysical robot operating in the real world:it needs both abstract,semantic intelligence(to understand conceptually how the world works)and embodied intelligence,or the skill to physically interact with the world.We are constantly making progress on the latter,but on the former we have had relatively little progress over the years.Large language models like ChatGPT just might bring exactly that to the table.A physically skilled robot can then take such models out of the purely virtual world of the Internet,and put them to good use on real-world physical tasks. 查看详细>>

Two College students and one alumna have been named 2023 Rhodes Scholars,the first time that Columbia has seen three of its own selected as part of the U.S.cohort.Sophie A.Bryant CC’23,Astrid Liden CC’23 and Ilina Logani CC’22 were among the 32 Americans chosen for the prestigious scholarship,which provides funding for two or three years of postgraduate study at Oxford.“I am thrilled to see Sophie,Astrid and Ilina recognized in this way,”said Ariella Lang,associate dean of academic affairs and director of undergraduate research and fellowships.“They are part of an inspiring group of nominees and finalists.I want to recognize as well the faculty,advisors,staff members,alumni recipients of this award and many others who so generously supported,mentored and cheered on our applicants.”Rhodes candidates must be nominated by their university before going through an extensive application process.Criteria include academic excellence,a commitment to the welfare of others and to contributing to good in the world,and evidence of good character and promise of great leadership.The 2023 selection process for international candidates is still ongoing;more than 100 total scholars will be named,from more than 60 countries. 查看详细>>

New research by Columbia University astrophysicists Luca Comisso and Lorenzo Sironi shows how and when these particles form and offers clues to questions that have troubled scientists since the 1940s.For decades,scientists have been trying to solve avexing problem about the weather in outer space:At unpredictable times,high-energy particles bombard the earth and objects outside the earth’s atmosphere with radiation that can endanger the lives of astronauts and destroy satellites’electronic equipment.These flare-ups can even trigger showers of radiation strong enough to reach passengers in airplanes flying over the North Pole.Despite scientists’best efforts,a clear pattern of how and when flare-ups will occur has remained enduringly difficult to identify.This week,in apaper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters,authors Luca Comisso and Lorenzo Sironi of Columbia’s Department of Astronomy and the Astrophysics Laboratory,have for the first time used supercomputers to simulate when and how high-energy particles are born in turbulent environments like that on the atmosphere of the sun.This new research paves the way for more accurate predictions of when dangerous bursts of these particles will occur.“This exciting new research will allow us to better predict the origin of solar energetic particles and improve forecasting models of space weather events,a key goal of NASA and other space agencies and governments around the globe,”Comisso said.Within the next couple of years,he added,NASA‘s Parker Solar Probe,the closest spacecraft to the sun,may be able to validate the paper’s findings by directly observing the predicted distibution of high-energy particles that are generated in the sun‘s outer atmosphere.In their paper,“Ion and Electron Acceleration in Fully Kinetic Plasma Turbulence,”Comisso and Sironi demonstrate that magnetic fields in the outer atmosphere of the sun can accelerate ions and electrons up to velocities close to the speed of light.The sun and other stars’outer atmosphere consist of particles in aplasma state,a highly turbulent state distinct from liquid,gas,and solid states.Scientists have long believed that the sun’s plasma generates high-energy particles.But particles in plasma move so erratically and unpredictably that they have until now not been able to fully demonstrate how and when this occurs.Using supercomputers at Columbia,NASA,and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center,Comisso and Sironi created computer simulations that show the exact movements of electrons and ions in the sun’s plasma.These simulations mimic the atmospheric conditions on the sun,and provide the most extensive data gathered to-date on how and when high-energy particles will form.The research provides answers to questions that scientists have been investigating for at least 70 years:In 1949,the physicist Enrico Fermi began to investigate magnetic fields in outer space as apotential source of the high-energy particles(which he called cosmic rays)that were observed entering the earth’s atmosphere.Since then,scientists have suspected that the sun’s plasma is amajor source of these particles,but definitively proving it has been difficult. 查看详细>>

It is my pleasure to introduce Gerald Lewis Jr.as the next Vice President for Public Safety,a role he will step into on September 26th.Gerald joins Columbia with along and distinguished career within both higher education and law enforcement,spanning over 30 years.Gerald has led public safety departments at major university systems,most recently at the University of Connecticut,where he built meaningful relationships and developed an ongoing dialogue with the campus community.He previously served as the Associate Vice President and Chief of Police at the University of Texas at San Antonio,a part of the second-largest university public safety team in the nation.During his time at UT-San Antonio,Gerald was recognized as Campus Safety Director of the Year by Campus Safety Magazine.Prior to UT-San Antonio,Gerald spent several years at East Carolina University after having been commanding officer and chief spokesperson for the New Jersey State Police.Gerald brings to Columbia arelentless focus on safety and an unwavering commitment to diversity,inclusion,and community partnerships.His ability to bring these lenses to Columbia’s presence in New York City will be invaluable given the importance of inclusivity in all facets of public safety’s work.He will be acritical partner in the ongoing work of the Inclusive Public Safety Advisory Committee–which mirrors committees he founded at UT-San Antonio and the New Jersey State Police–while continuing to enhance the many safety resources available in and around our campuses.Gerald’s hiring is the culmination of an intensive and inclusive nationwide search,which Ico-chaired alongside Executive Vice President for University Life Dennis A.Mitchell.The rigorous process involved the participation of university stakeholders across Columbia’s campuses.As we welcome Gerald,I want to recognize Deidre Fuchs for her tireless commitment and steadfast leadership of the Department of Public Safety during the ongoing search process.Our deepest thanks and appreciation are extended to Deidre,who will continue in her previous role as Assistant Vice President for Investigations with Public Safety. 查看详细>>

Columbia Psychiatry among principal investigators in biotech Compass Pathways study of more than 200 patients In agroundbreaking study,a single dose of psilocybin,combined with psychological support,generated arapid response and significant reduction in depressive symptoms that lasted up to 12 weeks.Compass Pathways,announced that COMP360—a psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms—had succeeded as promising for treatment-resistant depression in aphase 2clinical trial.The London-based biotech company partnered on the study with multiple sites,including Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.“We now have evidence from alarge,well-designed trial that psilocybin may be effective for people with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder,a common and devastating condition,”said David J.Hellerstein,MD,professor of clinical psychiatry and principal investigator on the Columbia trial.“These findings suggest that COMP360 psilocybin therapy could play amajor role in psychiatric care,if approved.”The study,which has not yet been published in apeer-reviewed journal,is the largest to date using psilocybin to treat depression in people who aren’t helped by existing therapies.An estimated third of severely depressed patients suffer with treatment-resistant depression.To conduct the research,investigators randomized 233 patients to receive asingle dose of one of three doses of COMP360—25 mg,10 mg,and 1mg,a dose that was essentially aplacebo—in conjunction with support from therapists trained to guide people through psychedelic-assisted treatments.All participants were taken off antidepressants before the study.The study(link is external and opens in anew window)found that participants administered the highest dose of psilocybin had the steepest decline in depressive symptoms.They reported arapid remission at three weeks that was sustained at the three-month mark.In addition to showing the efficacy of the higher dose,the study showed that the lower dose(10 mg)dose was not effective.Twenty-four participants withdrew from the trial and some experienced adverse effects.Compass reported that 90 percent of those effects were mild to moderate,most commonly headache,nausea,fatigue,and insomnia.Twelve patients reported severe effects,such suicidal behavior ideation,more common among those with treatment-resistant depression.Hellerstein said that the study significantly refines our understanding of the required active dose of psilocybin when treating depression,which is an essential step toward reaching the next research phrase.“This is the first psychedelic study to rigorously evaluate rates of adverse events and serious adverse events,which are of utmost concern when using this powerful class of drugs among patients with severe disorders,”Dr.Hellerstein said.“Understanding these risks is essential to move toward FDA approval and can allow clinicians to develop strategies to manage risks in order to optimize outcomes.”The company is working toward starting aphase 3trial of COMP360 in mid-2022. 查看详细>>

A series of interactive workshops developed by Columbia physicist Sebastian Will and STEMteachersNYC will give educators tips and tools to cover quantum science in their classrooms.If you imagine alaser,you might think of beams of light popping balloons or slicing through ametal slab like butter.Lasers can indeed heat things up,but they can also cool things down.These days,physicists use laser cooling to understand the fundamentals of quantum physics,with implications for building things like super-precise atomic clocks and super-fast quantum computers.To study the quantum properties of atoms—how they behave when classical,temperature-based influences are stripped away—you need to chill them to as close to absolute zero as you can.This is where the lasers come in.As Claire Warner,a graduate student in Sebastian Will’s lab at Columbia,recently explained to agroup of teachers from across the United States,photons,the energy packets that make up light,have momentum when fired from alaser.When those photons hit an atom,that atom gets a"momentum kick"that slows it down.In just three milliseconds,atoms can be super-cooled to just above absolute zero,-459.67°F.Quantum physics then takes over,and it’s off to the experimental races.“Laser Cooling:Quantum Physics Applications for High School Students,”is the most recent workshop in aseries that Will’s lab is developing with the nonprofit STEMteachersNYC.Funded by Will’s National Science Foundation CAREER award,the Quantum Physics Outreach Program(QPOP)is giving high school teachers the tools to share quantum physics with their students."It‘s providing teachers with simple concepts that allow them to make aconnection to modern quantum technology,”Will said.In collaboration with Fernand Brunschwig at STEMteachersNYC,Will and his graduate students distill their work in experimental physics to afew simple ideas that the teachers attending the workshops can understand.The training has amultiplier effect for reaching new audiences:if 50 teachers who attend aworkshop go on to teach these concepts to 30 students at atime,that’s now 1,500 students with new quantum knowledge,Will said.Often,high school students have already covered the basics—atomic energy levels,force and momentum,waves and the Doppler effect,and so on—just not necessarily in the context of quantum physics.Once equipped,teachers can take their students from performing calculations with hypothetical cannonballs to calculations about laser cooling,a real-world physics application.“The conceptual leaps that need to be made aren’t that big,”Warner said.Warner is now an expert on laser cooling,but wasn’t always.Popular science tends to focus on outer space or black holes,and although the basics of quantum physics have been around for nearly acentury,most high school classrooms still focus on classical Newtonian physics.“There aren’t PBS specials on quantum physics and its modern applications,”she said.She learned about ultracold atoms in aphysics lab as an undergraduate;she hopes the workshops might introduce students to quantum science even earlier in their academic careers.Developing the workshops has been challenging,said Warner.In speaking to other researchers,a few technical words can convey what you mean.That’s not the case when translating to aroom of high school teachers.“You can’t use jargon or acronyms,”she said.“You really have to go back to basics."Will said that he and his students,with STEMteachersNYC,are continuously improving the workshops as they move forward. 查看详细>>

If you’ve ever called on Siri or Alexa for help,or generated aself-portrait in the style of aRenaissance painter,you have interacted with deep learning,a form of artificial intelligence that extracts patterns from mountains of data to make predictions.Though deep learning and AI have become household terms,the breakthroughs in statistics that have fueled this revolution are less known.In arecent paper,Andrew Gelman,a statistics professor at Columbia,and Aki Vehtari,a computer science professor at Finland’s Aalto University,published alist of the most important statistical ideas in the last 50 years.Below,Gelman and Vehtari break down the list for those who may have snoozed through Statistics 101.Each idea can be viewed as astand-in for an entire subfield,they say,with afew caveats:science is incremental;by singling out these works,they do not mean to diminish the importance of similar,related work.They have also chosen to focus on methods in statistics and machine learning,rather than equally important breakthroughs in statistical computing,and computer science and engineering,which have provided the tools and computing power for data analysis and visualization to become everyday practical tools.Finally,they have focused on methods,while recognizing that developments in theory and methods are often motivated by specific applications.See something important that’s missing?Tweet it at columbiascience and Gelman and Vehtari will consider adding it to the list.The 10 articles and books below all were published in the last 50 years and are listed in chronological order.1.Hirotugu Akaike(1973).Information Theory and an Extension of the Maximum Likelihood Principle.Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Information Theory.This is the paper that introduced the term AIC(originally called An Information Criterion but now known as Akaike Information Criterion),for evaluating amodel’s fit based on its estimated predictive accuracy.AIC was instantly recognized as auseful tool,and this paper was one of several published in the mid-1970s placing statistical inference within apredictive framework.We now recognize predictive validation as afundamental principle in statistics and machine learning.Akaike was an applied statistician,who in the 1960s,tried to measure the roughness of airport runways,in the same way that Benoit Mandelbrot‘s early papers on taxonomy and Pareto distributions led to his later work on the mathematics of fractals. 查看详细>>