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Collaborative Grants 
honors
| CUMC Faculty Elected To Institute of Medicine The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, which recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health, has elected three more CUMC faculty as members. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. Of the IOM’s roster of 1,538 active members, 48 are CUMC faculty. The new members are: Kathryn Calame, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and biochemistry & molecular biophysics Dr. Calame’s work has been instrumental in showing how the immune system creates different kinds of B and T cells and how the cells do their jobs, including the release of antibodies. Understanding the details of the life of normal B and T cells may lead to insights into how to treat autoimmune disease and lymphoma. Timothy Pedley M.D., the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Neurology, chairman of the Department of Neurology, and neurologist in chief at the Neurological Institute Dr. Pedley has devoted his entire career to epilepsy, contributing to the field in both the laboratory and the clinic. In the past, Dr. Pedley’s laboratory research investigated how the ionic microenvironment around neurons contributes to development and maintenance of seizures, and how repeated seizures alter the brain. More recently, he has collaborated with Ruth Ottman, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and neurology (in the Sergievsky Center) and W. Allen Hauser, M.D., professor of neurology and associate director of the Sergievsky Center, in family studies of epilepsy looking for genes that cause or contribute to development of epilepsy. Dr. Pedley established the Columbia Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in 1989. Carolyn Westhoff, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology in P&S and epidemiology and population & family health in Mailman For over two decades, Dr. Westhoff has been a leading researcher of the effectiveness and safety of new methods of contraception and medical abortion. Recent randomized trials showed that women who start using hormonal contraceptives on the same day they are prescribed have higher continuation rates and lower pregnancy rates than women who follow the traditional approach and wait until menses begins. Dr. Westhoff is also a principal investigator in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Contraceptive Clinical Trials Network. |
