Translational Therapeutics Accelerator Pilot Awardees

Structure-based drug development to treat patients who cannot tolerate existing Cystic Fibrosis therapies 

• John Hunt, PhD, Biological Sciences (Principal Investigator) 
• Blaine Jason Loughlin, Biological Sciences  

Multitarget drugs for therapeutic use in Alzheimer's disease 

• Caghan Kizil, PhD, Neurology (Principal Investigator) 
• Syed Abid Hussaini, PhD, Pathology and Cell Biology (Co-Principal Investigator) 
• Bengisu Turgutalp, PhD, Neurology 
• Hande Yuceer Korkmaz, MSc, Neurology 

Tropos therapeutics -Developing therapeutic drug-diet combinations based on insights from cancer metabolism  

• Brent Stockwell, PhD, Biological Sciences (Principal Investigator) 
• Tal Hirschhorn, PhD, Biological Sciences (Co-Principal Investigator) 
• Heather Seid, DCN, RDN, CSP, CLC, Institute of Human Nutrition  
• Arie Zask, PhD, Biological Sciences  
• Farhad Forouhar, PhD, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center  

Developing small molecule drugs for the treatment of Best disease  

• Tingting Yang, PhD, Ophthalmology (Principal Investigator) 
• Stephen Tsang, MD, PhD, Ophthalmology (Co-Principal Investigator) 
• Yan Wang, PhD, Ophthalmology 
• Sihua Cheng, PhD, Ophthalmology  

Preventing Genetic Abnormalities to Improve ART/IVF

• Dieter Egli, PhD, Pediatrics - Molecular Genetics (Principal Investigator)
• Zev Williams, MD, PhD, Obstetrics and Gynecology (Co-Principal Investigator)
• Stepan Jerabek, PhD, Pediatrics - Molecular Genetics

Corvyv: Keeping Heart Cells Alive Through a Heart Attack

• Barry Fine, MD, PhD, Medicine – Cardiology (Principal Investigator)
• Donald Landry, MD, PhD, Medicine (Co-Principal Investigator)
• Shi-Xian Deng, PhD, Medicine – Organic Chemistry Collaborative Center
• Alison Rinderspacher, PhD, Medicine – Organic Chemistry Collaborative Center
• Diogo Teles, MD, PhD, Biomedical Engineering
• Bryan Wang, PhD, Biomedical Engineering
• Xiaokan Zhang, PhD, Medicine – Cardiology

Cell Therapy for Lung Diseases

• Hans-Willem Snoeck, Medicine – Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care (Principal Investigator)
• N. Valerio Dorrello, Pediatrics – Critical Care (Co-Principal Investigator)
• Hsiao-Yun (Mavis) Liu, PhD, Medicine
• Camilla Predella, PhD, Pediatrics – Critical Care

ProteoClear: Combatting Neurodegenerative Disease

• Ai Yamamoto, PhD, Neurology – Movement Disorders (Principal Investigator)
• Katherine Croce, PhD, Neurology

Bain Syndrome: A Gene Targeted Approach for HNRNPH2-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder 

• Jennifer Bain, MD, PhD, Neurology – Child Neurology (Principal Investigator) 
• Christopher Ricupero, PhD, Center for Dental & Craniofacial Research, College of Dental Medicine (Co-Principal Investigator)  
• Barbara Corneo, PhD, Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Core, Columbia Stem Cell Initiative 
• Achchhe Patel, PhD, Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Core, Columbia Stem Cell Initiative 

Bio-Microbur for Oral Delivery of Biologics 

• Kam Leong, PhD, Biomedical Engineering (Principal Investigator) 
• Suwan Ding, MS, Biomedical Engineering 
• Kara Gross Margolis, MD, New York University Pain Research Center 
• Letao Yang, PhD, Biomedical Engineering  
• Yuefei Zhu, MS, Biomedical Engineering 

Calcardia – Precision Treatment for Heart Failure 

• Steven Marx, MD, Medicine - Cardiology (Principal Investigator) 
• Manu Ben-Johny, PhD, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics (Co-Principal Investigator) 
• Alexander Kushnir, MD, PhD, Medicine - Cardiology, New York University Langone School of Medicine 
• Guoxia Liu, PhD, Medicine - Cardiology 
• Lin Yang, MD, Medicine - Cardiology 

Prime Editing: Novel CRISPR-based Therapy for CRB1-Linked Inherited Retinal Dystrophies 

• Stephen H. Tsang, MD, PhD, Ophthalmology (Principal Investigator) 
• Peter M.J. Quinn, PhD, Ophthalmology (Co-Principal Investigator) 
• Bruna Lopes da Costa, MSc, Biomedical Engineering 
• Salvatore Marco Caruso, MS, Biomedical Engineering 

Pro-CARs Probiotic-guided CAR-T cells for universal solid tumor targeting

• Tal Danino, PhD, Biomedical Engineering (Principal Investigator)
• Nicholas Arpaia, PhD, Microbiology and Immunology (Co-Principal Investigator)

A Circuit-Based Approach to Pharmacologic Treatment of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

• Alex Dranovsky, PhD, Psychiatry (Co-Principal Investigator)
• Amy Margolis, PhD, Psychiatry-Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Co-Principal Investigator)

Development of enhanced CAR T regs for targeted induction of immune tolerance in transplantation and autoimmunity

• Mohsen Khosravi Maharlooei, MD, MSc, Medicine-Immunology (Principal Investigator)
• Megan Sykes, MD, Medicine-Hematology and Oncology (Co-Principal Investigator)

Leveraging Single-Cell Technologies with Advanced Machine Learning and Gene Network-Based Predictive Algorithms to Identify Novel Targets Driving Radiation Therapy Resistance

• Catherine Spina, MD, Radiation Oncology (Principal Investigator)
• Andrea Califano, Dr., Systems Biology (Co-Principal Investigator)

CultivageBIO: Vaginal Probiotic Cocktail

• Harris Wang, PhD, Systems Biology (Principal Investigator)
• Mary Rosser, MD, PhD, Obstetrics and Gynecology (Co-Principal Investigator)

SARS-CoV-2 Envelope as a New Therapeutic Target for COVID-19

• Masayuki Yazawa, PhD, Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine (Principal Investigator)
• David Ho, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology (Co-Principal Investigator)

Development of Cidofiovir Prodrugs as Potential Orally Available Medication for COVID-19

• Jingyue Ju, PhD, Chemical Engineering

Rapid Development of SARS-CoV-2 3CL Protease Inhibitors for treatment of COVID-19

• Brent Stockwell, PhD, Biological Sciences

Adoptive Transfer of Coronavirus-specific T Cells for Prophylaxis and Immunotherapy of COVID-19

• Pawel Muranski, MD, Medicine

Data-Driven Design of Biologics for the Next Generation of Drug Discovery

• Harmen Bussemaker, PhD, Biological Sciences

ReSTORx: A Next-Generation Therapeutic Modality for Protein Stabilization

• Henry Colecraft, PhD, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Pharmacology

Synthetic Design of a Novel Resilience-enhancing Small Molecule Therapeutic Targeting 5-HT4Rs

• Christine Ann Denny, PhD, Psychiatry

Targeting Rare Pediatric Disease Neimann-Pick Type C and Alzheimer’s Disease with Activators of Lecithin

• Laura Beth McIntire, PhD, Pathology and Cell Biology

Using Engineered Exosomes for Genome Editing of Lung Cancer Targeting KRAS Mutation

• Flora Momen-Heravi, PhD, Dental Medicine

Lx6171: A New Therapeutic for the Highly Disabling Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia 

• Catherine Clelland, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology
• James Clelland, PhD, Psychiatry (NYU)

Preclinical Optimization of DNA and mRNA-based Endotope Platforms

• Remi Creusot, PhD, Medicine
• Magdalena Bogun, MD, Medicine

Programmable Bacteria for Oral Delivery of Tumor-targeted Immunotherapy 

• Tal Danino, PhD, Biomedical Engineering 
• Nicholas Arpaia, PhD, Microbiology and Immunology 

Inhaled Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor as a Treatment for COPD 

• Jeanine D'Armiento, PhD, Medicine
• Adam Gerber, MD, PhD, Anesthesiology

Developing PI3 Kinase Inhibitors for T Cell Lymphoma 

• Changchun Deng, MD, PhD, Medicine
• Jennifer K. Lue, MD, Medicine

Drug Based Modulation of Endogenous Fibrocartilage Stem Cells for TMJ Regeneration 

• Mildred Embree, DMD, PhD, Dental Medicine

Validating OncoTreat, a Systems Biology Approach to Predict Drug Sensitivity, in Advanced Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

• Gary Schwartz, MD, Medicine
• Andrea Califano, PhD, Systems Biology 

Development of a Novel Beta2-blocker for Treating Pancreatic Cancer

• Timothy C. Wang, MD, Medicine
• Donald Landry, MD, PhD, Chair, Medicine

• Engineered Deubiquitinases: A Novel Therapeutic Platform
• Henry M. Colecraft, PhD, Associate Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics
• Alice Prince, MD, Professor of Pediatrics in Pharmacology 

Theridase: Therapy for Cerebral Edema and Increased Intracranial Pressure

• Steve Kernie, MD, Professor of Pediatrics in Neurology
• Barclay Morrison, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering 

MAP4K2 as a Therapeutic Target of Multiple Myeloma and Development of Novel Targeting Drugs

• Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
• Don Landry, MD, PhD, Samuel Bard Professor of Medicine

CalCardia: Fixing Abnormal Calcium Handling in Sick Hearts

• Steven Marx, MD, Professor of Medicine in Pharmacology
• Alexander Kushnir, MD, PhD, Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellow

Optimization of the Isopomiferin Scaffold as an HDAC-based Precision Medicine for MycNAMP Nueroblastoma 

• Brent Stockwell, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry
• Darrell Yamashiro, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology and Pediatrics

Injectable Cell-based Therapy of Micro-Tissues for Extremely Rapid Recovery of Ischemic Conditions

• Samuel Sia, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
• Danielle Bajakian, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery 

Using Anti-Sense Oligonucleotides as New Therapeutic Modality for Psychiatric and Cognitive Disorders

• Joseph Gogos, MD, PhD, Physiology/Cell Biophysics
• Sander Markx, MD, Psych Molecular Therapeutics

Direct Application of Antibody Impregnated Bioengineered Patch to Improve Wound Healing in Diabetes

• Lynne Johnson, MD, Medicine
• Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, PhD, Biomedical Engineering

Suppression of Oncogene Transcription by PNAs as Cancer Therapy

• Jeffrey Rothman, MD, PhD, Medicine
• Gary Schwartz, MD, Medicine

Regulation of Appetite by the Skeleton

• Mishaela Rubin, MD, Medicine: Physiology/Cell Biophysics
• Stavroula Kousteni, PhD, Medicine