Innovative Collaborations Addressing Pressing Problems Receive CaMPR and CaMPR-ISP Pilot Awards

July 22, 2022

The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research announces the winners of the 2021-2022 Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Pilot Research (CaMPR) and Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Pilot Research Pilot Award – Integrating Special Populations Award (CaMPR-ISP) Pilot Awards.

Five teams of researchers from Columbia University have been awarded one-year CaMPR and CaMPR-ISP pilot awards to assemble  teams to gather preliminary data to address unresolved clinical, translational, and public health problems with novel approaches informed by interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration. The program aims to train and mentor a new generation of multidisciplinary, translational research investigators and support strategic areas of focus, including special populations: pediatrics, geriatrics, rare diseases, and emerging pathogens in our community.

This year’s awardees will 1. seek to address opioid dependence in patients undergoing spine surgery by testing a surgeon-delivered anesthetic nerve block procedure that could improve pain control and reduce the need for post-operative opioid use; 2. test cell repair approaches to promote lung repair in a devastating rare disease, childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD), to ultimately develop a novel cell therapy; 3. advance understandings of epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder by identifying the genetic risk factors associated with a rare seizure disorder; 4. study the pathway of an increasingly common pediatric liver disease, pediatric non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), to contribute to long term goals of improved diagnostics and therapeutics; and 5. test and refine an evidence-based, digital patient decision aid to facilitate adolescents and young adults testing for sexually transmitted infections in the emergency department using a shared decision-making approach.

The CaMPR awardees are:

 

Photo of Christopher Mandigo, MD, MS

Christopher Mandigo, MD, MS

Pilot RCT of intraoperative x-ray-guided dorsal ramus block for lumbar spine surgery

Principal Investigator: Christopher Mandigo, MD, MS, Neurosurgery

Co-Investigators: Peter Angevine, MD, MPH, Neurosurgery; Jimmy Duong, MPH, Biostatistics; Evan Joiner, MD, Neurosurgery; Wei-Yann Tsai, PhD, Biostatistics; and Gebhard Wagener, MD, Anesthesiology

 

The CaMPR-ISP awardees are:

Photos of Nicolino Valerio Dorrello, MD, PhD Hans-Willem Snoeck, MD, PhD ​​​​​​​

Nicolino Valerio Dorrello, MD, PhD   Hans-Willem Snoeck, MD, PhD

Engraftment of human pluripotent stem cells-derived lung cells in a xenograft model

Principal Investigator: Nicolino Valerio Dorrello, MD, PhD, Pediatrics - Critical Care

Co-Principal Investgator: Hans-Willem Snoeck, MD, PhD, Medicine – Pulmonary

Co-Investigators: Hsiao-Yun Liu, PhD, Medicine – Pulmonary and Camilla Predella, MS, Pediatrics - Critical Care

 

Photo of Rebecca Muhle, MD, PhD

Rebecca Muhle, MD, PhD

Characterization of neuropsychiatric phenotypes and epileptiform brain activity in CHD8 haploinsufficiency

Principal Investigator: Rebecca Muhle, MD, PhD, Psychiatry - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Co-Investigators: Jennifer Bain, MD, PhD, Neurology - Child Neurology; Sylvie Goldman, PhD, Neurology - Cognitive Neuroscience & Child Neurology and G.H. Sergievsky Center; and Tristan Sands, MD, PhD, Neurology - Child Neurology

 

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Photos of Jennifer Woo Baidal, MD, MPH  Utpal Pajvani, MD, PhD

Jennifer Woo Baidal, MD, MPH                Utpal Pajvani, MD, PhD

Determinants of zonation of liver inflammation and fibrosis in pediatric NASH

Co-Principal Investigator: Jennifer Woo Baidal, MD, MPH, Pediatrics – Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition

Co-Principal Investigator: Utpal Pajvani, MD, PhD, Medicine - Endocrinology

Co-Investigator: Jonathan Steinman, MD, PhD, Pediatrics - Endocrinology

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Photo of Jason Zucker, MD, MS  Lauren Chernick, MD, MSc

Jason Zucker, MD, MS                                Lauren Chernick, MD, MSc

Using Shared Decision Making to Increase Equitable Testing of Sexually Transmitted Infections among Adolescents and Young Adults in the Emergency Department

Co-Principal Investigator: Jason Zucker, MD, MS, Medicine - Infectious Diseases

Co-Principal Investigator: Lauren Chernick, MD, MSc, Emergency Medicine

Co-Investigators: Delivette Castor, PhD, MSc, MPH, Medicine - Infectious Diseases and Marc Probst, MD, MS, Emergency Medicine