Nearly $1 million awarded to 4 new Irving Scholars

The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is honored to announce four new Herbert and Florence Irving Scholars for the 2024-2027 cohort.  

This year we have increased the total scholarship award to $225,000, or $75,000 of unrestricted funds annually for each scholar!  

The Florence and Herbert Irving clinical research career awards (“Irving Scholars”) is for Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) junior faculty members that are involved in clinical and translational research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). The Irving Scholars program is made possible by a generous endowment from Herbert and Florence Irving and is one of the longest running endowed professorships on our medical center campus.  

Thirty-seven years after the inaugural award, we are proud to have named over 150 scholars including some of the very best physician scientists at Columbia University. Please join us in congratulating these outstanding researchers. 

Barry Fine, MD, PhD Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine 
Project Title: Therapeutic Development in Filamin C Cardiomyopathy 

Dr. Fine is a researcher at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and has already made significant contributions to cardiovascular research. His work involves manipulating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to create durable human cardiomyocyte culture systems for congenital heart disease modeling. Dr. Fine’s research also focuses on tissue engineering to generate three-dimensional functional cardiac tissue. His collaborative efforts and numerous publications position him for a prolific academic career. As a clinician scientist, Dr. Fine is involved in the Cardiogenetics Clinic and analyzing exomes for rare variants associated with cardiovascular diseases, with the goal of advancing gene therapy development in this field. 
 

Gamze Gürsoy, PhD Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics 
Project Title: Overcoming Privacy Challenges in Machine Learning for Healthcare 

Dr. Gürsoy, a pioneer in biomedical data privacy, joined Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics in 2022. Her research aims to harmonize diverse fields such as biology, bioinformatics, molecular biology, engineering, and cryptography. Her work spans large language models, federated machine learning, and translational science, collaborating with experts in cancer, solid tumors, ALS, genetics, and genomics. Dr. Gürsoy has secured multiple competitive research awards and has published extensively in these areas, positioning her as an early and distinguished investigator in the field.  

Claudia Lugo-Candelas, PhD, MS Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry) 
Project Title: Prenatal sleep health: an untapped intervention target for the intergenerational prevention of mood and anxiety disorders.

Dr. Lugo-Candelas’ work bridges scientific understanding with practical applications, emphasizing the importance of prenatal sleep for future generations’ well-being. As a researcher in child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University, Dr. Lugo-Candelas’ has made significant strides in her field. Dr. Lugo-Candelas has published in multiple prestigious journals, received numerous awards, and secured internal and extramural funding for her innovative research. The Irving Assistant Professorship award will allow Dr. Lugo-Candelas to continue her work in incorporating clinical, epidemiological, neuroimaging, electroencephalography, and biomarker methodologies to examine how prenatal sleep impacts the next generation’s early neurodevelopment. 
 

Meghna S. Trivedi, MD, MS, Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center 
Project Title: Natural History and Predictors of Chronic Taxane-induced Peripheral Neuropathy 

Dr. Trivedi is a dedicated clinician scientist in translational cancer research and her work focuses on precision medicine for equitable cancer care delivery. Dr. Trivedi has demonstrated success and productivity with numerous grants, national research awards, invited talks, and publications in oncological precision medicine. Using advanced proteomics, Dr. Trivedi identified a certain exosome protein profile that is associated with the development of taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy (TIPN), a common side effect of some taxane chemotherapy drugs. Her current work is to build on that discovery and explore translational opportunities to improve cancer care.