The next task force will be on making personalized jelly beans

PrezBo sent out an email this morning announcing the creation of a large, University-wide task force to help the University plan for new scientific advances in various disciplines towards the creation of personalized/precision medicine. According to the Personalized Medicine Coalition, personalized/precision medicine is “the use of new methods of molecular analysis to better manage a patient’s disease or predisposition to disease.” That sounds very futuristic and we’re glad PrezBo is keeping Columbia at the forefront of it.

The task force isn’t just for scientists. The announcement states that “This broad subject encompasses virtually every part of the University, including areas that explore fundamental issues of human self-understanding and those that seek to develop the legal, policy, and economic implications of revolutionary changes in knowledge and practice.” The task force has around 40 faculty and administrators on it, whose disciplines range from dental science to computer science to sociology.

PrezBo hopes that the task force will produce a report by next fall semester.

PrezBo’s message:

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:

I am writing to announce the formation of a University-wide Task Force that will help us plan for the extraordinary promise of new scientific advances, especially in the areas of genomics, data science, and the core science and engineering disciplines for what is variously referred to as precision, or personalized, medicine. This broad subject encompasses virtually every part of the University, including areas that explore fundamental issues of human self-understanding and those that seek to develop the legal, policy, and economic implications of revolutionary changes in knowledge and practice. The initial membership of the Task Force, which I personally will chair with Lee Goldman and John Coatsworth as co-chairs, is listed below. My hope is that we will have a report ready by next Fall semester. Columbia must be at the absolute forefront of this extremely important new area of research, education, and service.

Sincerely,

Lee C. Bollinger

Task Force Members:

Lee C. Bollinger, Chair, University Task Force; President; Seth Low Professor of the University

Lee Goldman, Co-chair, University Task Force; Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine; Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor of the University and Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology

John Coatsworth, Co-chair, University Task Force; Provost; Professor of International and Public Affairs and of History

Steve Corwin, Professor of Clinical Medicine; Chief Executive Officer, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Amelia Alverson, Senior Vice President, Columbia University Medical Center Development

Paul Appelbaum, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law

Richard Axel, University Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biophysics and Pathology

Suzanne Bakken, Alumni Professor of the School of Nursing and Professor of Biomedical Informatics; Director, Center for Evidence-based Practice in the Underserved

Peter Bearman, Jonathan R. Cole Professor of Sociology; Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theories and Empirics

DuBois Bowman, Professor of Biostatistics; Chair, Department of Biostatistics

Mary Boyce, Dean of The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor; Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Andrea Califano, Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical Biology (in Biomedical Informatics) and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics); Chair, Department of Systems Biology

Angela Christiano, Richard and Mildred Rhodebeck Professor of Dermatology and Professor of Genetics and Development; Director, Basic Science Research Group of Dermatology

Wendy Chung, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (in Medicine)

Steve Coll, Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism

Mary D’Alton, Willard C. Rappleye Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Director of Services, Sloan Hospital for Women

Robert Darnell, Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Professor of Cancer Biology, The Rockefeller University in the City of New York; Director for Science Programs, Center for Clinical and Translational Research, The Rockefeller University in New York City; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Senior Physician, The Rockefeller University Hospital; Adjunct Attending Neuro-Oncologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Harold Edgar, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology

Stephen Emerson, Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Immunology (in Medicine) and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center); Director, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center

Ken Forde, University Trustee; Jose M. Ferrer Professor Emeritus of Surgery

Linda Fried, Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health and DeLamar Professor of Public Health Practice; Senior Vice President, Columbia University Medical Center; Professor of Epidemiology and of Medicine

Linda Green, Armand G. Erpf Professor of Business

George Hripcsak, Vivian Beaumont Allen Professor of Biomedical Informatics; Chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics

Tony Jebara, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Gerard Karsenty, Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics and Development and Professor of Medicine; Chair, Department of Genetics and Development

Robert Kasdin, Senior Executive Vice President

Don Landry, Samuel Bard Professor of Medicine; Chair, Department of Medicine

David Madigan, Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Professor of Statistics

Tom Maniatis, Isidore S. Edelman Professor of Biochemistry; Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

Richard Mayeux, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Epidemiology (in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and Taub Institute for Research of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain); Chair, Department of Neurology; Director, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center; Co-Director, Taub Institute for Research of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain

Kathleen McKeown, Henry and Gertrude Rothschild Professor of Computer Science; Director, Institute for Data Science and Engineering

Amber Miller, Professor of Physics; Dean of Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Siddharta Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Medicine

G. Michael Purdy, Executive Vice President for Research; Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Jack Rowe, Professor of Health Policy and Management

Ursula Staudinger, Robert N. Butler Professor; Director, Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center

Christian Stohler, Dean of the College of Dental Medicine; Senior Vice President for Dental Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; Professor of Dental Medicine

Fred Van Sickle, Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations

P. Roy Vagelos, Chair, Board of Advisors, Columbia University Medical Center; Chairman of the Board, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Merck & Co. Inc.

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Medical Sciences (in Medicine)

Charles Zuker, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Neuroscience

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