News in Brief

Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for pioneering studies spanning more than 25 years that laid the groundwork for CAR-T cell immunotherapy for cancer and for advancing its clinical application. Dr. Sadelain is the director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy and the Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine. He was also awarded a BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Prize in Biology and Biomedicine and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute for his pioneering research in cell therapy.

Mustafa Aydogan, PhD, and Vikram Gadagkar, PhD, have been selected as 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholars by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Freeman Hrabowski Scholars are outstanding early-career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create lab environments in which everyone can thrive. Dr. Aydogan, assistant professor of genetics and development, investigates the fundamental principles of biological time control in animal development, metabolism, and disease. Dr. Gadagkar, assistant professor of neuroscience, investigates how brains evaluate behaviors, both self-generated and the behaviors of others, by studying the courtship songs of birds with state-of-the-art computational, theoretical, and experimental approaches.

Yiping Han, PhD, was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Han is professor of microbial sciences in the College of Dental Medicine and professor in the departments of Microbiology & Immunology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Medicine at VP&S. Dr. Han’s pioneering discoveries have revealed that oral bacteria are not confined to the mouth and can have impacts on other parts of the body, potentially causing gastrointestinal cancer and preterm birth.