TL1 Trainees Honored with ACTS Blue Ribbon Awards

Three TL1 trainees from the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research - Catherine Lucey, Ashley Brown, and David Lopez Veneros - have received the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award for excellence in top poster submissions at the 2025 Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) annual conference.

The awardees were formally recognized at the TRANSFORM (TRaining And Nurturing Scholars FOr Research that is Multidisciplinary) end-of-year celebration on Wednesday, June 11, where they received their Blue Ribbons in the presence of training program leadership and peers. This distinction places them in the top 25% of all trainee posters submitted at the conference and underscores the caliber of emerging translational research at Columbia. Their achievement will also be recognized in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science (JCTS), the official publication of ACTS.   

Catherine Lucey’s research investigates how long-term exposure to low levels of arsenic and uranium - metals found in contaminated groundwater - affects heart and liver health. Using a mouse model prone to cardiovascular disease, she found that while exposure didn’t worsen heart conditions as expected, it did increase signs of liver inflammation and damage. A graduate of Vassar College, Lucey is now a PhD student at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, working with Dr. Kathryn DeSantis to explore how environmental toxins impact vulnerable populations. 
 

Ashley Brown’s work focuses on a type of cell death called ferroptosis, which could be used to target cancer cells. Her project evaluated whether blocking a specific enzyme, CBS (a protein that helps protect cells from stress), would trigger ferroptosis in cancer cells. While CBS inhibition alone wasn’t enough, her research showed it could make cancer cells more sensitive to drugs that do induce ferroptosis. Brown is a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, working with Drs. Baiyu Qiu, Serena Yang, and Brent Stockwell to study new approaches to cancer treatment using targeted cell death pathways.
 

David Lopez Veneros has international clinical experience in health education, community, school and rural health, and research experience in behavioral cardiovascular health. His research interests include stress management, cardiovascular health, and health accessibility. Veneros is pursuing his doctoral studies at Columbia School of Nursing under the guidance of Billy Caceres. 
 

About TL1 Program 
The TL1 Training Program is intended to provide trainees with additional research training to prepare for a research career that can contribute in some meaningful way to understanding risk of disease, improving diagnosis and prevention, and tailoring treatment based on an individual’s variation in genes, environment, and/or lifestyle. Read more about TL1 Training Program here.