Welcoming Two New Irving Institute Resource Leaders: Dr. Andrew Lassman and Dr. Natalie Neu 

May 2, 2023

The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is delighted to announce two new faculty leaders of our CTSA resources Network Capacity Resource and Clinical Research Resource, Drs. Andrew B. Lassman and Natalie Neu, respectively.  

andrew lassman

As the new Scientific Director for Network Capacity, Dr. Lassman brings a wealth of experience in clinical trials and translational research to the Irving Institute leadership. Dr. Lassman is Professor and Chief of the Division of Neuro-Oncology, Department of Neurology as well as the Associate Director for Clinical Trials at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) and the Associate Dean of Clinical Research Compliance, Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His research focus is on brain tumors and translational therapeutics, from retrospective clinical trials to local and NCI-funded national/multi-center prospective trials. 

Network Capacity offers a full suite of services to support clinical trialists, investigators, and other academic partners. Overall, it is comprised of three main components:  

  • Trial Innovation Network (TIN) - Dr. Lassman is now the Medical Director for our site.
  • National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) - Dr. Chunhua Weng is Columbia’s Team Leader.
  • CTSA Center for Leading Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) - Our hub liaison team includes Dr. Daichi Shimbo, Michelle McClave and Mary Purcell of the Administrative Core

This resource supports investigators by merging the facilitation of innovative clinical trials (TIN) with advances in informatics (CD2H) and the coordination of communication and collaborative tools (CLIC) to better serve the Columbia University Irving Medical Center research community.

Dr. Lassman’s position was effective January 11, 2023, and serves as a transition from the previous Director, Dr. Mitchell Elkind. Linda Busacca will continue as Project Manager for this Resource. Having launched in 2017, the Trial Innovation Network hub liaison team at Columbia successfully supported and leveraged consultations for many multi-site clinical trials under Dr. Elkind’s leadership, including $24million NIA-funded study on drug-assisted prevention of Alzheimer's dimentia (PI: Luchsinger), $1.6million study from NINDS on headache assessments in children (PI: Tsze), and recent U34 $420k grant from NIDDK on novel technologies for celiac disease management (PI: Lebwohl/Wolf). Dr. Elkind also oversaw the development and start of the Lecture Series on Clinical Trials ("TIN Talks") focused on topics in innovation in clinical trials and worked tirelessly on feasibility queries for multi-site trials. We applaud Dr. Elkind for his efforts over the years and wish him success in his next endeavors! 

 

 

 Associate Director, Professor of Pediatrics at CUMC

In January 2023, the Irving Institute also welcomed Dr. Natalie Neu as the new Associate Director for the Clinical Research Resource (CRR).  Dr. Neu is Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC and Director of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship Program.  

Building her career at Columbia over three decades, Dr. Neu has specialized in sexual health concerns such as sexually transmitted infections (STI), vaccines, and HIV as well as post-operative wound infections. Her research interests are on infection control and prevention for children at home, school, and when they live in long-term care facilities like pediatric post-acute care. She has participated at a local and national level in the creation of various STI and HIV treatment guidelines for children and adolescents.  

Particularly relevant to the Irving Institute’s CRR, Dr. Neu has a deep understanding of clinical trials including multicenter clinical research trials of antibacterial and antifungal agents as the Site PI at Columbia University.  Several of these studies have had long-term and international impact on antimicrobial agents in pediatrics.  Participating in these studies and publishing the results has changed clinical practice for pediatric infectious diseases and often changed the standard of care for management and prevention of infection in pediatrics. 

The CRR is the major provider of resources for patient-oriented research on campus with adult and pediatric inpatient and outpatient units, highly trained research nurses, phlebotomy services and facilities.  The CRR provides additional research services as the administrative home to the Bionutrition Core, management of a cohort of off-site clinical research coordinators in six clinical units on campus, training programs for clinical research coordinators, the state-of-the-art Biomarkers Core Laboratory, and Biobanking activities in partnership with the Columbia University Biobank. In addition, the Irving Institute supports and helped to expand CUIMC clinical research capacity by providing support for research coordinators in the Emergency Department (Adult and Pediatric), Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Neonatal ICU, Neurological and Neurosurgical ICU and Obstetrics and Gynecology Labor and Delivery unit. 

After many years of service to the Irving Institute and CRR, Dr. Sudha Kashyap decided to step down from her CTSA activities. We thank Dr. Kashyap for her tireless commitment to clinical research in pediatrics and promoting translational research among our faculty and trainees. Dr. Kashyap, a senior neonatologist, was instrumental in the early days of the GCRC leading inpatient newborn feeding studies in a research unit at Babies Hospital. Her knowledge and great working relationship with faculty and nursing staff assured smooth execution of complex pediatric protocols. Coupled with her regulatory knowledge as IRB chair she has taught generations of pediatric researchers the impact of rigorous research design and methodology. 

- Please join us in welcoming these two esteemed faculty members to the Irving Institute and CTSA Program hub!