Ann Marie Schmidt, MD Division Chief

The Division of Surgical Science at Columbia University's Department of Surgery was established in 2000 to advance and innovate the field of medicine—and improve the specialty of surgery—through scientific inquiry and research cooperation. In the eight years of our existence, our unique group of physician-scientists has worked on a number of important research collaborations with both internal and external colleagues, seeking fundamental insights into a wide range of diseases and conditions. Examples include:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes: its etiology & complications
• Autoimmune disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and the complications of allotransplanation
• Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & other neurodegenerative diseases
• Cancer

2007 and 2008 hold great promise for the division as new initiatives, both within our laboratories and via collaborative efforts, are realizing the importance of translational science…

We are proud to announce that Drs. Ann Marie Schmidt, Ravi Ramasamy and Shi Fang Yan have been awarded a new Program Project Grant from the National Institutes on Aging to study the relationship between advanced glycation endproducts (AGE) and their cellular receptor, RAGE (receptor for AGE) in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular aging. Understanding the mechanisms linking the polyol pathway (a key AGE generating engine) and RAGE to natural aging hold great promise in identifying means to slow down the devastating consequences of this process, particularly in the cardiovasculature. These studies dovetail well with those of Dr. Shi Du Yan and Ann Marie Schmidt who are recipients of a distinct Program Project Grant from the National Institutes on Aging to study RAGE and neurodegeneration, particularly in the context of Alzheimer's disease and peripheral nerve regeneration.

Division members are recent recipients of new grants from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in 2007 and 2008. Drs. Schmidt, Ramasamy and Yan, along with Dr. Raphael Clynes (Department of Medicine) and Dr. Kevan Herold (Yale) have been awarded a Program Project Grant to study novel biomarkers of the RAGE pathway in type 1 diabetes-related cardiovascular disease and autoimmunity. Dr. Ramasamy has been awarded a research grant to study mechanisms of mitochondrial stress in the heart in type 1 diabetes and Dr. Schmidt is a recipient of a JDRF Scholar Award to pursue roles for RAGE in regeneration mechanisms in the vasculature in type 1 diabetes. Dr. Anastasia Kalea, a postdoctoral research scientist in the division was recently awarded a JDRF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award.

We are thrilled to announce that the RAGE program is launched into the clinical arena. Now that TransTech Pharma has partnered with Pfizer, full-scale clinical trials testing RAGE antagonists in human sections are well underway. Clinical testing in subjects with diabetes and nephropathy and in aging subjects with Alzheimer's disease are well underway in multi-center trials.

Studies moving from "mouse to man" take great amounts of time and effort — but the hope of alleviating human suffering makes the work a labor of love.

We are proud to say that our division is home to some of the country's most cutting-edge research initiatives—ones that have the potential, promise, and power to treat major sources of morbidity and mortality in human subjects. Please feel free to click through our pages for more details and information on specific research projects sponsored by the division. We hope you find our work as fascinating as we do.

Ann Marie Schmidt, M.D.
Division Chief, Surgical Science
Gerald & Janet Carrus Professor