Columbia University

Opening new doors for biomedical and neuroscience research, Elizabeth Hillman, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering and of radiology at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), has developed a new microscope that can image living things in 3D at very high speeds. In doing so, she has overcome some of the major hurdles faced by existing technologies, delivering 10 to 100 times faster 3D imaging speeds than laser scanning confocal, two-photon, and light-sheet microscopy.

Findings strengthen link between specific brain region and normal memory decline.

The doors of the new lab were officially opened at a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 15.

For more than two years, Marshall Cox PhD’13 and John Kymissis, associate professor of electrical engineering, have been working on their startup Radiator Labs. Their first consumer product—the Cozy—is now in production and set for delivery next fall, just in time for winter’s cold blasts. And also just in time to win Popular Science Magazine's Annual Invention Awards as one of the most exciting innovations the PopSci editors have seen this past year.

CMOS Technology Provides New Insights into How Biofilms Form.

For centuries, researchers in fields as disparate as astrophysics and political science have faced the same hurdle before they could win acceptance for their theories—their peers must replicate and verify their results.

Researchers at Columbia Engineering, led by Chemical Engineering Professors Venkat Venkatasubramanian and Sanat Kumar, have developed a new approach to designing novel nanostructured materials through an inverse design framework using genetic algorithms.

In the search to understand memory, Wei Min is looking at cells at the most basic level, long before the formation of neurons and synapses. The assistant professor of chemistry studies the synthesis of proteins, the building blocks of the body formed using genetic code from DNA. “We want to understand the molecular nature of memory, one of the key questions that remain in neuroscience,” he says.

The risk of catching some nasty germ in the Hudson River just started looking nastier. Disease-causing microbes have long been found swimming there, but now researchers have documented antibiotic-resistant strains in specific spots, from the Tappan Zee Bridge to lower Manhattan.

Columbia Psychiatry researchers have identified what they think may be a mechanism underlying the development of compulsive behaviors. The finding suggests possible approaches to treating or preventing certain characteristics of OCD.