The President’s Global Innovation Fund (PGIF) was launched in March 2013 by President Emeritus Lee C. Bollinger to increase global opportunities for research, teaching, and service. The initiative supports Columbia Faculty in developing projects and research collaborations within and across the University’s nine Columbia Global Centers.
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” Nelson Mandela.
PGIF Round 1 Projects (2013)
This project was a global outreach mission with a group of students for Columbia University Medical Center. In addition to screenings and comprehensive care for almost 200 children at orphanages and homes for impoverished children, the students also collaborated on cross-disciplinary scholarly projects that included Telehealth training, HIV saliva testing and research, water fluoridation, and remote early cancer detection, and exploring distance learning opportunities using google glass. The College of Dental Medicine also signed a university affiliation agreement with Nairobi Medical and Dental Center for further collaboration on the above educational activities.
The Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Dr Shan Lal, Associate Professor of Dental Medicine (Pediatric Dentistry), Columbia University Medical Center
- Columbia University Medical College Students Participants: Brittany Roth, Stephany Liu, Heather Beaty, Joanna Walska, Christa Gianfrancesca, Ronit Sternberg, Kenrick Cato, Rob Ziliny, and Richa Wahi
- Columbia University Schools Involved: College of Dental Medicine, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Mailman School of public Health School of Nursing
- Local Collaborators: Ministry of Health, Kenya and Nairobi Medical Center
The main goal of this project was to evaluate if nuclear and/or cytoplasmic sphingosine-1-phosphate is a marker for pediatric brain cancer subtypes with the potential to be used as a stratifying tool for the use of HDAC inhibitor therapy and treatment response as well as initiating a scientific pilot project. This project was of interest to the Department of Pathology and the Pediatric Translational for a new drug development program with potential external funding.
The Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Tilla S. Worgall, Assistant Professor, Columbia University Medical Center.
- Co- principal Investigators: Stephen Nicholas, Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health, Columbia University Medical Center (College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health); Bill Bower, Special Lecturer in Population and Family Health; Linda Cushman Professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia University Medical College; Associate Dean of Field Practice.
- Local Collaborators: Dr. Regina Mutave - Dean, School of Dental Sciences at University of Nairobi; Oral Health Unit - Ministry of Health, Kenya; Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC).
PGIF Round 4 Projects (2016)
This project sought to train the young people living with HIV on how to use digital cameras. In addition to acquiring tangible skills, the project also aimed to train the youth on how to use photography as a medium of self-expression to explore their experiences of being born with and living with HIV infection. By the end of this project, an exhibition of the participants' photographs happened at the Nairobi Global Center and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
The Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Elaine J. Abrams, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Columbia University Medical Center College of Physicians and Surgeons; Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center Mailman School of Public Health
- Local Collaborators: ICAP Kenya and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH)
This project sought to bring academic and research institutions across the East African region to develop a model multi-institutional, Africa-based Ph.D. training program in basic nutritional and agricultural sciences. This model aimed to promote intra-Africa collaborations, enhanced sustainability, and meaningful interactions with Columbia faculty and graduate students. The project sought to achieve this by building a Ph.D. program in basic laboratory research that will significantly expand training opportunities and facilities beyond that available at any institution. The project sought to not only offer laboratory-based training for academic sake but also to link graduate students' training to a "path to action," wherein students will be conducting primary research on public health problems in East Africa
The Research Team
Principle Investigator: Debra Wolgemuth (Professor of Genetics and Development (in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the Institute of Human Nutrition) College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.)
PGIF Round 5 Projects (2017)
The African Nutritional Sciences Research Consortium (ANSRC) was formed to bring academic and research institutions across the East African region to develop a model multi-institutional, Africa-based Ph.D. level training program in basic nutritional and agricultural sciences. This model promotes intra-Africa collaborations, enhances sustainability, and fosters meaningful interactions with Columbia faculty and graduate students. As a continuation of the previous year's project (Laboratory-based Ph.D. Training in Nutritional and Agricultural Sciences in East Africa), it sought to build a Ph.D. program in basic laboratory research that would greatly expand training opportunities and facilities beyond that available in any institution. This project sought to not only offer laboratory-based training for academic's sake but also link graduate students' training to a "path to action" wherein students were expected to conduct primary research concerning public health problems in East Africa as well as establish private-public interactions, to ensure that their research projects enhance local economic development.
The Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Debra Wolgemuth, Professor of Genetics and Development (in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the Institute of Human Nutrition) College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.
- Co-principal Investigators: Richard Deckelbaum, Robert R. Williams Professor of Nutrition; Professor of Pediatrics Professor of Epidemiology and Director, Institute of Human Nutrition
- Other Columbia Participants: Glenn Denning , Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
- Local Collaborators: Bonnie S. Dunbar, PhD - Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Nairobi and Managing Director, Omega Farms, Ltd; Dr. Gordon Nguka - Chairman, Nutrition Sciences, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology; Dr. Appolinaire Djikeng - Director, Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa International Livestock Research Institute; Prof. Francis Mulaa - Professor of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Nairobi; Maimouna Diop Ly - Principal Health Analyst, Health Division, African Development Bank.
While men have more power, privilege, and influence in many societies, men's health outcomes are substantially worse than women's, and this disparity manifests in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Though tremendous strides have been made globally in access to life-saving HIV treatment, men have lower HIV testing rates than women, and treatment coverage among men lags behind that of women. "Men Matter: Male Engagement in HIV Services in Kenya" sought to utilize an interdisciplinary team to conduct formative research with men living with HIV and health care workers who provide care to this population to garner their perceptions on barriers and facilitators to engaging men in HIV care.
The Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Tanya Ellman, Associate Research Scientist and Instructor in Clinical Medicine, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
- Other Columbia Participants: Wafaa ElSadr, Dr. Mathilde KrimamfAR Professor of Global Health (in Epidemiology) ; Director, ICAP Mailman School of Public Health; Mark Hawken - Associate Research Scientist, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health; Joanne Mantell- Research Scientist and Professor of Clinical Psychology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University; Mamadou Diouf - Leitner Family Professor of African Studies; Director, Institute for African Studies, Columbia University.
This project was built on an existing collaboration established through the "Children's Global Oral Health Initiative." The project sought to work with the Global Centers in Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro to bring together academic, research, policy, and clinical partners to develop a cross-national learning laboratory that can be used to leverage expertise, develop collaborative oral health policy, planning, and funding targets, and bring visibility to oral health needs. The project aimed to inform oral health policy and programming in other low- and middle-income countries and explore the possibility of expansion to other Global Centers.
The Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Kavita P. Ahluwalia, Professor of Genetics and Development; Associate Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical College; Director of Dental Public Health Postdoctoral Training Program.
- Co- principal Investigators: Stephen Nicholas Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health, Columbia University Medical Center; Founder and Director, IFAP Global Health Program
- Other Participants: Rafael E. Perez Figueroa - Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health at Columbia University Medical Center
- Local Collaborator: Dr. Regina Mutave James, Dean, School of Dental Sciences, University of Nairobi
