David Goldstein Appointed Director of Columbia’s Institute for Genomic Medicine

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. David Goldstein, PhD, will be joining Columbia as director of the University’s Institute for Genomic Medicine and professor of genetics and development in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, effective January 1, 2015.  Working with our partner NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Goldstein will be responsible for building a program that comprehensively integrates genetics and genomics into research, training and patient care and develops programs that prepare students for careers as researchers and clinicians in the expanding field of genomic medicine.

David will play a critical role in our University-wide, interdisciplinary initiative in “personalized” or “precision” medicine, which offers new avenues for applying advanced genomic science to the diagnosis and treatment of the most challenging diseases.

He comes to Columbia from Duke University, where he has been director of the Center for Human Genome Variation and the Richard and Pat Johnson Distinguished University Professor.  He joined Duke in 2005 after six years at University College London, which named him Honorary Professor in 2007.  He received his PhD in biological sciences from Stanford University in 1994.  His pioneering research centers on the relationship between human genetic variations and diseases including Hepatitis C, epilepsy, and schizophrenia—and the response of these conditions to treatment.  

In addition to his leadership of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at the Medical Center and his appointment in the Department of Genetics and Development, David will have an appointment in neurology at CUMC, as well as one at the New York Genome Center, where Columbia is an active partner.  We look forward also to exploring opportunities for our undergraduate students much in the way David impressively developed undergraduate curriculum on human genetics at Duke.  

This appointment is a crucial step in our broader effort to explore the promise of new scientific advances that can only come from bringing together Columbia’s strength in genomics, data science, and the basic science and engineering disciplines at Morningside with the clinical and biomedical leadership at the Medical Center.  It is a commitment to improving human health that is worthy of a great university.

For the moment, please join us in congratulating David Goldstein on his appointment and in welcoming him as the new director of Columbia’s Institute for Genomic Medicine.

Sincerely,

Lee C. Bollinger, President

Lee Goldman, Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine