Lisa S. Wiechmann, MD

Dr. Yoanna Pumpalova is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and medical oncologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center where she specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies, with a focus on colorectal and anal cancers. She received her MD from Weill Cornell Medical College and completed internship and residency training in Internal Medicine and Global Health at Stanford University. She then completed fellowship training in Medical Oncology at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Pumpalova works as part of a multidisciplinary team with the mission of delivering compassionate and state-of-the-art oncologic care to each patient, using a precision medicine approach to provide innovative and promising treatments. Dr. Pumpalova is actively involved in translational research to understand the biological mechanisms driving early onset colorectal cancer. She collaborates with Dr. Joel Gabre, a gastroenterologist and clinician scientist and Dr. Beatrice Dionigi, colorectal surgeon, on research to understand how early onset colorectal cancer differs from average onset colorectal cancer, with the goal of uncovering novel ways to treat all patients with colorectal cancer. Dr. Pumpalova is also the site principal investigator of industry-sponsored clinical trials investigating novel therapies for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Further, Dr. Pumpalova conducts studies in low- and middle-income countries focused on early detection and screening for colorectal cancer. She has active studies in South Africa and Dominican Republic. Her research goal is to improve outcomes for patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer, regardless of where they reside. Her work has been recognized by several awards including an ASCO Young Investigator Award and ASCO Career Development Award. In the NewsColumbia Researchers Seek Answers for Rise of Colon Cancer in Younger PatientsWhat to Know About the Rise of Colorectal Cancer in Younger PeopleExploring Strategies for Earlier Colon Cancer Detection in Sub-Saharan Africa

Katherine Fischkoff, MD is a general and acute care surgeon, with a special interest in medical ethics. Dr. Fischkoff’s clinical skills and research expertise have earned her recognition as Medical Director for the Surgical Step Down Unit and Vice-Chair of the Department of Surgery’s Quality and Patient Safety Committee. She has produced influential research in the field of medical ethics to help clarify the role of the surgeon in difficult ethical situations. During the COVID pandemic, she led the way in developing standard-of-care recommendations to guide the diverse and numerous ethics challenges faced by all healthcare workers. Dr. Fischkoff earned her medical degree from George Washington University and went on to receive specialized training at NYU, Cornell and Memorial-Sloan Kettering before joining the team at Columbia.

Dr. Susan Bates received her M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Bates was a Lead Clinical Investigator and Head of the Molecular Therapeutics Section in the Developmental Therapeutics Branch of the Center for Cancer Research before moving to Columbia University in August 2015. During her years at the NCI, Dr. Bates led a highly successful translational research program focused on mechanisms of multidrug resistance and approaches to evaluate and improve the activity of epigenetic modifying agents. Her laboratory was among the first to clone the multidrug transporter ABCG2, eventually characterizing its function and its role in chemo-resistance and chemo-protection. This effort built upon earlier work elaborating the role of the multi-drug transporter P-glycoprotein that had defined the drug sensitivity profiles of cell lines in vitro, particularly in the NCI-60 cell line panel. The latter observation continues to impact how the NCI-60 cell line panel is used in drug discovery, and helped her identify a novel agent, at that time known as depsipeptide. Dr. Bates brought this drug to the clinic and after completing its phase I testing, served as Principal Investigator of a multi-institutional, international Phase II study of romidepsin (depsipeptide) in cutaneous and peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Working with Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, the data from this study were included in New Drug Applications (NDA) to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). This partnership led to approval by the FDA of romidepsin for two indications - initially for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and later for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Dr. Bates' current interests are both laboratory and clinical in nature. Her laboratory efforts include laboratory and translational studies on drug resistance in T-cell lymphomas and advanced solid tumors including breast, pancreatic, neuroendocrine, renal and lung cancers. Her work is dedicated to new drug development, and finding antineoplastic agents that, alone or in combination with other anticancer agents, improve the options available for difficult to treat cancers. Emanating from the clinical and translational development of romidepsin, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, a current focus is on epigenetic therapies, and the development of combination therapies to use with HDAC inhibitors in refractory advanced cancers, including solid tumors. She also has a special interest in drug delivery and drug distribution and the role of the blood brain barrier in creating a sanctuary site for cancers that metastasize to the brain. Clinically, her goal has always been to translate ideas from the laboratory to clinical trials, an effort that has proven very successful. Clinically she seeks to develop combination therapies with histone deacetylase inhibitors for the therapy of solid tumors; and to develop therapies to treat central nervous system metastases, a complication of cancer that is becoming a greater problem as patients live longer with cancer.