IICD Newsletter February 2026

February 02, 2026
Stay Informed: IICD February 2026 News and Events 🔬
Herbert and Florence Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics Newsletter
February 2, 2026
 

 Faces of IICD: Maithê R. M. de Barros, Postdoctoral Research Scientist 

Dr. Maithê R. M. de Barros in St.Paul's Chapel at Columbia University

Meet Dr. Maithê R. M. de Barros, a postdoctoral research scientist at IICD whose career path bridges continents, disciplines, and cutting-edge approaches in cancer research. Discover what inspires her, her advice for other scientists, and why St. Paul’s Chapel is her favorite spot on campus in our latest Faces of IICD video feature.
 

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 Building the Next Generation of Scientists: Education and Outreach at IICD

Clockwise from left to right: IICD seminar in progress; IICD researcher  presenting to SHAPE participants; SRP interns and mentor team at the CUPP Symposium; students in the STEM Starters program; SRP 2025 cohort group photo.

The Institute engages learners from K-12 students to researchers. Since 2021, more than 3,300 participants have joined IICD seminars, symposiums, and workshops, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue across Columbia and beyond. Through expanding partnerships, these programs continue to broaden access to discovery and strengthen the research community.
 

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IICD Seminar Series: February Seminar

Headshot of David Cheek

Age Distinguishes Selection from Causation in Cancer Genomes

Hosted by: Simon Tavaré, FRS
Date: February 11, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM (ET)
Location: 
Schermerhorn
Hall 603
 and via Zoom

 
Register Here
Some seminars are recorded and available for viewing on the IICD YouTube channel.

IICD Highlights

Headshot of Devyn Forcina and Yanjie Chen
The IICD welcomes two new members:

Devyn Forcina joins the Institute as the new Communications Specialist.

Yanjie Chen, formerly an intern in the Dinh lab, has officially joined the Institute as a Staff Associate. 

 
Darby Dodge
 
Darby Dodge (SRP '25) presented her work from last summer's research program on 3D reconstruction and analysis of neuron–tumor spatial organization in a mouse glioma model from Darcy Peterka's Laboratory at the American Society for Microbiology's ABRCMS in November 2025.
 
Cover of Nature Methods
Siyu He and colleagues were featured on the cover of the January issue of Nature Methods for their work on Squidiff, a diffusion artificial intelligence model that predicts cellular responses to developmental and chemical cues, accelerating advances in precision medicine.

 
Brent Stockwell Headshot
IICD Associate Member Brent R. Stockwell is featured in the latest issue of Columbia Magazine. He discusses his discovery of Ferroptosis, a newly identified form of cell death, and explores how this process could be used to defeat some of the deadliest cancers.
 

Recent Publications from IICD Researchers

A Conserved Landscape of Chemokine Receptor Co-Expression Defines the Functional States of CD8+ T Cells in Melanoma. Macedo, R.; Harle, David. W.; Hoffer-Hawlik, K.; Wang, X. K.; McMahon-Skates, T.; Matschiner, A.; Belay, K.; Saenger, Y. M.; Izar, B.; Azizi, E.; Reshef, R.  bioRxiv 2025

A Robust Human Airway Organoid Platform Enables Scalable Expansion and Trajectory Mapping of Pulmonary Neuroendocrine Cells. Candeli, N.; den Hartigh, L.; Hou, N.; Marco, A.; Sánchez-Villacaña, J. A.; Garcia-Gonzales, A.; Gandhi, S.; Sgualdino, F.; Miller, A. J.; Spence, J.; de Sousa Lopes, S. C.; McFaline-Figueroa, J. L.; Clevers, H.; Dayton, T. L. bioRxiv, 2026

Bayesian Empirical Bayes: Simultaneous Inference from Probabilistic Symmetries. Wu, B.; Weinstein, E. N.; Blei, D. M. ArXiv 2025.

Determinants of Sensitivity to HER2-Targeted Antibody Drug Conjugates in Urothelial Cancer. Chen, Z.; Tang, X.; Eichholz, J. E.; Mcpherson, A.; Thomas, J.; Nagar, K.; Rustgi, N.; Christin, J. R.; Kuo, F.; Gao, S.; Jiang, H.; Luo, J.; Ostrovnaya, I.; Basar, M.; Pietzak, E.; Coleman, J. A.; Berger, M. F.; de Stanchina, E.; Shah, S. P.; Mohibullah, N.; Aggen, D. H.; Rosenberg, J. E.; Chandarlapaty, S.; Shen, M. M.; Al-Ahmadie, H.; Iyer, G.; Kim, K.; Solit, D. B. Nature Communications 2025, in press. 

Efficient Algorithms for Simulating Sequences along a Phylogenetic Tree. Wygoda, E.; Moshe, A.; Serok, N.; Dotan, E.; Ecker, N.; Jabareen, N.; Israeli, O.; Pe’er, I.; Pupko, T. Bioinformatics 2025, btaf686. 

Harnessing Biological Variability for Mechanistic Inference: A Practical Stochastic Framework. Wang, R-Y.; Danciu, D-P.; Klawe, F. Z.; Marciniak-Czochra, A. bioRxiv 2025.

Inferring Cell Differentiation Dynamics with Unobserved Progenitors. Howard-Snyder, W.; Zhang, R.; Schmidt, H.; Chan, M.; Raphael, B. J.  bioRxiv 2025.


Mapping Kinase-Dependent Tumor Immune Adaptation with Multiplexed Single-Cell CRISPR Screens. Shi, L.; Giglio, R. M.; Cai, Q.; Vaikunthan, M.; Hong, J.; Naqvi, A.; Milea, M.; Khanshali, H.; Schoonen, A.; Hou, N.; Guo, J.; Fraidenburg, M.; Shen, X.; Malinowski, S. W.; Ligon, K. L.; Rabadán, R.; Azizi, E.; McFaline-Figueroa, J. L. bioRxiv 2026.

Riemannian Metric Learning for Alignment of Spatial Multiomics. Halmos, P.; Xia, Y.; Raphael, B. J.  bioRxiv 2025. 

Striatal Ensembles Specify and Control Granular Forelimb Actions. Rodrigues-Vaz, I.; Athalye, V. R.; Peterka, D. S.; Costa, R. M. bioRxiv 2025. 

In Case You Missed It

Stay up to date with the latest from our IICD community, and be sure to follow us on X, Bluesky, IG, LinkedIn, and YouTube! Below are some recent highlights you may have missed.

Linkedin post celebrating Ethan Cohen
BlueSky post of the 2026 Director's Letter
Instagram post of Collision: Art Meets Science
Instagram post of the IICD Holiday Party
Job Opportunities

1. Staff Associate III (IICD & Columbia SEAS Joint Position)
2. Associate Research Scientist (High-Throughput Perturbations)
3. PhD Opportunities at the
German Cancer Research Center

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