Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics

📣 Don’t forget to register for the next seminar.

IICD Newsletter October 2025

October newsletter is out. Watch the latest Faces of IICD interview, read about the latest breast cancer research highlights and the GROW conference, and more.

cancerdynamics.columbia.edu/news/iicd-ne...

#BreastCancerAwareness @nygenome.org @elhamazizi.bsky.social @jlmcfalinefigueroa.bsky.social

Irene Chang

Irene Chang research focus

Thrilled to welcome Irene Chang to IICD! Irene is a PhD student in Statistics, advised by Genevera Allen (@zuckermanbrain.bsky.social). Her research focuses on simplifying manifold learning methods with efficient neural networks for better interpretability and results on high-dimensional data.

The #AMICI 🤝 tutorial is out! Bringing #attention to #cellcellcommunication 🚨👉 amici-st.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
#spatialtranscriptomics #compbio #machinelearning

1/ I’m excited to share recent work on inferring cell-cell interactions using attention by @justjhong.bsky.social and me, supervised by @elhamazizi.bsky.social . Open the thread 🧵 for a brief overview of our method. bioRxiv link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1....

Thanks @cancerdynamics.bsky.social for highlighting this interview with @columbiacancer.bsky.social for Blood Cancer Awareness Month and our work in @cohesinlab

Image of a tree with the name of the conference above, “GROW”

Highlights from GROW 2025

Columbia welcomed 90 undergrads from around the country for GROW 2025, a conference supporting students in the mathematical sciences! Proud to sponsor this inspiring event for a second year with our Columbia partners. #GROW2025

Read more: bit.ly/4nnAIKO

Breaking Down 10 Myths About Bone Marrow Donation for Blood Cancer Awareness Month Dr. Aaron Viny shines a light on the lifesaving role of transplants in treating blood cancers and addresses some of the most persistent myths surrounding donation.

This #BloodCancerAwarenessMonth, Dr. Aaron Viny (@thedoctorisvin.bsky.social) is shining a light on the lifesaving role of transplants in blood cancers & addressing some of the most persistent myths surrounding donation via @columbiacancer.bsky.social.
www.cancer.columbia.edu/news/breakin...

Group of people sitting at a table.

Group of people sitting at a table.

Cheers to a great IICD Welcome Back Happy Hour! Always a joy to reconnect and celebrate our community. Looking forward to the next one! 🥂#IICDCommunity

YoonHaeng Hur

We’re excited to welcome YoonHaeng Hur, Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Statistics and @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social, to the IICD community!
In Dr. Genevera Allen’s group, YoonHaeng develops mathematical and statistical foundations for data science.
#Welcome #IICD #DataScience

Photo collage of IICD members in dry and wet labs.

Today is #NationalCancerResearchDay!
We’re grateful for our IICD researchers, students, and collaborators pushing the boundaries of cancer research every day, bringing us closer to better treatments and cures.
#CancerResearch #TeamScience #IICD #WorldCancerResearchDay

Check out this new publication from @jlmcfalinefigueroa.bsky.social and team in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social : Multiplexed Single-Cell Transcriptomics Reveals Diverse Phenotypic Outcomes for Pathogenic SHP2 Variants
#CancerResearch #SingleCell #Genomics #IICD
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

IICD Seminar Series flyer

Excited for our October IICD Seminar!
Dr. Teresa Davoli (NYU Langone) will speak on “Dissecting the Role of Aneuploidy in Cancer,” hosted by
@khanhndinh.bsky.social
📅 10/8/25 | 🕑 2PM ET
📍 Schermerhorn Hall 603 & Zoom
🔗 cancerdynamics.columbia.edu/events/iicd-...
@columbiacancer.bsky.social

Shruti Naik, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Recognized for helping advance therapeutic strategies for ailments such as psoriasis, chronic wounds, and cancer.

Elham Azizi, PhD, Columbia University Recognized for cutting-edge work in applying AI to help unravel the complexities of the tumor microenvironment

Elaine Y. Hsiao, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles Recognized for reshaping conventional thinking about the influence of the gut microbiome on the brain and behavior.

Join this distinguished cohort $400K in unrestricted prizes Apply by September 16 Learn more at the link in the post Logo for Takeda Innovators in Science Award with Nature

Attention early-career researchers focusing on GI & inflammatory diseases, #neuroscience or oncology: apply by Sept 16 for the Takeda Innovators in Science Award with Nature and join the previous winners. #Academicsky #GISky #medsky go.nature.com/4jBp3oM

EmbedOR: Provable Cluster-Preserving Visualizations with Curvature-Based Stochastic Neighbor Embeddings Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (SNE) algorithms like UMAP and tSNE often produce visualizations that do not preserve the geometry of noisy and high dimensional data. In particular, they can spuriously ...

Check out this new publication from IICD researchers Andrew Blumberg, Abigail Hickok, and collaborators in #Arxiv: EmbedOR: Provable Cluster-Preserving Visualizations with Curvature-Based Stochastic Neighbor Embeddings. arxiv.org/abs/2509.03703
@columbiacancer.bsky.social

Communication Specialist - Morningside, New York, United States Job Type: Officer of Administration Regular/Temporary: Regular Hours Per Week: 35 Salary Range: $65,800-$70,000 The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of fac...

We’re #hiring! The IICD is looking for an Communications Specialist to join our team. This role will will play a vital role in amplifying IICD’s mission and impact to showcase groundbreaking science and innovative collaborations. #job #IICD #Communication

opportunities.columbia.edu/jobs/9e05387...

We are #hiring for an exciting campus-wide collaborative effort! 📢 See the first position below for large-scale #CRISPR perturbation screens! #cancerresearch @cancerdynamics.bsky.social @columbiaseas.bsky.social

Photo collage of IICD postdocs

Photo collage of IICD postdocs

Happy National Postdoc Appreciation Week!
We’re proud to celebrate our talented postdocs and all they contribute to IICD’s research and community.
#NPAW2025 #IICDResearch

@columbiaseas.bsky.social @columbiacancer.bsky.social

Meet Beatrice Grauman, PhD student in the Vicković Lab at @nygenome.org 🌟. Her research explores tumor–microenvironment interactions and cancer evolution.
🎥Find out what inspires her outside the lab in our latest Faces of IICD feature
🔗 bit.ly/3K0Xidr
#FacesOfIICD #PhDLife #WomenInSTEM

Dr. Le Cong

Dr. Le Cong and Dr. Jellert Gaublomme

Audience at the seminar

Thank you to Dr. @lecong.bsky.social @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social for an outstanding seminar to kick off our Fall series!
🧬 His talk on AI-powered genome technology and cancer evolution sparked valuable discussion and ideas. Watch the recording here: youtu.be/irBMeBhVZ-I #IICDSeminarSeries

people having a picnic or playing games outside

We’re always happy to join Columbia CUPP each summer! From research highlights to community building at the annual CUPP cookout & Poster Symposium, our SRP interns shined all summer.

🔗 Read the story: provost.columbia.edu/news/cupp-st...

🔔 Reminder: The first seminar of the series is tomorrow! Register at the link below.

A graph homomorphism approach for unraveling histories of metastatic cancers and viral outbreaks under evolutionary constraints - Nature Communications Human diseases may evolve by migration or spread, but understanding these complex processes is challenging. Here, the authors leverage graph homomorphisms to reconstruct trees describing histories of ...

Check out this new publication by IICD member @braphael.bsky.social and team in @natcomms.nature.com: Graph Homomorphism Approach for Unraveling Histories of Metastatic Cancers and Viral Outbreaks under Evolutionary Constraints

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meet the keynote speakers for the 2025 scverse conference!

Elham Azizi, Associate Professor of Cancer Data Research and Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University
🧵

@elhamazizi.bsky.social
@columbiauniversity.bsky.social

#scverse #scverse2025 #machinelearning #genomics #cancerimmunology

🎥 A peek inside IICD
We found some extra b-roll from our feature on JSM TV at the 2025 Joint Statistical Meeting and couldn’t resist sharing!
🧬 Watch the full video: t.co/TAod7PnCLA cc: @websedgescience.bsky.social @elhamazizi.bsky.social @khanhndinh.bsky.social @bimidu.bsky.social

@elhamazizi.bsky.social, @davidaknowles.bsky.social, @columbiaseas.bsky.social

Jun Won Park

Aaron Zweig

Aaron Zweig speaking in front of an audience

Our first IICD Monthly Research Meeting of the semester was a success! 🔬Jun Won Park (Rane): Spatiodynamic Inference using Vision-Based Generative Modelling
🧬Aaron Zweig (Azizi/Knowles): Inferring Cell Trajectory with Flow Matching
Excited for a semester of inspiring talks!

Monthly Research Roundup

Monthly Research Roundup publications

🧬 IICD Monthly Research Roundup – August 2025
From immune cell aging to cancer genomics and machine learning, this month’s studies span Science, Immunity, Blood Red Cells & Iron, Cancer Bioinformatics, and arXiv.
#IICDResearch #SystemsBiology #AIinScience #CancerGenomics #Immunology @science.org

September newsletter

Our September newsletter is here! 📰
Catch up on the latest IICD news, including our feature at JSM TV, new research highlights, and upcoming seminar ➡️ bit.ly/4lW73GX #CancerResearch #DataScience @elhamazizi.bsky.social @websedgescience.bsky.social @bleilab.bsky.social @danapeer.bsky.social