Akinpelu Akitola Beckley, MD

Debbie Theodore is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, as well as Associate Program Director for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. Her research interests include prevention of HIV through the expansion and delivery of PrEP and the implementation and execution of clinical trials of vaccines and broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for HIV prevention and treatment. Her research also includes prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 through clinical trials of vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and antiviral medication. She has a particular interest in understanding women-specific impacts of infectious diseases.

Tristan T. Sands, MD, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons (Columbia VP&S) Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics. He is a pediatric neurologist who treats children and babies suffering from epilepsy and a physician scientist with expertise in genetic causes of epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disease. Dr. Sands completed his MD-PhD at Columbia VP&S through a Medical Scientist Training Program with thesis work in lab of Dr. Arnold Kriegstein. During child neurology residency at UCSF, Dr. Sands trained in electroclinical phenotyping of the epilepsies under Dr. M. Roberta Cilio. After finishing his clinical training at Columbia VP&S in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology with Dr. Jim Riviello, Dr. Sands joined Columbia VP&S as faculty in 2017, first training in neurogenetics at the Institute for Genomic Medicine, and then returning to the bench to study genetic epilepsy using mouse models under the mentorship of Dr. Wayne Frankel. Dr. Sands has worked closely with families to treat hundreds of children with epilepsy. He is the author of chapters on pediatric epilepsy and genetic epilepsy in major textbooks in the field of neurology, including Merritt’s Neurology and Swaiman’s Pediatric Neurology. Dr. Sands has served as an expert on ClinGen’s epilepsy gene curation panel since 2017. In 2023, Dr. Sands was named Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society in recognition of professional accomplishment and dedication in the field of epilepsy. Dr. Sands is a 2024 Louis V. Gerstner Scholar. His research contributions include demonstration of the exquisite efficacy of carbamazepine for neonatal epilepsy caused by inherited loss-of-function variants in KCNQ2 and KCNQ3, work that led to changes to the International League against Epilepsy guidelines and recommendations on the treatment of seizures in newborn babies. Dr. Sands reported the electroclinical characterization of a new gain-of-function phenotype caused by de novo variants in KCNQ3. Dr. Sands reported variants in NBEA as a cause epilepsy and neurodevelopment, and he characterized the largest cohort of patients with epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disability caused by pathogenic variants in CSNK2B. The Sands "END (Epilepsy & Neurodevelopmental Disease) Laboratory," established in 2022 in the Center for Translational Research in Neurodevelopmental Disease (CTRND), uses mouse and human cellular models to identify convergent disease mechanisms and novel therapeutic strategies for epilepsy and encephalopathy caused by rare genetic mutations. These research efforts are supported by federal grants from both NIH and private agencies.

Dr. Tanhehco is Associate Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She has been a faculty member and attending physician in the Division of Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapy since 2012. She is the Director of the Cellular Therapy Laboratory and Assistant Director of Transfusion Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Tanhehco received her BA degree in Biological Sciences with concentrations in Microbiology and Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University in 1999. She then pursued graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she earned her PhD degree in Viral Oncology in 2004. Her interest in clinical care and medicine led her to the University of Pittsburgh where she obtained her MD degree in 2008. She subsequently pursued residency training in Clinical Pathology (2008-2011) and fellowship training in Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine (2011-2012) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she also obtained a MS degree in Translational Research (2010-2012). She is board certified by the American Board of Pathology in both Clinical Pathology and Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine. Dr. Tanhehco’s clinical and research interests focus on cellular and gene therapies for malignant and non-malignant disease particularly sickle cell disease. She is interested in strategies to optimize patients and procedures for apheresis collections of mononuclear cells and hematopoietic progenitor cells to minimize patient adverse events and improve cell yields for drug product manufacturing. She is also interested in methods to improve processing and cryopreservation of mononuclear cell and peripheral blood stem cell products. Dr. Tanhehco is an active member of several professional societies including the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies, American Society for Apheresis, International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy, College of American Pathologists, and American Society for Clinical Pathology. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications.