Tag Archives: Columbia University

Health

Yared Tekabe’s Research Shows Promising Results in Treatment of Diabetes

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

New York (TADIAS) — Dr. Yared Tekabe, a research scientist at Columbia University, has been working on groundbreaking non-invasive detection of heart diseases such as atherosclerosis — the building up of plaque in your arteries — which can lead to heart attack or stroke. After developing a tracer that could show the presence of a receptor called RAGE in areas where tissues were inflamed, Tekabe and his colleagues have now moved from detection and diagnostics to applying anti-RAGE antibodies for therapeutic purposes.

“Until now we were focusing on early diagnosis of heart diseases using our anti-RAGE antibody to detect diseases such as atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathy — a condition where muscle tissue of the heart becomes enlarged or rigid leading to irregular heartbeat or heart failure,” says Tekabe in a recent interview with Tadias. “At the time we didn’t realize the therapeutic potential for the antibody.”

Now anti-RAGE antibodies have become a game-changer as RAGE has been implicated in up to 12 diseases including diabetes, cancer, metabolic disorders and chronic inflammation.

Tekabe initially sent anti-RAGE antibody to his former advisor at Northeastern University who conducts research on human cancer cells and asked him to study the effect of the antibody on human tissue culture. His advisor had used three cell lines including those for human prostate cancer, sensitive ovarian cancer, and multi-drug resistant ovarian cancer.

“One of the problems in cancer treatment is that there is drug resistance, and we wanted to use the antibody on these cells. We found that 70% of the multi-drug resistant ovarian cancer cells died!” Yared exclaims. “So the antibody has brought really good results. If you ask what is the next step, I would say that we would like to study its therapeutic possibility on animal models.”

Another primary study conducted by Tekabe using anti-RAGE antibody focuses on complications of late stage diabetes such as ischemia. “In individuals that have diabetes they often undergo hand and leg amputations due to poor blood circulation,” Tekabe explains. “So what I did was to make mice have high blood glucose and induce diabetes and ligated or bound their femoral artery to restrict circulation.” The mice were then treated with anti-RAGE antibody and compared to a control group that didn’t receive the antibody treatment. Tekabe and his colleagues were surprised to find that the treated mice showed new blood vessels were forming in their hindlimb. In effect the ischemia caused by late stage diabetes was being reversed.

“We looked to see if this antibody treatment also reversed the high blood glucose level or affected body weight of the diabetic mice, but we didn’t find any significant changes in these two factors,” Tekabe adds. However, the formation of new blood vessels is a significant finding that points to the possible therapeutic use of the antibody for human diabetic patients, a promising therapy for those who may otherwise have to undergo amputations.

Tekabe’s research was recently published in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. “Moving forward we hope to continue the research and advance to human diabetic treatment, after humanizing the antibody first” he says. “We are also looking at possible therapeutic uses of the antibody for other conditions including kidney failure and heart failure, which are also often diagnosed in late stage diabetic patients.”

Tekabe and his colleagues are currently securing additional funds to get a second patent for this research and focus on using the antibody for theranostics — both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
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Related:
Yared Tekabe Uses Molecular Imaging for Early Detection of Heart Disease
Yared Tekabe’s Groundbreaking Research in Heart Disease

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Featured, Interviews

Interview with Atti Worku: Founder of Seeds of Africa Foundation

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Tadias Magazine
By Tseday Alehegn

Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – In 2005, when Atti Worku, was named Miss Ethiopia, she used her newly found public-platform to start the non-profit ‘Seeds of Africa Foundation,’ which operates a center for education and community development in her hometown of Adama (Nazret) in Ethiopia.

In a recent interview with Tadias Magazine, the founder and executive director said her New York-based organization began work in 2006 on what she calls the “Take-Root center,” a multi-faceted project that combines school for children and young adults with community development services, a prototype that the organization hopes to duplicate in other African countries.

“Our goal is to move beyond traditional aid models, providing more than just short-term relief efforts by giving our community the skills they need to support themselves and rise above poverty,” Atti Worku said. “Unequal childhoods can lead to exponentially more inequality in adult life.”

Atti is now a student attending Columbia University and shared her thoughts on education with Tadias. “By educating our children and providing the resources, we can combat the initial inequalities stemming from a vicious cycle of poverty, ensuring that the next generation will reach their full potential as leaders, educators, athletes, actors, musicians, and artists,” She says. “At this point in time, Seeds of Africa’s programming includes supplementary educational and tutorial services for students enrolled in local schools, as well as a full time curriculum for pre-kindergarden students. We also offer adult education classes and community development seminars and support.”

Atti was born and raised in Adama as the youngest sibling in her family and attended St. Joseph’s school in Adama from kindergarten to twelfth grade. After graduating from high school she moved to Addis Ababa where she attended HiLCoE school of computer science and technology. “After college I began my career as a model, traveling internationally, and ultimately moving to the U.S., where I am studying Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York,” she said.

According to Atti, her inspiration to create Seeds of Africa came at a very young age. “When I was in middle school, I became distinctly aware that my peers and I who were fortunate enough to attend St. Joseph’s performed well in school largely because of the individual attention we received and the resources we had available to to us – a library, science lab and computer lab,” she said. “In addition, our school, as well as our parents, set high expectations of us and supported our academic goals.” She added: “In contrast, the public school system lacked the necessary tools and had high teacher to student ratios, which often resulted in lower expectations of student performance. As a result, children who attended public schools struggled to perform and at times dropped out.”

Atti said her organization works with children ages 5 through 15, as well as with their families. “Seeds of Africa has grown in leaps and bounds in the past few years,” she said. “Major accomplishments have included expansion to a new center which has enabled us to double our student body and welcome our first full-time pre-k class.”

The community development side of the organization has also been flourishing. “In the past year, we have been excited and honored to work with such partners as Canadian-based Working to Empower and the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE),” she shared. “We are also thrilled to now offer adult literacy courses with access to our new library, courtesy of a U.S. based partner Hawthrone Elementary.”


Photo courtesy of Seeds of Africa Foundation.


Photo courtesy of Seeds of Africa Foundation.
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You can learn more about Seeds of Africa at www.seedsofafrica.org.

Tseday Alehegn is Co-Founder & Editor of Tadias.

Events, Featured

Columbia University’s 9th Annual African Economic Forum

Tadias Magazine
Events News

Published: Thursday, April 5, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – Columbia University’s 9th Annual African Economic Forum is scheduled to be held on April 13th-14th. The event highlights various topics facing Africa through a series of interactive discussions featuring business leaders and scholars from the continent and the Diaspora.

“This year our objective is to spotlight the growing trend of Africans revitalizing Africa,” organizers said in a press release. “Africans, for long, have been forced to accept the socio-economic ‘status quo’ as their future across their respective nations.” They added the continent “has been tied to foreign aid, decades-long incumbent rule in many countries, and dependent on natural resources to spur economic growth.”

The two-day conference – which brings together students, alumni, faculty and the business community – includes an evening gala, networking and panel discussions on subjects such as tourism, land reform, information revolution, peace & security, public health, sovereign wealth, and more. Among the guest speakers at the program are Mr. Lamido Sanusi, Co-Chair of the 2011 World Economic Forum. Mr. Sanusi, who is currently Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, was noted in TIME Magazine’s 100 list in 2011 for his role in helping to transform his country’s banking industry at the height of the financial crisis in 2009.

“The tide is now turning, Africans have become more vocal, innovative and entrepreneurial,” the press release said. “We are now witnessing tremendous socio-economic improvement across many countries, and economic growth fueled by local enterprises. Moreover, Africans in the Diaspora are returning home in large numbers, and at a faster pace, to participate in this movement.”
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If You Go:
The 9th Annual African Economic Forum
April 13-14th, 2012
Columbia University’s Warren Hall.
Website & Registration: http://www.AEF2012.com

Featured, Health, Profiles

Yared Tekabe Uses Molecular Imaging for Early Detection of Heart Disease

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Tadias Magazine

By Tseday Alehegn

Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – In Spring 2009, we featured Dr. Yared Tekabe’s groundbreaking work on non-invasive atherosclerosis detection and molecular imaging, which was published in the American Heart Association´s journal, Circulation. As in most chronic heart disease conditions, the plaque that accumulates in blood vessels is usually not detected until it leads to serious, and often fatal, blockages of blood supply such as during an episode of heart attack or stroke. Having received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institute of Health Tekabe’s research focused on the use of novel molecular imaging techniques to identify sites of inflammation that can help us with early detection of atherosclerosis.

In 2010, his work was highlighted in Osborn & Jaffer’s review entitled “The Year in Molecular Imaging,” noting that Tekabe and colleagues had developed a tracer that imaged RAGE — a receptor for advanced glycation end products, which is implicated in a host of inflammation-related diseases including artherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes and alzheimer’s. Tekabe’s group, along with his colleague Dr. Ann Marie Schmidt, holds a patent for this RAGE-directed imaging technology.

Tekabe’s lab also used similar imaging technology to detect RAGE in mouse models who had artifically-induced ischemia (restriction of blood supply) in their left anterior descending coronary artery, which is the main supplier of blood to the left ventricle. When blood supply is restored (reperfusion), the sudden change may also cause further inflammation and tissue damage from impact. By being able to trace RAGE and pathways of inflammation using molecular imaging techniques, Tekabe has demonstrated that the highest RAGE expressing cells were the injured heart muscle cells undergoing programmed cell death.

Tekabe’s research in myocardial ischemic/reperfusion injury showed that RAGE could be traced in areas of inflammation in a non-invasive manner in live mouse subjects. The findings were presented at the 2011 World Molecular Imaging Congress scientific session, and was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in January 2012. An editorial entitled ‘Visualizing the RAGE: Molecular Imaging After MI Provides Insight Into a Complex Receptor” accompanied Tekabe’s article, and emphasized that Tekabe’s research “continues to provide a solid foundation and proof of concept” that non-invasive imaging of RAGE following induced myocardial ischemia “is feasible” in live subjects.

Tekabe’s findings also have important implications for future antibody therapy formulations that can be used to treat RAGE-related chronic conditions. Tekabe hopes to translate his studies on mouse models to larger mammals and eventually to humans. Molecular imaging studies such as the one Tekabe has undertaken are critical in prevention of chronic cardiac conditions and could potentially decrease the number of sudden deaths from heart attack as it may allow physicians to make early and life-saving diagnoses.

When asked if there was anything else that he’d like to share with our readers, Dr. Tekabe replied, “Oh yes, since childhood, apart from my research, I’ve always wanted to involve myself in an Ethiopian movie, acting as the main character. Like in a love story. I hope to do this someday.”
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Related:
Yared Tekabe’s Groundbreaking Research in Heart Disease (TADIAS – March 17th, 2009)

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Featured

Art Talk at Columbia University: Ethiopia’s Artistic Tradition

Above: Zerihun Yetmgeta working in his studio in Addis Ababa,
1992. Photo by Raymond Silverman (Source: MSU)

Published: Wednesday, February 11, 2009

New York (Tadias) – On Thursday, February 12th, 2009, Columbia University will host a lecture by Dr. Abebe Zegeye, Professor of Sociology at the University of South Africa and scholar at Yale University. His lecture entitled “The Magical Universe of Art: Ethiopian artist Zerihun Yetmgeta’s works” will focus on Ethiopia’s centuries old artistic tradition.

One of this fascinating African country’s most prominent artists, Zerihun Yetmgeta, has decided to exhibit his works in his home town, the city of Addis Ababa. Yetmgeta’s exhibition The Magical Universe of Art, is a collection of works that spans the artist’s 40 years of work. It follows the maturation of Yetmgeta’s artistic passion over the years, right up to the present. His art, always exceptional, has grown more fulsome, his talent for transposing traditional motifs of Ethiopian Christianity ­ its legends, magical practices, belief in spirits and demons and evil eyes – into contemporary art. Over time, his work has become more prodigious, more intricate and more laden with hidden meaning. This talk will provide further insight and explore Yetmgeta’s extraordinary talent.


Left: Portrait of Zerihun Yetmgeta (photo by Raymond Silverman). Right:
Wax and Gold, 1991. Mixed media on animal skin and wood. MSU Kresge Art
Collection, 94.24.


Dr. Abebe Zegeye will give the lecture on Thursday, February
12th, 2009 at Columbia University.

If you go:
Date: Feb 12th,2009
Time: 2:30-4:30pm
Location: Columbia University
Room 1512 International Affairs Building, 435 118th St.

Source: Columbia University