Quest Diagnostics

New York, New York STD Testing, Drug Testing, DNA Testing Center

Julia Wattacheril, MD, MPH is an associate professor of medicine, physician scientist, inventor and director of the Metabolic Dysfunction Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her clinical and translational work spans the multidisciplinary care of MASLD patients at all stages of their disease to the investigation of rare genetic variants influencing the development and progression of MASLD before and after liver transplantation. She currently leads an interdisciplinary research group using machine learning to identify at-risk and protected phenotypes within the electronic health record (EHR) for multi-omic analysis. Of particular interest for clinical outcomes discovered through EHR phenotyping include rapid progression to advanced liver disease, need for transplantation and hepatocellular carcinoma. Awards include the Department of Surgery Innovation Award and Columbia Department of Biomedical Engineering Ignition Award for these software applications as they move into medicine. Wattacheril is the lead principal investigator for several clinical trials in MASH. Her early pilot work with proteomics and lipidomics in the development of metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis (MASH) led to her current efforts investigating multi-omic signatures associated with fibrotic MASH. She co-led a multicenter consortium investigating the clinical risks associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with all etiologies of chronic liver disease, with a particular local focus on diverse populations. At Columbia, she works closely with the Center for Precision Medicine and Genomics to integrate genomics into clinical care. She mentors across disciplines including computational geneticists to masters’ program students in nutrition to undergraduates in psychology. She has a commitment to community education, including faith-based and non-profit sectors.

Dr. Lorraine Ng is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics (in Emergency Medicine) at the Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Ng earned her medical degree from Brown University and completed a residency in pediatrics at NYP Weill Cornell Medical Center followed by a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. She then went on to complete an Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center. Dr. Ng began as a faculty member at Columbia in 2012 with a focus and expertise in point of care ultrasound (POCUS) within Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM). Dr. Ng served as the PEM Ultrasound Fellowship Director for 5 years, after helping initiate the fellowship, as one of the first such programs in the country. Since 2018 she has served as the Director of PEM Ultrasound and as of 2019, now serves as Assistant Director of Emergency Medicine Department Division of Ultrasound. Dr. Ng is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine and practices as an Associate Attending in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.