NYC Gazette

Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is focused on nurturing future leaders in medicine. The institution provides resources for finding providers by specialty, location, and insurance, along with options to schedule appointments online.

Renu Nandakumar, PhD, serves as the director of the Biomarkers Core Laboratory at the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Raised in a family that valued literature, Nandakumar chose to pursue biology instead. Her academic journey took her from India to Japan, Sweden, and various parts of the U.S., exploring fields such as marine biology, microbiology, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics. “I’ve traveled far and wide to reach here,” she says.

Nandakumar’s role involves overseeing a facility dedicated to identifying biomarkers—molecules in body fluids or tissues that offer insights into biological processes and diseases. “They are the readouts of everything that happens within the body,” she explains.

Her career began at the University of Maryland with a NASA project testing theories about microbial life arriving on Earth via meteorites. She also researched bacteria in diverse environments like marine waters and hot springs. Her work includes developing biosensors for pollutants and creating a reference map for Staphylococcus aureus membrane proteins.

Opting against a traditional academic path, Nandakumar managed core labs focused on metabolomics and proteomics at the University of Nebraska before joining Columbia’s Biomarkers Core Laboratory in 2014. Promoted to lab director after four years, she expanded capabilities in metabolomics and mass spectrometry while establishing new cores in lipidomics and exposomics—a collaboration with Gary Miller aimed at studying environmental exposures.

Under her leadership, the lab tripled its user base to over 400 researchers annually. Nandakumar emphasizes supporting early-career investigators through sample analysis guidance and grant writing assistance. “We will assist with everything from grant applications and budgets to experimental design and manuscript preparation,” she notes.

Matthew R. Baldwin, a critical care physician at CUIMC who relies on the lab's services for lung disorder research states: “Trying to do these analyses on my own would be prohibitively expensive if not impossible.” He praises Nandakumar’s teaching skills: "I've learned so much from her."

Muredach Reilly commends Nandakumar’s contributions: “Renu is always looking for new ways to meet the needs of the research community... She’s a remarkable investigator.”

Thanks to efforts by Nandakumar's team, over two dozen Columbia researchers have advanced their drug discoveries into preclinical trials. Notably among them is prosetin—a potential ALS treatment currently undergoing clinical trials.

“The opportunity to help people is very precious to me,” says Nandakumar. “For me, a vial of blood is not just a sample; it represents a person facing serious health challenges.”