Zach Walsh

Our newest work from @BizarMd lab is now in print at @CellCellPress! Check out our tweetorial below to learn more about our work establishing a scalable variant classification appraoch for inborn errors of immunity, which has already directly enabled the treatment of a patient!

Absolutely surreal to have been named as one of the 2026 recipients of the Weintraub Award! An incredible honor, and one that would not have been possible without @BizarMd and the incredible lab and community he has created @ColumbiaMed @columbiacancer @Columbia

It was an incredible honor to be hosted at @StanfordMed for the @StanfordPath annual retreat as the inaugural recipient of the national Galli Prize in Pathology! Endless thanks to @BizarMd for his mentorship and to the whole Izar lab family

Great preview from @SanchoShimizu on the challenge of VUS in inborn errors of immunity and in general. AND on the fact that IEIs are likely more common than thought in general pop. cell.com/cell/fulltext/… in @CellPressNews

Now also with a beautiful preview of the work by @SanchoShimizu cell.com/cell/abstract/…

We (Mori @MichaelMayMD @DrGManji ) find that in patients with resected pancreatic cancer isolated metastatic recurrence in the liver do worse than those with lung recurrence. We profiled (snRNA+lpWGS) their primaries & made an intriguing observation: nature.com/articles/s4158…

@BizarMd @CellCellPress x.com/zwalsh96/statu…

Our newest work from @BizarMd lab is now in print at @CellCellPress! Check out our tweetorial below to learn more about our work establishing a scalable variant classification appraoch for inborn errors of immunity, which has already directly enabled the treatment of a patient!

For this week’s #MRFResearchWednesday, we’re spotlighting 2025 Medical Student Grant Awardee @Zwalsh96 of @ColumbiaMed, working in the Izar Lab, with @BizarMd. His project, “Leveraging T Cell Genetic Variants to Enhance Melanoma Immunotherapies,” explores new ways to improve and strengthen treatments. Zach shares more about his research: “T cell immunotherapies, which harness the power of a patient’s own immune system to target and eliminate tumor cells, are becoming an increasingly promising treatment approach for melanoma, including for patients who do not respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, many melanoma patients experience relapse or poor response after receiving these therapies, which highlights the critical need to engineer improved T cell therapies. As part of the Izar group at Columbia, my work aims to address this important gap." Read more about his work here: melanoma.org/news-press/mrf…

We validated screen results and phenotypes using T cells from two APDS patients with variants mapping to structural GOF hotspots flagged by our screen, directly linking screen data to real disease.

Scalable generation and functional classification of genetic variants in inborn errors of immunity to accelerate clinical diagnosis and treatment: Cell cell.com/cell/fulltext/… Thrilled to see this transformative paper published- and so sad that its NIH funds are frozen!

Great to see our work featured by @ColumbiaMed! New Method Speeds Diagnosis of Rare Genetic Disease cuimc.columbia.edu/news/new-metho…

Now online! Scalable generation and functional classification of genetic variants in inborn errors of immunity to accelerate clinical diagnosis and treatment dlvr.it/TLT5Xf

Thrilled to share the latest work from my PhD in the @BizarMd group! This has been a dream MD/PhD project, culminating in data that has already enabled access to precision therapy for a patient. Tweetorial below:

Scalable generation and functional classification of genetic variants in inborn errors of immunity to accelerate clinical diagnosis and treatment @CellCellPress @BizarMd @joshuamilner2 @FrangiehChris @zwalsh96 cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

@BrodinPetter Thank you so much!!!

Just heard this beautiful story at #CIS2025 and recommend this strongly

Excited to be presenting more of our scalable variant classification work tomorrow at @ImmunologyAAI #IMMUNOLOGY2025. Check it out if you are interested in #CRISPR base editing, forward genetic screening, or immunogenetics! My talk starts at 8:45 AM tomorrow (May 5) in Room 312!

Work that was made possible by brilliant mentorship from @BizarMd, invaluable contributions by @FrangiehChris, Clarissa Heck, @JCA_Melms, @NeehaKothapalli among many others, and invaluable guidance and support from our field-leading collaborators @joshuamilner2 and @BogunovicLab

Truly amazing experience to get to present our variant reclassification work at the opening plenary session of @ClinImmSoc 2025. Couldn’t have asked for a better audience for this work, as evidenced by so many insightful questions and conversations!

@cecipolih Thank you!!

Fantastic presentation and work!

Had a wonderful experience presenting our work developing a scalable variant classification approach for inborn errors of immunity at @JointMeeting @the_asci @A_P_S_A last week! And very grateful to have received a travel award to support my attendance.