Columbia University Upper Airway Dysfunction Lab

As we wrap up our spring semester, we wanted to give a shout out to our amazing masters student RAs and clinical extern who have been busy crushing it in class, clinic, and lab! We are so proud of you all!

🥁Presenting🥁…. Dr. Katya Villarreal-Cavazos who brilliantly defended her dissertation today on Salivary Dysfunction and Airway Protection in Parkinson’s Disease! Special thanks to her committee and to all who have supported and celebrated her along the way. 🥂 We are excited for all that we will continue to learn from our newly minted PhD!!!! 💦

The UAD Lab is lacing up for the 2026 Parkinson's Unity Walk in Central Park! 🧠💙 Join us on Saturday, April 25th as we walk alongside the Parkinson's community and raise funds for research that matters. Every step counts — donate to our Columbia University Medical Center team using bit.ly/unitywalk2026!

Publication Alert! Do you work with individuals with PD or other neurodegenerative diseases? Check out this article, led by alum , identifying minimal detectable change (MDC) to help distinguish treatment related change from individual variability.

✨ We’re hiring! ✨

The Laboratory for the Study of Upper Airway Dysfunction at Teachers College, Columbia University is looking for a Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellow / Research SLP to join our team!

Interested (or know someone who would be)? 📩 Send a cover letter + resume to [email protected]

Please share and help us spread the word! 💙

End of semester at the UAD Lab 🧪✨
Proud of the hard work, teamwork, and growth this crew brought all semester.

The UAD Lab is heading to the ASHA Convention 2025 in Washington, DC!
We’re proud to be giving two oral presentations this year, sharing our latest research on swallowing and upper airway function.

If you’ll be at , come see our talks and connect with us — we’d love to discuss our work and learn about yours!

It is a new academic year and we are excited to continue to grow our team. A huge, warm welcome to all of the new members joining the UAD Lab! 🎉 We're so excited to have your fresh perspectives, brilliant ideas, and energy as we dive into another year of meaningful research.

Let the collaboration continue! 💡

🚨Publication Alert🚨 Do you work with individuals with ? Check out our recent article (led by Dr. James Borders) demonstrating the single-session feasibility of cough skill training in cerebellar ataxia (link in bio). Special thanks to the research participants who made this study possible!