News & Events

Three minutes and one slide were all it took for twelve young scientists to turn cutting-edge research into dramatic stories of hope at Weill Cornell Medicine’s tenth annual Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition on Nov. 13 in Uris Auditorium. The night showcased bold ideas about tackling Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, infectious diseases and more with creativity and passion.

Students from Weill Cornell Graduate School of...

Why are innovation and entrepreneurship important in academic research? Since the Bayh-Dole Act was passed in 1980, permitting institutions to retain ownership of their inventions arising from federal funding, more than 200 drug treatments and vaccines have been brought to market through academic-commercial partnerships.

Weill Cornell Medicine’s Ninth Annual Dean’s Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship celebrated and fostered this entrepreneurial spirit on Nov. 17 at Weill...

Dopamine neurons in a part of the brain called the midbrain may, with aging, be increasingly susceptible to a vicious spiral of decline driven by fuel shortages, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings offer a potential explanation for the degeneration of this neuron population in Parkinson’s disease.

In the study, published Dec. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

Jacob Wilson knew something had tangibly changed just six months into a clinical trial evaluating an innovative therapy that targets mitochondria, the energy producing structures inside cells.

It’s not surprising that pancreatic cancer is often referred to as a silent killer. With few early symptoms and an aggressive nature, it has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers.

“By the time people...

Detailed mapping of CD4⁺ T cells from children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has revealed distinct immune cell subsets with likely roles in disease pathogenesis, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings are poised to redirect lupus research and open the door to more precise therapies that avoid broad immune suppression.

Published Oct. 21 in Nature Immunology, the study used...

The roots of addiction risk may lie in how young brains function long before substance use begins, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine. The investigators found that children with a family history of substance use disorder (SUD) already showed distinctive patterns of brain activity that differ between boys and girls, which may reflect separate predispositions for addiction. The research, published Nov. 21, in...

Chemotherapy activates a stress sensor in immune cells, triggering inflammation and nerve damage, which may help explain why many cancer patients experience debilitating pain as a side effect, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers.

Up to half of all patients receiving chemotherapy experience chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), which causes tingling, numbness and pain in the hands and feet. Since there...

A new study has discovered a molecular signal that tumors exploit to exhaust the T cells meant to destroy them—and how silencing that signal could revive the body’s immunity. The study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers was published Nov. 17 in Nature Immunology and shows that tumors not only evade the immune system but can actively reprogram immune cells to stop fighting.

“Our dream is to make immune-based...

Hypertension impairs blood vessels, neurons and white matter in the brain well before the condition causes a measurable rise in blood pressure, according to a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The changes help explain why hypertension is a major risk factor for developing cognitive disorders, such as vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

The preclinical study,...

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have identified an early step in a cellular process that leads to inflammation in fat cells and may result in type 2 diabetes in people with obesity.

The findings, published Oct. 28 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, show that a protein called FAM20C acts as a switch that turns on inflammation and insulin resistance in the fat cells of overweight mice. Genetic techniques to remove or...

Prior exposure to coronaviruses that cause ordinary colds can boost the immune system’s ability to attack a vulnerable site on the COVID-19-causing coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding suggests a new vaccination strategy that might provide broader and more durable protection against SARS-CoV-2 strains compared with existing vaccines—and might also protect against other emergent coronaviral threats.

In the...

Researchers have discovered that free radicals generated at a specific site in non-neuronal brain cells called astrocytes, may promote dementia, according to a Weill Cornell Medicine study. Their findings, published Nov. 4 in Nature Metabolism, demonstrated that blocking this site lowered brain inflammation and protected neurons, suggesting a novel therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative disorders, including frontotemporal...

Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a versatile and non-toxic technology for controlling the activity of any gene in a cell. Such “gene-switch” tools allow scientists to “turn on” or “turn off” a target gene to study how it works, model diseases and design new therapies. The tool potentially could be adopted throughout biomedical research, including in the development of gene therapies.

A Weill Cornell Medicine investigator and other members of a technical advisory group to the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund have outlined measures that nations can take to ensure that children’s health is accounted for within climate change goals. The authors discuss concrete and achievable indicators in...

As Medicaid funding cuts enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are expected to reduce health coverage among adults, researchers and clinicians from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and Ariadne Labs argue in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective, published Nov. 1, that children are at increasing risk of unintended downstream effects.

A team led by Weill Cornell Medicine and University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine investigators has been awarded a five-year, $4 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for health economics research. The team will study the economics of substance use disorder treatments and overdose prevention strategies for individuals who are incarcerated or otherwise involved in the United States’ criminal legal system.

Interventions for people with substance use...

A group of first-year Weill Cornell medical students walk into a dimly lit room and see a person lying on the floor with alcohol and pill bottles nearby.

After calling 911, they assess the situation and decide to administer naloxone, a medication to reverse an opioid overdose. The woman starts to wake up.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice filled with confusion and fear. A student kneeling next to her introduces himself and assures her help is on the way.

The scene looks...

A three-year, $4.5 million grant from BD²: Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder to Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, in collaboration with Stanford Medicine, will support a three-pronged research project to map the brain circuits that contribute to mood shifts in bipolar disorder and help develop personalized therapies for the condition.

New York, NY (October 23, 2025) Albert Einstein College of Medicine has received a five-year, $10.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create the New York Regional Diabetes Research Center (NYR-DRC), a newly expanded multi-institutional center co-led with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Weill Cornell Medicine. The center will focus on discovering scientific...