News & Events

The Translational Research Institute for Pain in Later Life (TRIPLL), a New York City-based center to help older adults prevent and manage pain, has been awarded a five-year, $5 million renewal grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

The institute, formed in 2009 as one of the Edward R...

Non-white communities had significantly less access to opioid medications commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain than white communities over the decade beginning in 2011, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The findings, published Jan. 21 in Pain, stretched across all socioeconomic groups, and suggest that communities of color may be...

The overwhelming majority of those in New York City who obtained a naloxone kit to counteract opioid overdose had a high need for the drug, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The study, published Jan. 16 in the Journal of Urban Health, found that 97% of people who...

A group of immune proteins called the inflammasome can help prevent blood stem cells from becoming malignant by removing certain receptors from their surfaces and blocking cancer gene activity, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The study, published Jan. 2 in Nature Immunology, may lead to therapies that target the earliest stages of cancer. The findings bolster the idea that the...

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have found that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—organizations that negotiate access to medicines for most patients in the United States—steer patients to use their own pharmacies. However, these pharmacies appear less used in Medicare than in other market segments. These PBMs are part of integrated health care conglomerates that own insurance companies and pharmacies, which may create conflicts of interest.

The...

When Dr. Tamatha Fenster received a call from a young patient requesting a refill on her Oxycodone for pelvic pain, she was faced with a dilemma: letting the patient remain in pain or refill a prescription and perpetuate an opioid dependency.

With few other pain-relief options, she refilled the prescription. “I had to think of an alternative for pelvic pain for women,” said Dr. Fenster, assistant professor of clinical...

Beneficial gut microbes and the body work together to fine-tune fat metabolism and cholesterol levels, according to a new preclinical study by investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University’s Ithaca campus.

The human body has co-evolved with the beneficial microbes that live in the gut (termed the microbiota), resulting in mutually favorable relationships that aid in the digestion of food and...

Dr. Jim Castellanos (M.D. ’20, Ph.D. ’18), an instructor in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been selected as a 2024 Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Dr. Castellanos is one of 25 early-career scientists in the United States selected this year for this prestigious program, which aims to recruit and retain...

People with diabetes who were taking GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs such as tirzepatide and semaglutide had significantly lower rates of hospital readmission, wound re-opening and hematoma after surgery, according to a large study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and NewYork-Presbyterian.

The ...

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve equitable access to care, quality of life and survival outcomes for young people with all stages of breast cancer.

The grant will enable Weill Cornell Medicine to enhance care coordination for patients and caregivers to optimize support of physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs, while offering culturally relevant resources and targeted...

The hormone estrogen regulates binge drinking in females, causing them to “pregame”—consume large quantities of alcohol in the first 30 minutes after it’s offered, according to a preclinical study led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine. The study establishes, for what is thought to be the first time, that circulating estrogen increases binge alcohol consumption in females and contributes to known sex differences in this behavior.

The...

Immune cells in the brain called microglia can partially break down large amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease by latching on to them, forming a sort of external stomach and releasing digestive enzymes into the space, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings could ultimately lead to therapies that boost the ability of microglia to break down amyloid plaques.

The...

Neuroscientist Dr. Gary Gibson keeps a framed picture of a cell derived from the skin cells of a person with Alzheimer’s disease on his office wall.

The image is a memento of Dr. Gibson’s breakthrough hypothesis about an underlying cause of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s – that an insufficiency of vitamin B1 called thiamine alters the ability of mitochondria in brain cells to properly use...

A multicenter randomized, controlled clinical trial aims to test whether a minimally invasive treatment can relieve chronic pelvic pain and improve the quality of life for women with pelvic venous disease (PeVD). Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine will lead the study. Having definitive, quantitative evidence of health benefits may increase insurance coverage for the procedure and ensure access for more women. 

The condition,...

Reinforcement Learning, an artificial intelligence approach, has the potential to guide physicians in designing sequential treatment strategies for better patient outcomes but requires significant improvements before it can be applied in clinical settings, finds a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine and Rockefeller University researchers.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a class of machine learning algorithms able to make a series of decisions over time. Responsible for recent AI...

Prostate cancer hijacks the normal prostate’s growth regulation program to release the brakes and grow freely, according to Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. The discovery, published Dec. 13 in Nature Communications, paves the way for new diagnostic tests to guide treatment and could also help drug developers identify novel ways to stop the disease.

A protein called the androgen receptor...

Glutamate transporters pump glutamate from the synaptic cleft back into brain cells after its release during neurotransmission. A new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators has found that free fatty acids, including an omega-3 fatty acid called DHA, can reduce the amount of glutamate uptake by diminishing the sodium ion gradient that powers the transporters.

The study, published Dec. 6...

A newer vaccine against hepatitis B virus was clearly superior to an older vaccine type in inducing a protective antibody response among people living with HIV who didn’t respond to prior vaccination, according to the results of an international study led by a Weill Cornell Medicine investigator.

The...

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a $1.4 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate a new therapeutic approach for the most common form of kidney cancer.

The grant is one of 10 Idea Awards the department funded this year to support innovative, high-risk, high-reward science that could lead to a paradigm shift in cancer care. The funding will enable principal investigators Dr. Lorraine Gudas...

An emerging class of anticancer drugs called EZH2 inhibitors may greatly enhance the potency of some cancer immunotherapies, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine lymphoma researchers.

The inhibitors target the EZH2 enzyme, whose activity in tumor cells is now recognized as a significant factor in many cancers. The study, published Dec. 5 in Cancer Cell, found that EZH2 inhibition...