News & Events

Dr. Joel Blankson first learned about M.D.-Ph.D. programs as he was finishing college. Now a leading expert on HIV pathogenesis and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, he found the opportunity to create his own educational odyssey, culminating in both degrees—one in medicine, one in a laboratory science—irresistible.

“I applied to the Cornell/Rockefeller program because of the focus on...

People with autism spectrum disorder can be classified into four distinct subtypes based on their brain activity and behavior, according to a study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The study, published March 9 in Nature Neuroscience, leveraged machine learning to analyze newly available neuroimaging data from 299 people with autism and 907 neurotypical people. They found patterns of brain connections linked with...

A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominant variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, including omicron, the most recent. Their discovery could lead to more potent vaccines and new antibody-based treatments. 

In a study published March 6 in the Journal of Clinical...

A very subtle and seemingly random type of eye movement called ocular drift can be influenced by prior knowledge of the expected visual target, suggesting a surprising level of cognitive control over the eyes, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine neuroscientists.

The discovery, described Apr. 3 in Current Biology, adds to the scientific understanding of how vision—far from being a mere...

Barely noticed scientific advances in the decades before the COVID-19 pandemic proved crucial to rapidly producing vaccines that—despite disappointing national uptake—are estimated to have prevented an additional 3.25 million American deaths from the virus, Dr. Anthony Fauci M.D. ’66 said.

Deftly blending hope and skepticism from serving on the front lines of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci...

Asthma is personal for Tyler Bershad.

“Like 26 million Americans, I have asthma,” said Bershad, an MBA candidate in business administration at Cornell Tech, during the 2023 Health Hackathon in February. “Asthma is the most prevalent chronic respiratory disease in humans and, unfortunately, those who are most vulnerable are children.”

Bershad knows first-hand the reality that many pediatric asthma patients don’t always know how to communicate their symptoms to their parents or...

White blood cells called neutrophils have an unappreciated role in eradicating solid tumors, according to a surprise discovery from a team led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists.

In the study, published March 30 in Cell, the researchers investigated how a T cell-based immunotherapy was able to destroy melanoma tumors even though many of the tumor cells lacked the markers or “antigens” targeted by the T cells. They...

A specific toxin-producing gut bacteria may be responsible for both triggering the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS) and ongoing disease activity according to a new study led by a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The team is working with investigators from UC San Diego, UC Davis, the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell’s Ithaca campus and has a long-standing collaboration with scientists at The Rockefeller University.

The...

NEW YORK (March 24, 2023)—Dr. Natalie Uy, a leading pediatric nephrologist, has been named chief of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology in the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital, effective April 17.

The Division of Pediatric Nephrology provides compassionate care for newborns, children and young adults with complex kidney diseases and urologic conditions. Services provided include dialysis and...

Obesity may spur DNA damage in the breast tissue of women who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, possibly contributing to breast cancer development in this already high-risk group, according to new multi-institutional translational research led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists.

The study, published in the Feb. 22 issue of Science Translational Medicine, suggests that weight management and medications...

Chimsom Orakwue imagined life as a doctor for as long as she can remember. It is the thread that connected her childhood to high school to college and, four years ago, to Weill Cornell Medicine.

Now a graduating medical student, Orakwue on March 17 reached a milestone that brought her ever closer to attaining her goal: learning where she would...

Multiple types of beta cells produce insulin in the pancreas, helping to balance blood sugar levels. Losing a particularly productive type of beta cell may contribute to the development of diabetes, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

In the study, published March 16 in Nature Cell Biology, Dr. James Lo, associate...

When Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recalls his college summers working construction jobs around New York City, one memory stands out crystal clear: It was the summer before the start of medical school and he was on the team...

The activity of a gene called CIART is a key factor in the establishment of the viral infection that causes COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

In the study, which appears March 13 in Nature Cell Biology, the researchers used multiple models of human organs, called organoids, to search for general host factors that influence...

Financial disruption as a result of pandemic containment policies in the United States adversely influenced children’s mental health, according to a new study co-led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University investigators. Mitigating these economic effects may help protect children’s wellbeing if strict containment policies are needed in the future, according to the investigators.

The study,...

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have developed a technique to help surgeons reconstruct more natural-looking nipples for patients who have undergone breast reconstruction after mastectomy to treat breast cancer.

In a study, published Mar. 8 in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Jason Spector...

A United States Food and Drug Administration mandate to limit the dosage of acetaminophen in pills that combine acetaminophen and opioid medications is significantly associated with subsequent reductions in serious liver injury, according to a study led by investigators at the University of Alabama and Weill Cornell Medicine. The federal mandate was announced in 2011 and implemented in 2014. The results were reported...

Compared with men, women continue to have a roughly 30-40 percent higher risk of dying following coronary artery bypass surgery, according to a large study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The analysis showed that, without adjusting for differences in age and other health factors that influence risk, the female bypass patients had a 2.8 percent rate of death during or soon after surgery, compared with 1.7 percent for male...

The immune system of pregnant women with anxiety is biologically different from that of pregnant women without anxiety, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center investigators.

The study, published Sept. 14 in Brain, Behavior and Immunity, demonstrates that pregnant women with anxiety have higher...