News & Events

Weill Cornell Medicine’s Celebration of Diversity honored leaders who go beyond their official roles, dedicating time, energy and empathy to build inclusive environments. The ceremony, part of the institution’s seventh annual Diversity Week, was held April 7 in Griffis Faculty Club.

“This is one of the most important evenings of the year at Weill Cornell Medicine,” said  Dr. Robert A. Harrington, the...

New research from Weill Cornell Medicine has uncovered a surprising culprit underlying cardiovascular diseases in obesity and diabetes—not the presence of certain fats, but their suppression. The study, published Feb. 25 in Nature Communications, challenges the conventional belief that a type of fat called ceramides accumulates in blood vessels causing inflammation and health risks. Instead, their preclinical findings...

A Phase I clinical trial demonstrated that a targeted approach to treating a deadly brain tumor in children called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is safe, reported Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center investigators. This is the first larger scale study using a radiation-based direct drug delivery approach to treat and image DIPG.

DIPG is an aggressive cancer without any effective treatment—...

Knocking out a single gene reprograms part of the large intestine to function like the nutrient-absorbing small intestine. In a preclinical study, Weill Cornell Medicine investigators showed that the technique reversed the malnutrition that results when most of the small intestine is removed. The successful demonstration suggests that a similar strategy could be used to treat short bowel syndrome, a life-threatening disorder that can occur when very little of the small intestine remains...

Linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid found in seed oils such as soybean and safflower oil, and animal products including pork and eggs, specifically enhances the growth of the hard-to-treat “triple negative” breast cancer subtype, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The discovery could lead to new dietary and pharmaceutical strategies against breast and other cancers.

In the study...

Pregnancy may offer some protection from developing Long COVID, found a new study led by Weill Cornell Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, University of Utah Health and Louisiana Public Health Institute. Previous research has mostly focused on non-pregnant adults affected by Long COVID—a condition lasting for months after a person recovers from a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The...

Leveraging the power of AI and machine learning technologies, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine developed a more effective model for predicting how patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer will respond to chemotherapy. The model harnesses whole-slide tumor imaging and gene expression analyses in a way that outperforms previous models using a single data type.

The...

New York, N.Y., and Princeton, N.J. (March 27, 2025)—With a mission to understand how nutrition and metabolism impact the body’s ability to control cancer, four leading research institutions have united under the Weill Cancer Hub East, an innovative, collaborative partnership that aims to transform cancer treatment. The initiative connects world-class experts from Princeton University, The...

Abhinav Pandey started his education at Weill Cornell Medical College with an open mind, mulling potential careers in emergency medicine or critical care. But during his general surgery rotation he met a resident who suggested that he instead consider neurosurgery. The thought stuck with Pandey, who had previously worked in neurosurgeon...

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that restricting telehealth prescriptions for opioid use disorder could keep thousands from accessing buprenorphine, a medication that helps people recover from addiction. The study, published March 3 in JAMA Network Open, warns that requiring in-person visits—as had been proposed...

A person’s “bioenergetic age”—or how youthfully their cells generate energy—might be a key indicator of whether they’re at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, new research from Weill Cornell Medicine shows. The study, published Feb. 24 in Nature Communications, suggests healthy living can turn back the bioenergetic clock for some people, helping them fend off Alzheimer’s as effectively as a new drug called lecanemab....

A new Weill Cornell Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University co-authored study provides critical insight for the development of a vaccine that can more effectively block the spread of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, across the placenta to babies before they are born.

CMV is one of the most common viruses and most people don’t even know they’ve been infected. However, it carries significant risks to the developing fetus, including lifelong health...

Tuberculosis bacteria rely on a family of genes that help them survive the challenging journey from one person’s lungs to another person’s during coughing, sneezing or talking, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The findings provide new targets for tuberculosis therapies that could simultaneously treat infection and prevent the spread of bacteria. 

Until now, very little was known about this transmission process—when...

A single molecular switch is essential for blood stem cells to enter an activated, regenerative state in which they produce new blood cells, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The discovery could lead to more effective bone marrow transplants and gene therapies.

Stem cells are immature cells that have a basic regenerative role in virtually all tissues. They normally exist in a quiescent, slowly dividing state, but after an injury can replace...

People with Crohn’s disease and related joint inflammation linked to immune system dysfunction have distinct gut bacteria or microbiota, with the bacterium Mediterraneibacter gnavus being a potential biomarker, according to new study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The study, published Feb. 13 in Gut Microbes, also demonstrated that the gut microbiota of people with Crohn’s and axial...

A new study unveils a precise picture of how an ion channel found in most mammalian cells regulates its own function with a “ball-and-chain” channel-plugging mechanism, according to investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings boost the understanding of ion channel biology and could lead to new drugs that target these channels to treat disorders such as epilepsy and hypertension.

Ion channels are protein structures embedded in cell membranes that allow charged molecules to...

Dr. Joseph E. Safdieh, an esteemed and longstanding Weill Cornell Medicine medical educator and neurologist, has been appointed senior associate dean for education at the institution, effective May 19.

Dr. Safdieh will lead the institution’s Office of Medical Education and oversee the overall living and learning experience of Weill Cornell Medical College’s students. He will develop academic programs for medical and physician assistant...

A new AI-based system for analyzing images taken over time can accurately detect changes and predict outcomes, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell’s Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech. The system’s sensitivity and flexibility could make it useful across a wide range of medical and scientific applications.

The new system, termed LILAC (Learning-based Inference of Longitudinal imAge Changes), is based on an AI approach called machine learning. In the...

Working toward more effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed two strains of mycobacteria with "kill switches" that can be triggered to stop the bacteria after they activate an immune response. Two preclinical studies, published, Jan. 10 in Nature Microbiology, tackle the challenge of engineering bacteria that are safe for use in controlled human infection trials or as better vaccines. While TB is under control in most developed countries, the...

Adding engineered human blood vessel-forming cells to islet transplants boosted the survival of the insulin-producing cells and reversed diabetes in a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The new approach, which requires further development and testing, could someday enable the much wider use of islet transplants to cure diabetes.

Islets, found in the pancreas, are clusters of insulin-secreting and other cells enmeshed in tiny, specialized blood vessels. The...