News & Events

Researchers have known for some time that maternal breast milk provides critical nutrients for newborns, and antibodies from mothers vaccinated against a specific disease-causing bacterium or virus can be transferred via breast milk to babies. Now a new preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators shows that one specific set of antibodies that is induced naturally by gut beneficial bacteria can be transferred from mothers to infants through breast milk and help infants defend...

A class of proteins known as TMEM16 scramblases permit rearrangement of lipids in the cell membrane chiefly by thinning the membrane, according to a new model by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The model, based on the highest-resolution images to date of a TMEM16 scramblase, challenges the prevailing theory of how these proteins play their fundamental role in biology and could lead to the first scramblase-targeted pharmaceuticals. 

Scramblase proteins reside in the outer...

A promising venture that hopes to develop a new drug therapy for colorectal cancer won $50,000 in funding and recognition from experienced venture capitalists on May 26 at the annual Biomedical Business Plan Challenge.

The venture, Culnexin Therapeutics, is based on the work of Dr. Pengbo Zhou, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Zhou is an expert on tiny enzymes...

SARS-CoV-2 infections of women in late pregnancy frequently spread to their placentas and led to inflammation, according to a study from investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The findings suggest that further research is needed on the virus’s effects in pregnancy and underscore the current recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that pregnant women continue to take precautions, such as masking, social distancing and vaccination, to...

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have identified a previously unrecognized form of hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer, as well as a set of molecules that drive its growth. This discovery opens the door to the development of therapies that treat this specific disease.

In the study, published May 27 in Science, the researchers examined the molecular...

Dr. Meridith Pollie was always interested in math and science, but a volunteer opportunity working and bonding with patients at a long-term health care facility inspired her to dedicate those passions in service of others.  

“I realized that I got a whole different kind of fulfillment from building relationships with people...

Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar awarded Cornell University medical degrees to 41 new doctors on May 11 during the college’s first graduation ceremony held in person since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s 41 graduates—comprising 23 men and 18 women—brings the total number of new physicians educated by WCM-Q to 504 since its first graduation ceremony in 2008. The Class of 2022, the college’s 15th graduating class, also represents 16 nationalities; 12 students are Qatari...

Immunotherapy unleashes the power of the immune system to fight cancer. However, for some patients, immunotherapy doesn’t work, and new research may help explain why. When immune cells called T lymphocytes infiltrate malignant tumors, the genetic program of those T cells and the developmental path they then follow, may affect their response to immunotherapy and predict overall patient survival, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The results overturn the...

Tumors can force neighboring cells into supporting cancer growth by releasing lactate into their local environment, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings pave the way for future drug treatments that thwart that defense mechanism to help cancer patients.

In the study, published May 10 in Cell Reports, the researchers determined how tumors, as they develop, recruit nearby cells...

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have identified a protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that contributes to drug tolerance, a phenomenon that allows bacteria to survive treatment with drugs that would normally kill them.

The study, published April 22 in Nature Communications, found that an Mtb protein called CinA reduces the efficacy of isoniazid and other antibiotics used to treat tuberculosis.

“This study...

Weill Cornell Medicine honored a dozen faculty, trainees, students and staff April 25 for their outstanding service and leadership in promoting diversity at the academic medical institution.

The annual Diversity Awards, this year hosted virtually, honor exemplary contributions through research, clinical care, community service and advocacy to improve the health of populations that historically have had unequal access to care. They also recognize excellence in mentorship...

When she was 5 years old, Reine Ibala and her family moved to the United States as refugees amid civil war in their native Republic of the Congo. Her father later developed hypertension and faced challenges as he navigated the U.S. health care system. His physician was dismissive, Ibala recalled, and failed to address the real, personal and cultural reasons behind her father’s misgivings about his treatment plan. With a discordant patient-physician relationship and lack of shared decision-...

At a time when voting rights are under threat, inequality is on the rise and teaching the history of race relations in schools is facing a backlash, diversity and inclusion programs in academic medicine are more important than ever, said Dr. James R. Gavin III, in his keynote address for Weill Cornell Medicine’s fourth annual Diversity Week.

Over the past 15 years, public health authorities have downgraded recommendations for the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test as a screening tool to reduce the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of men with low-grade prostate cancer. Now, researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine have found that while these efforts have been effective, the incidence of higher-grade disease and metastasis at diagnosis have risen. The research was published...

New evidence from a zebrafish model of epilepsy may help resolve a debate into how seizures originate, according to Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. The findings may also be useful in the discovery and development of future epilepsy drugs.

In the study, published Feb. 23 in Brain, the researchers were able to track the activities...

Inhibiting an important signaling pathway in brain-resident immune cells may calm brain inflammation and thereby slow the disease process in Alzheimer’s and some other neurodegenerative diseases, suggests a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings point to the possibility of new therapeutic strategies against neurodegenerative diseases, which are relatively common in older adults and so far have no effective, disease-modifying treatments.

Brain inflammation,...

Cancer cells can disrupt a metabolic pathway that breaks down fats and proteins to boost the levels of a byproduct called methylmalonic acid, thereby driving metastasis, according to research led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings open a new lead for understanding how tumors metastasize, or spread to other tissues, and hints at novel ways to block the spread of cancer by targeting the process.

The new ...

Hysteroscopic sterilization, a nonincisional procedure, was found to be as effective as minimally invasive laparoscopic sterilization in preventing pregnancy, but both methods had higher than expected failure rates, according to a new study led by an investigator at Weill Cornell Medicine. 

The comparative study, published April 12 in Fertility and Sterility, found that both methods had failure rates of five to six percent at 5...

Three distinguished Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientists, Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Dr. Rainu Kaushal and Dr. Shahin Rafii, have been elected to the esteemed Association of American Physicians (AAP).

Regarded as one of the top honors in the field of health and medicine, election to the AAP recognizes physician-scientists exhibiting excellence in the pursuit of medical knowledge and advancing basic or translational science discoveries and their use in...

Among participants who had hepatitis C and who injected drugs, those treated at a non-stigmatizing “accessible care” treatment center co-located with a syringe service program (SSP) were nearly three times more likely to be cured of the infectious disease compared with those referred out to local clinicians through patient navigation, according to a randomized clinical trial led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, NYU Grossman School of Medicine...