News & Events

The popular diabetes and weight-loss medication tirzepatide (brand name Mounjaro or Zepbound) may lower the risk of diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of vision loss, according to Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings may offer comfort to patients concerned about their eye health while taking the drug.

Diabetic retinopathy develops when chronically high blood sugar damages the blood vessels lining the back of the eye and affects...

When food is scarce, stress hormones direct the immune system to operate in “low power” mode to preserve immune function while conserving energy, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. This reconfiguration is crucial to combating infections amid food insecurity.

“Both famine and infectious disease have been with us throughout our evolutionary history and often occurred at the same time. Yet little is known about how nutrition affects the immune system,” said senior author...

Dr. George Coukos, an internationally renowned expert on cancer immunology, is on a mission to rapidly translate tumor biology research into personalized, cell-based therapies for patients with some of the hardest-to-treat cancers. A new laboratory, part of an innovative collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, seeks to do just that.

Dr. Coukos, who served as the founding director of the Ludwig Lausanne Branch in Switzerland for the...

A new study found that laws temporarily restricting access to firearms for individuals at high risk of harming themselves or others reduced firearm suicides without a shift to other suicide methods, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

A new study reveals how bacteria in the gut can help determine whether the amino acid asparagine from the diet will feed tumor growth or activate immune cells against the cancer​, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. This casts the gut microbiome—the trillions of microorganisms living in the intestine—as a central player in the body's response to cancer and to modern cancer treatments like immunotherapies.

Dr. MacKenzi Preston, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, was awarded the Brause Family Award for Medical Education, Research and Patient Care for her project, “Leveraging Large Language Models to Enhance OSCE Feedback and Competency Tracking.” The award, part of Weill Cornell Medicine’s education scholar awards, supports one faculty member for a targeted project incorporating artificial intelligence...

A chain of immune reactions in the gut—driven by a key signaling protein and a surge of white blood cells from the bone marrow—may help explain why people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher risk of colorectal cancer, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings point to new possibilities for diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of IBD.

The study began with a focus on TL1A, an inflammatory immune signaling protein known to be...

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a $5.2 million, initial two-year award  from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics, and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program to develop a comprehensive and innovative approach to diagnosing lymphatic disease. LIGHT is led by ARPA-H Program Manager Kimberley Steele, M.D., Ph.D....

Approximately 88% of adults view opioid overdose deaths as a very serious problem with high agreement across political groups, according to a national survey conducted by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. However, political differences over who is responsible will shape the country’s next phase of drug policy.

Historically, Americans have viewed people who use opioids as primarily responsible for the overdose crisis, with conservatives especially emphasizing...

A new single-cell profiling technique has mapped pre-malignant gene mutations and their effects in solid tissues for the first time, in a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center.

The research, published Dec. 31 in Cancer Discovery, demonstrates a practical...

Dr. Ryan Longman, a leading obstetrician and gynecologist who specializes in medical genetics and obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound, has been named chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital and recruited as an associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, effective Jan. 12.

“I’m thrilled to join the incredible team of women’s health experts at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell...

Using participant skin cells reprogrammed into neurons, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have identified genetic signatures associated with HIV infection that may contribute to the cognitive impairment that often occurs in people living with the disease, even when the virus is controlled.

The study, published Dec. 1 in JCI Insight, collected cells called fibroblasts obtained with informed consent from the skin of six...

A whole-genome sequencing approach shows early promise over current commercial methods for identifying more patients likely to benefit from PARP inhibitor cancer treatments, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. The findings suggest further development of this approach is merited.

As first-year Weill Cornell Medical College student Sarah Mansour memorialized 28 people who donated their bodies to the institution’s Gross Anatomy program, she quoted a passage from the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson that she said served as a perfect testament to the donors’ ultimate gift.

‘“There is a kind of patience that comes from believing the future will remember us kindly, even if it does not remember us by name,’” said Mansour, reading the passage during Weill Cornell’s...

Pain-sensing neurons in the gut kindle inflammatory immune responses that cause allergies and asthma, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings, published Jan. 7 in Nature, suggest that current drugs may not be as effective because they only address the immune component of these conditions, overlooking the contribution of neurons.

“Today’s blockbuster biologics are sometimes only 50% effective and...

By Syl Kacapyr 

A class of ultrasmall fluorescent core-shell silica nanoparticles developed at Cornell is showing an unexpected ability to rally the immune system against melanoma and dramatically improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy, according to a new study led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Engineering researchers.

The particles, known as Cornell prime dots, or C’dots, have already been tested in human clinical trials as a cancer diagnostic and a drug...

Immune cells called B cells make antibodies that fight off invading bacteria, viruses and other foreign substances. During their preparation for this battle, B cells transiently revert to a more flexible, or plastic, stem-cell-like state in the lymph nodes, according to a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The results could help explain how many lymphomas develop from mature B cells rather than from stem cells, as many other cancers do, and guide researchers in...

Women with severe coronary heart disease causing narrowing or blockages in the arteries may derive greater long-term benefits from coronary artery bypass grafting compared with percutaneous coronary intervention, also known as stenting, according to a large study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. Bypass surgery uses a blood vessel from another part of the body to reroute blood flow around a narrowed or blocked artery. Stenting is a minimally invasive procedure that uses a catheter to...

Amid a changing and challenging time for academic medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine is poised to thrive in the coming years, with a planned expansion of its clinical enterprise serving as an engine for overall institutional growth, Dean Robert Harrington conveyed Dec. 16 during his biannual State of Weill Cornell Medicine address.

Weill Cornell, like many...