Dr. Julie Magarian Blander

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the month of April.

Cells can use a backup mechanism to alert the immune system to viral infections when their normal responses are inhibited, according to new research by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The Office of Academic Integration (OVPAI) has awarded $750,000 in seed grants to 10 studies ranging from refugee health and legal rights, to a vaccine treating fentanyl addiction and overdose, to pancreatic cancer and antibiotic tolerance.

A study by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian aims to answer one of COVID-19’s biggest mysteries: why do some people become severely ill, while others have no symptoms?

Weill Cornell Medicine has awarded eight grants of $100,000 each to faculty for a variety of research projects on COVID-19, funded by the institution’s Board of Overseers and additional donors. The grants will support studies aimed at understanding fundamental aspects of the disease, the body’s immune response and social determinants of health that affect COVID-19 outcomes. 

Eight Weill Cornell Medicine faculty members have been selected for the fifth round of the Daedalus Fund for Innovation awards, a pioneering institutional program that helps advance promising applied and translational research projects and emerging technologies that have commercial potential.

Vaccines containing inactivated versions of disease-causing germs are traditionally not as effective as live vaccines made with weakened pathogens.

The natural lifecycle of cells that line the intestine is critical to preserving stable conditions in the gut, according to new research led by a Weill Cornell Medicine investigator. The findings may lead to the development of new therapies to alleviate inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other chronic inflammatory illnesses.