News

Two years ago, in a remote region of Ecuador, ophthalmologist Dr. Elwin Schwartz, MD ’76, helped give a six-year-old girl the gift of sight. 

New molecules engineered by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers can enable rapid, direct “editing” of genes in a wide range of cell types, creating an array of research and therapeutic possibilities.

Dr. Shuibing Chen, an associate professor of chemical biology in surgery and in biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medicine, has received the ISSCR Dr. Susan Lim Award for Outstanding Young Investigator from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).

Today’s headlines can seem a grim litany of disasters, from hurricanes in the Atlantic and epidemics in South America to conflicts in Africa and droughts in the Midwest. For Dr. Alan Lockwood ’65, MD ’69, though, these calamities all have two things in common: they’re rooted in climate change, and they’re signs of public health crises that the medical profession—as well as other scientists, policymakers and citizens around the world—must address.

For Ralph Hills, getting ready for minor back surgery in December 2014 was no big deal. At 71, the computer consultant was physically fit—regularly playing golf and tennis—and his heart and lungs were in good shape. So when he went for a routine pre-operative blood test, he never expected to get a call referring him to an oncologist near where he lives in suburban Connecticut.

An existing malaria drug could improve the effectiveness of a new class of cancer therapies, called glutaminase inhibitors, if used in combination, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) discovered in a new study.

Dr. Jane Salmon, associate dean for faculty affairs and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been elected an honorary member of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). She is the second honoree from Weill Cornell and only the third American to receive this honor.

A very low carbohydrate, high-fat diet called the ketogenic diet may improve the effectiveness of an emerging class of cancer drugs, according to a study in mice by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian.

Growing miniature tumors from patient’s cells in the laboratory may help scientists personalize treatments for those with a rare form of prostate cancer, according a study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian scientists.  

Dr. Li Gan, a neuroscientist internationally acclaimed for her research into neurodegenerative diseases, has been appointed director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, effective July 1.

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

Dr. Dan Landau, an assistant professor of medicine and of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, and a core faculty member of the New York Genome Center, has been awarded the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research to support his work studying cancer evolution.

Dr. Thomas Caputo, professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology, came to Weill Cornell Medicine in 1982 to serve as its first director of gynecological oncology.

Many cases of early-stage kidney cancer can be treated with a relatively new, nonsurgical procedure used to destroy tumors, a new study by a team led by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian suggests.

Neurology tends to be a tough specialty. I remember our first day of residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. [Jerome] Posner and Dr. [Fred] Plum [MD ’47] said, ‘For neurological patients, you are their last line of defense. Most people don’t understand neurological disease. They are afraid of it. It’s hard to deal with, and this is your job.’

The Antonio M. Gotto, Jr. Prize in Atherosclerosis Research was awarded to Dr. Daniel J. Rader, an investigator from the Perelman School of Medicine, during the XVIII International Symposium on Atherosclerosis held June 9-12 in Toronto, Canada.

Patients who receive red blood cell (RBC) transfusions before, during or immediately after surgery are twice as likely to develop life-threatening, postoperative blood clots as those who don’t undergo RBC transfusions, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian researchers.

Dr. Justin Kingery grew up in West Virginia coal country, a world away from Tanzania—but he felt at home in the East African nation from the beginning.

Dr. Anaïs Rameau is passionate about finding a way to restore these patients’ voices and, during Weill Cornell Medicine’s second annual Health Innovation Hackathon last month, challenged participants to do just that.

A lethal pediatric brain tumor called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is very difficult to treat, partly because it arises in the base of the brain and is hard to reach with drugs. A clinical trial suggests that a drug delivery technique called convection enhanced delivery (CED) is safe and effective at getting drugs to the tumor. This could be an important step forward in treating DIPG.