Anne Moscona, M.D., is on a mission.
"Respiratory infections like the croup, bronchiolitis and pneumonia kill more children under the age of 5 worldwide than anything else," says Dr. Moscona, Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology, Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vice Chair for Research, Department of Pediatrics.
"The most vulnerable children — those born prematurely, or with asthma or heart disease — are the ones who suffer the most and die most frequently," she says.
Dr. Moscona and her colleague at Weill Cornell, Matteo Porotto, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Microbiology in Pediatrics, are identifying ways to block viruses from getting into lung cells, which is "opening up a new range of possibilities for how we can prevent and cure these infections in children."
"I'm passionate about being able to advance what we can do for children. Why do we have to just watch and wait and see if a child can cope with and recover from these very serious illnesses? We need treatments. We need prevention and we need cures. That's what we're working on."
Weill Cornell: Making It Possible
"Weill Cornell has opened up the horizons of our research. The collaborations, the potential for doing interdisciplinary work, for working with investigators at Cornell University in Ithaca — this all happens in a seamless way. It has made everything we have discovered possible. It has allowed us to take our research from the idea stage, to the very basic science, to a point where I believe that in a few years we will be applying this to prevent infections in children."
The Research Leads to Cures Initiative
Dr. Moscona and other Weill Cornell scientists are dedicated to the development of effective, safe treatments for respiratory and other infectious diseases around the world. These researchers are the heart of the Research Leads to Cures Initiative — a critical phase of the Discoveries that Make a Difference Campaign.
Learn more about the people leading these efforts in moving research from the labs to patient care.