News

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of Feb. 22 - March 1.

A research team at Weill Cornell Medical College has solved the 3D crystal structure of a member protein in one of the most important classes of human proteins -- the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These types of proteins latch on to and transmit chemical signals from outside the cell to the inside, and half of all drugs on the market today work by ether inhibiting or activating GPCRs.

Biomedical research at Weill Cornell Medical College, as well as at other academic medical centers across the nation, will be devastated if Congress doesn't stop the looming across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect this Friday. That was the message imparted during a press conference on Sunday by U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney and hosted by Weill Cornell Medical College and Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, dean of Weill Cornell.

Sleep-related problems are among the most common issues seen by a pediatrician, and for good reason -- poor sleep habits can lead to behavioral, educational, social and health problems. Fortunately for parents, many childhood sleep problems can be recognized early and treated successfully.

University at Albany and Weill Cornell Medical College researchers discuss proposed changes in HIV-Testing guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in a perspective article in the March 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Authors Erika G. Martin, assistant professor of public administration and policy at UAlbany's Rockefeller College and fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, and Dr. Bruce R. Schackman, associate professor of public health and chief of the Division of Health Policy at Weill Cornell, address the broad impact the changes will have on the health care of HIV-infected patients.

Dr. Lewis Cantley, a leading cancer researcher credited with discovering a family of enzymes fundamental to understanding cancer, was named a winner of the inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the world's richest academic prize for medicine and biology. The prize, which carries a $3 million cash award, recognizes excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and human life.

The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation Connections for Cardiovascular Health program today announced a grant of $181,895 to Weill Cornell Medical College in support of the Weill Cornell Heart-to-Heart Community Outreach Campaign.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of Feb. 15 - Feb. 22.

Physicians at Weill Cornell Medical College and biomedical engineers at Cornell University have succeeded in building a facsimile of a living human ear that looks and acts like a natural ear. Researchers believe their bioengineering method will finally succeed in the long quest by scientists and physicians to provide normal looking "new" ears to thousands of children born with a congenital ear deformity.

Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, speaks with Dr. Mark Rubin, a renowned researcher who has just been appointed director of the newly established Institute for Precision Medicine. Dr. Rubin is going to lead efforts to provide optimal, targeted, individualized treatments that are based on a patient's own genetic profile. He says the Institute for Precision Medicine could potentially give hope to cancer patients who have failed traditional therapies, as well as look into little known cancers.

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medical College have announced that the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Developmental Psychobiology has been awarded to Carla Shatz, PhD, the Sapp Family Provostial Professor in Neurobiology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Shatz's work has advanced understanding of fundamental principles of early brain development with the discovery that neuronal activity prior to birth is essential for later formation and refinement of connections in the visual system. Her work has important implications for understanding how the visual system refines its connections—work that has contributed to our understanding of critical periods of brain wiring in developmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

An anti-copper drug compound that disables the ability of bone marrow cells from setting up a "home" in organs to receive and nurture migrating cancer tumor cells has shown surprising benefit in one of the most difficult-to-treat forms of cancer — high-risk triple-negative breast cancer.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of Feb. 8 - Feb. 15.

Dr. Lisa Giulino Roth and Dr. Lorena Fontan each receive the Post Doctoral Fellowship Award from the Lymphoma Research Foundation and additional awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of Feb. 1 - Feb. 8.

A unique collaboration between physical scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell University in a National Cancer Institute initiative has yielded promising advances in cancer research that may offer new hope in the War on Cancer. Three years ago, the National Cancer Institute established 12 Physical Science-Oncology Centers (PS-OCs) comprised of "trans-disciplinary scientific teams" to "examine new, non-traditional approaches to cancer research." Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medical College applied and were selected as one of 12 charter centers.

A team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College has discovered that amyloid peptides are harmful to the blood vessels that supply the brain with blood in Alzheimer's disease — thus accelerating cognitive decline by limiting oxygen-rich blood and nutrients. In their animal studies, the investigators reveal how amyloid-? accumulates in blood vessels and how such accumulation and damage might be ultimately prevented.

On Friday, Feb. 1, Sanford I. Weill, chairman of the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College, announced that the school had reached its goal of raising $1.3 billion, thus completing the highly ambitious [I]Discoveries that Make a Difference Campaign[/I]. The announcement was made at the Medical College in the presence of Cornell University's Board of Trustees, including Chairman Robert Harrison and President Dr. David Skorton, along with the Weill Cornell Medical College Board of Overseers.

Cancer research teams from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medical College, the New York City based members of the Starr Cancer Consortium (SCC), are winners of $5 million in grant awards from The Starr Foundation's Sixth Starr Cancer Consortium Grant Competition to fund five novel cancer research projects.

Dr. Edward Craig received lifetime achievement award for his prevention, control and cure of arthritis and additional awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of Jan. 25 - Feb. 1.

Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital launched the new Joint Clinical Trials Office at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College in January, assembling all of the clinical trial activities under the auspices of one structure.