News

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College presented their annual Public Service Award to Senator Arlen Specter yesterday for his sustained efforts to increase support for biomedical research and enhance mental health care services at their reception during the 2012 American Psychiatric Association Meeting in Philadelphia.

A new analysis concludes that rituximab, a drug commonly used to treat blood cancers, leads to treatment responses lasting at least five years in approximately one quarter of patients with low platelet counts and a risk of bleeding due to chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). In study results published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College provide the very first long-term outcome data for patients with chronic ITP treated with rituxamab.

On April 10, Cornell University President Dr. David J. Skorton spoke to and exchanged ideas with a group of Weill Cornell Medical College assistant professors who take part in the Department of Medicine's Faculty Development Mentoring Program. Their success as faculty, he said, is fundamental to achieving the Medical College's mission of developing and retaining outstanding clinicians, educators and scientists.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of April 27 - May 4.

Dr. Olivier Elemento, an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and an assistant professor of computational genomics in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, recently received the prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University have identified the first gene to be linked to a rare condition in which babies are born without a spleen, putting those children at risk of dying from infections they cannot defend themselves against. The gene, Nkx2.5, was shown to regulate genesis of the spleen during early development in mice.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of April 20-27.

A gift from the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. family's Canadian foundation, La Fondation Sackler — The Sackler Foundation, has established two endowed professorships in the Department of Psychiatry and at the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and also created the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. Research Fund to support its research. The gift also established an endowed fund for the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. Summer Institute in Developmental Neuroscience.

Outcomes from use of a robot to assist surgeons in removal of a cancerous prostate are at least as good, if not better, than the other two techniques used for a radical prostatectomy — open or laparoscopic surgery — according to a large meta analysis led by researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.

Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar faculty have partnered with an international team of leading medical and health care practitioners, educators, and policy planners to launch the Journal of Local and Global Health Perspectives.

The Starr Foundation is continuing its historic commitment to stem cell research with a $50 million gift in support of the Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative (Tri-SCI), which was established through a generous grant from the Foundation in 2005. The new gift, awarded to the original Tri-SCI members — Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medical College, all in New York City — will support and enhance collaborative, pioneering stem cell research at the three adjacent Manhattan campuses.

Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., dean emeritus of Weill Cornell Medical College and co-chairman of its board of overseers was honored on Friday, April 20 in Los Angeles with the 24th Annual Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award in Cardiovascular Research. Dr. Gotto was recognized by the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation for his long-time contributions and research excellence in the field of heart disease.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of April 13-20.

Two new articles by Weill Cornell Medical College researcher Dr. Andrew Ryan and published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs that examine pay-for-performance programs cast doubt that such incentive program will have any significant effect in advancing patient quality and care.

Administrators of Weill Cornell's Master of Science in Health Sciences for Physician Assistant Program are lauding the Class of 2014 -- for which 721 people applied -- as one of the best classes accepted in the 26-month PA program.

A physician and geneticist at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) has had his research into head size published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. Dr. Dennis Mook-Kanamori's research identified genes that influence head size and are related to Parkinson's disease and dementia.

Sanford I. Weill, chairman of the Board of Overseers at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Dr. Joseph J. Fins, chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell, have both been elected new fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Academy membership is one of the most prestigious honors for excellence, extraordinary achievements and leadership in mathematical and physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts, and public affairs, business and administration.

Dr. Andrew Schafer, chairman of the Department of Medicine, has announced that Dr. John P. Leonard, the Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, has been appointed vice chair for clinical research in the Department of Medicine and that Dr. David J. Christini, professor of medicine (in cardiology) has been appointed vice chair for basic research in the Department.

More than 50 postdocs at Weill Cornell presented their research during the Medical College's seventh annual Postdoctoral Research Day April 10, a four-hour long event that offers postdocs the opportunity to share their research with their colleagues, faculty and other investigators. Nearly 300 people packed Griffis Faculty Club to learn about the work being done at Weill Cornell, including Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. William Zoghbi, Weill Cornell Medical College professor of medicine and cardiologist at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, recently took the helm of the world's largest society of cardiologists with a goal of creating and expanding programs that directly help patients.