News

Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of May 11-18.

As a reporter and public health expert, Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' chief health and medical editor, clearly understands the importance of open communication, particularly amid crisis management. It's a point he emphasized as a guest speaker during Pediatric Grand Rounds May 1 at Weill Cornell Medical College. Titled, "A View from Both Sides of the Camera," his presentation strove to remind doctors, residents and medical students the power they have in shaping Americans' understanding of health issues and behaviors.

Researchers and clinicians are facing watershed moments in the field of autism, manifested in basic science studies and new clinical therapies that may pave the way for greater understanding of autism spectrum disorders, and improved care for children with these disorders.

The Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center is hosting a graduation ceremony for its first class of Faith-Based Ambassadors of Health. After participating in a 12-week training course this group of pastors and ministers from churches and ministries in Brooklyn, Queens, Harlem and Staten Island are now prepared to educate their congregations about reducing the risk factors for heart disease.

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the week of May 4-11.

The Hartwell Foundation named Cornell University among its Top 10 Centers of Biomedical Research for the sixth straight year. The Foundation also selected a clinical scientist from Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school to receive an Individual Biomedical Research Award that will fund research for three years. Four investigators nominated by Cornell are eligible for the Hartwell competition held each year. The Hartwell Foundation also gave Cornell a two year Fellowship to fund a postdoctoral candidate of their choice that exemplifies the values of the Foundation. Since 2007, Cornell has won a total of eight Individual Biomedical Research Awards and received five Hartwell Fellowships.

A coalition of interdisciplinary researchers from four institutions -- including Weill Cornell Medical College and Hospital for Special Surgery -- has won a prestigious award recognizing the team's success in translation of research discoveries pertaining to perioperative outcomes in orthopedic surgery into clinical practice.

Standing before leaders entrenched in health, science and medicine at the annual TEDMED conference hosted at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. last month and simulcast via live streaming to medical schools -- including Weill Cornell -- and universities across the nation, Dr. Gregory Petsko, a professor of neuroscience at Weill Cornell, warned of the coming onslaught of Alzheimer's disease if nothing is done to stem the tide.

A new article from Weill Cornell Medical College researcher Dr. Tara Bishop published in the American Journal of Managed Care, suggests that financial incentives and public reporting on quality measures alone may have little impact on physicians to improve quality of care.

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.