Dr. Todd Evans

The heart damage seen in many severely ill COVID-19 patients results in part from infection-activated immune cells called macrophages, which infiltrate the heart and secrete cell-damaging chemicals, according to a study co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Human organoids, tiny organ-like structures grown in the laboratory, can be used to identify potential COVID-19 drugs in an automated, high-throughput fashion.

The study of human pluripotent stem cells, which can develop into any cell type in the body, is providing Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators with new insights into the virus that causes COVID-19 and how it may infect organs such as the pancreas and liver.

Physicians and scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian have rapidly mobilized to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing a broad spectrum of expertise on the critical issues the disease is posing to healthcare workers and public health officials.

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).

A compound used in traditional Chinese medicine to lower blood pressure also strongly combats Zika virus infection of the brain, and may protect against Zika-associated birth defects, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center scientists. 

Dr. Hugh Hemmings, Jr. has been appointed senior associate dean for research and Dr. Todd Evans has been appointed associate dean for research at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The first-ever “disease in a Petri dish” platform that models human colon cancer derived from stem cells has been developed by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, allowing them to identify a targeted drug treatment for a common, inherited form of the disease.