Cardiologist Dr. Geoffrey Pitt to Lead Institute Designed to Translate Research Discoveries in Cardiovascular Disease from Bench to Bedside

NEW YORK (April 29, 2016) — With the goal of improving heart health for patients worldwide, Weill Cornell Medicine has established the Cardiovascular Research Institute to expand and enhance the institution's basic and translational research activities. Dr. Geoffrey Pitt, a leading cardiologist and scientist, will direct the institute, which will be dedicated to understanding the molecular, cellular and genetic underpinnings of the disease.

Headquartered in the Belfer Research Building, the interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Institute will build upon the successes of Weill Cornell Medicine's already robust cardiovascular research activities while unifying them under one research entity. Dr. Pitt will recruit a team of leading scientists to the institute to pursue innovative research that improves treatments and therapies for conditions including coronary artery disease, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, and hypertension. Basic and translational investigators in the institute will complement and collaborate closely with the exceptional clinical cardiology and cardiovascular surgery teams at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, ensuring that laboratory breakthroughs are rapidly applied to the clinic.

Dr. Pitt was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine from Duke University, where he is currently the director of the Ion Channel Research Unit and a professor of medicine, neurobiology, and pharmacology and cancer biology. He is also an attending cardiologist at Duke University Hospital, caring for patients in its Adult Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic. A distinguished physician-scientist, Dr. Pitt investigates the structure, function and regulation of proteins located on the surface of cells that enable the transmission of electrical signals, called ion channels. His laboratory uses electrophysiology, biochemistry and structural biology approaches to discern how abnormal ion channel function causes diseases such as cardiac arrhythmias, epilepsy and ataxias, which are characterized by a loss of muscle control during voluntary movements.

"Physician-scientists have made critical advances in cardiovascular clinical care that have produced a difference in patients' lives, but we have not yet found a cure for heart disease," said Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, the Weill Chairman of the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. "It is vital that we discover and develop better diagnostic and treatment strategies, and there is no one better than Dr. Pitt to direct these efforts at Weill Cornell Medicine. A proven leader, I have no doubt that he will take us to the next level of excellence in cardiovascular research and care."

"It's a truly exciting opportunity to lead the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine," said Dr. Pitt, who was recruited as the Ida and Theo Rossi Distinguished Professor of Medicine and will have a clinical appointment at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. "Weill Cornell Medicine is uniquely positioned at the forefront of basic and translational research, which is critically important to support and improve patient care. The high-impact science our esteemed investigators will perform at the institute dovetails perfectly with the outstanding care our clinical cardiologists provide to our patients — with the goal of making that care even better."

While research advances achieved in recent decades have transformed the way doctors treat patients with cardiovascular disease, the condition remains the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 17.3 million deaths each year — a number that the American Heart Association expects to swell to more than 23.6 million by 2030.

At the Cardiovascular Research Institute, investigators will use cutting-edge scientific approaches — including precision medicine and stem cell research — to explore the fundamental biology of heart and blood vessel development and function. Researchers will also seek to understand how the structure and function of proteins and the way small molecules interact with larger biological systems are involved in cardiovascular disease. The insights physicians glean from these studies will enable them to develop effective diagnostic strategies and clinical interventions when these systems fail. They will also collaborate with investigators at the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island to mine and analyze data generated from genome sequencing and from patient medical devices to develop more effective treatments.

About Dr. Geoffrey Pitt

Dr. Pitt, a board-certified internist and cardiologist, is a member of the American Heart Association, Biophysical Society, Society for Neuroscience, Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, and the Heart Rhythm Society. He is also an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation; and is on the Journal of General Physiology's Editorial Advisory Board. Dr. Pitt previously served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and was an associate editor of Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy and editor for its Education in Cardiovascular Therapy section. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and is an ad hoc reviewer for 33 top-tier journals, including the Cell Metabolism, Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Nature, PNAS, and Science - STKE. He has also reviewed for or served on several national and international study sections, including those of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Pitt has received numerous awards, including the Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar-Innovator Award (2015), the American Heart Association's Established Investigator Award (2007), the Lewis Katz Cardiovascular Research Prize for a Young Investigator (2006), the Harold and Golden Lamport Award for Excellence in Basic Science Research (2006), and the Irma T. Hirschl Monique Weill-Caulier Trust Research Career Award (2004).

Dr. Pitt received his bachelor's degree in 1984 from Yale University and his medical degree and doctorate in 1993 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also earned a Master of Science degree in 1987 from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Pitt completed a residency in internal medicine and cardiology fellowship training at Stanford University Hospital in 1995 and 1999, respectively, and a postdoctoral fellowship in 1999 at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After spending two years at Stanford as a research associate in molecular and cellular physiology, Dr. Pitt joined Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as the Esther Aboodi Assistant Professor of Medicine and as an assistant professor of pharmacology. Dr. Pitt earned a position on Duke's faculty in 2007.

He will begin his appointment at Weill Cornell Medicine on July 1.

Weill Cornell Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine is committed to excellence in patient care, scientific discovery and the education of future physicians in New York City and around the world. The doctors and scientists of Weill Cornell Medicine — faculty from Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and Weill Cornell Physician Organization — are engaged in world-class clinical care and cutting-edge research that connect patients to the latest treatment innovations and prevention strategies. Located in the heart of the Upper East Side's scientific corridor, Weill Cornell Medicine's powerful network of collaborators extends to its parent university Cornell University; to Qatar, where Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar offers a Cornell University medical degree; and to programs in Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Weill Cornell Medicine faculty provide comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens. Weill Cornell Medicine is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

Weill Cornell Medicine is ending an extraordinary year, touting a new name that exemplifies the unprecedented clinical growth, scientific advancement, and educational accomplishments that have cemented the institution as a driving force in healthcare.

During her annual State of the Medical College address on Dec. 7, Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, lauded these achievements, which she said underscore the institution's position at the forefront of scientific innovation.

"We are set on a path for truly remarkable growth," Dr. Glimcher said to a crowd of more than 150 faculty, students and staff at Uris Auditorium. "Our trajectory has been impressive over the last several years."

In July, the Association of American Medical Colleges named Weill Cornell Medicine the fastest growing medical school in the country based on its increase in operating revenue over the past five years. The successes that led to this period of growth — which culminated in October with the launch of the new Weill Cornell Medicine name — have set the foundation for the institution's strategic development.

"We all want growth to be sustainable, directed and to lead to excellence across our mission," she said. "We don't want growth for growth's sake; we only want to grow to increase excellence and make sure we're serving all of the needs of our patient population."

Delivering the Finest Care

To that end, Weill Cornell Medicine and its faculty practice, Weill Cornell Physician Organization, have added more than 40 medical practices in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn to connect New Yorkers to a network of exceptional physicians. The institution has added more than 150 physicians to its ranks at NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital, and has established five practices nearby to provide patients with top-tier clinical care.

At NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens, all major department chairs and division chiefs, as well as new specialists, will be Weill Cornell Medicine physicians. These new recruits will engage with their counterparts on the Upper East Side to ensure seamless delivery of care.

This expansion of physicians and locations culminated in 1.64 million patient visits this year, an 11.2 percent increase from fiscal 2014 and 42.3 percent from 2010.

In addition to Weill Cornell Medicine's expanded clinical footprint, the institution established the accountable care organization NewYork Quality Care with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The ACO is dedicated to providing 30,000 Medicare beneficiaries in New York with exemplary patient care coordinated between providers.

"It's very important that we learn how to manage population health," Dr. Glimcher said," because that really is the future."

Making Groundbreaking Discoveries

Dr. Glimcher during her annual State of the Medical College address.

Excellence in patient care is realized only through a robust biomedical research enterprise that can translate discoveries made in the lab into advanced treatments for the clinic. The Belfer Research Building — which earned LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council earlier this year — is empowering the institution's investigators to do just that. The building, now 80 percent occupied, is an engine for groundbreaking research and "an enabling force in establishing a new baseline for Weill Cornell Medicine-sponsored programs," Dr. Glimcher said.

"This has been a success story by all accounts," she added. "This the first time in at least the past quarter-century that the rate of growth of our sponsored research is actually greater than the percent growth of our clinical programs."

Dr. Glimcher attributed this to the building's state-of-the-art scientific technology and enhanced research support core services that enable investigators to conduct high-impact studies.

Case in point is the institution's precision medicine program, which received a boost in September with a generous gift from Overseer Israel Englander and his wife, Caryl. The gift, which names the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, will bolster the work that Drs. Mark Rubin, Himisha Beltran and Olivier Elemento are doing to sequence tumors and pinpoint the most effective treatments for each patient.

"Our dream is that every patient with cancer who crosses the threshold of this institution will have their tumors sequenced,” Dr. Glimcher said, “enabling us to better understand and design the best therapeutics for that individual.”

One of the institution's priorities has been to establish relationships with industry to advance basic science breakthroughs that have commercial potential into viable treatments. The Office of BioPharma Alliances and Research Collaborations, in conjunction with the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University, is leading these efforts, forging strategic research alliances with industry and supporting faculty who establish startup companies. The Daedalus Fund for Innovation, now in its second year, provides up to $100,000 in grants to help investigators make their research more attractive to the biopharmaceutical industry.

"The interaction and collaboration between academia and private-sector industry is absolutely a marriage made in heaven," Dr. Glimcher said. "Discovery is best done in an academic setting, but there are many things we can't do here as easily as the private sector. Teaming up with pharmaceutical companies, founding new companies — this is the future."

Teaching Exceptional Doctors and Scientists

While the institution expanded the medical school class size by five students to 106, this year was no less competitive. Culled from nearly 6,200 applicants, the 49 women and 57 men who comprise the Class of 2019 have an average undergraduate GPA of 3.84 — the highest ever at Weill Cornell Medicine — and tied for highest-ever MCAT scores.

Weill Cornell Medicine celebrated the successful launch of its medical curriculum last year, and integrated the feedback from students in the Class of 2018 into version 2.0, unveiled this fall. Academic leaders are continuing their work to enhance the curriculum, with a particular focus on scientific studies during the clerkship years.

"We want students to spend the vast majority of their time in the second two years learning how to take care of patients," Dr. Glimcher said, "but it's also important to continue to expose them to cutting-edge, clinically relevant research topics so we can promote life-long learning approaches."

The Weill Cornell Graduate School is thriving under the leadership of Dr. Gary Koretzky, who has "improved the quality of students, the quality of the curriculum and the attention that we pay to our graduate students over the last couple of years," Dr. Glimcher said. And she extolled the Tri-Institutional M.D. - Ph.D. program as "one of the jewels in our crown," noting that three medical students have transferred into the program this year.

Qatari citizens comprise 30 percent of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar's inaugural six-year medical-education program, which the location established to augment its goal of building a talented cadre of physicians for the country. WCM-Q’s medical school continues to flourish, attracting an exceptional 27 women and 19 men hailing from Qatar and 13 other nations for the Class of 2019.

Weill Cornell Medicine has the highest percentage of any U.S. medical school of graduates who have obtained full-time faculty positions at academic medical centers, Dr. Glimcher said. She also highlighted the institution's distinguished legacy in preparing a diverse physician workforce, noting that it ranks in the 92nd percentile of medical schools in the number of graduates who are African American and the 82nd percentile in Hispanic graduates. Weill Cornell Medicine is in the 91st percentile of medical schools in the number of women faculty, and in the 81st percentile in the number of faculty from under-represented groups.

"Diversity is essential to developing creative solutions to the challenging problems we are all facing in healthcare, biomedical research, and education,” Dr. Glimcher said.

Forging a Network of Powerful Partners

Many of these solutions are achieved through collaboration. Weill Cornell Medicine's network of powerful partners ensures that the institution can continue to innovate and deliver the finest care to patients.

Collaboration is exemplified in the institution's work with clinical affiliate NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and at the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute; at Cornell Tech, where the first buildings are expected to open in 2017; and at the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, which received a $50 million endowment gift from Nancy Meinig '62 and Peter Meinig '61, their daughters and their families, that expanded and elevated it from a department.

These connections extend to Houston Methodist, which has expanded the number of Weill Cornell Medicine students it can teach through clinical clerkships, and to Haiti, where GHESKIO opened a state-of-the-art, open-air hospital to treat patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis.

"We're a medical center that collaborates," Dr. Glimcher said. "We have wonderful partners in New York, across the country and abroad whose valuable support enables us to advance our mission.”

Taking a Strategic Approach to Future Growth

Weill Cornell Medicine’s successes over the past year have enabled it to take a strategic approach to guide its future growth. The tactic has resulted in nine new leadership appointments, including Nobel Prize winner Dr. Harold Varmus as Dr. Glimcher's senior advisor, Dr. Leonard Girardi as chairman of cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Silvia Formenti as chair of radiation oncology, and Dr. Jane Salmon as associate dean for faculty affairs.

The institution is also examining how best to meet its mission to provide patient care, discover new treatments, and educate future physicians. It is in the process of identifying key priorities and goals for the next five to eight years, in order to ensure that Weill Cornell Medicine retains its status as part of a premier academic medical center.

"We have a very, very bright future," Dr. Glimcher said. "We have to be very thoughtful about how we take our next steps."

Elizabeth Garrett, the 13th president of Cornell University, heralded a future of greater collaboration at her Sept. 21 introduction to Weill Cornell Medical College.

President Garrett, who was inaugurated on Sept. 18, said to administrators, faculty and students at a reception at the Belfer Research Building, that she believes deeper relationships between Ithaca and New York City can bring "an unprecedented level of excellence."

"I see a special synergy between our programs in New York City and on our Ithaca campus," President Garrett said to a fervent crowd of 350. "Cornell is not only established in an amazing college town that facilitates reflection and discussion, but we have a substantial and growing footprint in this great international urban center, full of energy and global connections. This is a combination that no other American research university enjoys."

Among Weill Cornell's advancements lauded by President Garrett are its expansion of biomedical research, the medical college's new curriculum, and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Science's master's degree programs in health informatics, and in health policy and economics. She also praised the Belfer Research Building, a state-of-the-art facility that opened in January 2014 that empowers scientists to translate groundbreaking discoveries into advanced patient care.

Weill Cornell Medical College hosted a reception on Sept. 21 to honor Cornell University President Elizabeth Garrett, who was inaugurated on Sept. 18. From left: Inauguration Steering Committee Co-Chair Joel Malina, Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Dan Huttenlocher, President Garrett, Weill Cornell Dean Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, and Inauguration Steering COmmittee Co-Chair Gretchen Ritter.

President Garrett pointed to the development of the innovative Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island as a major opportunity for partnership and collaboration, suggesting faculty may have joint appointments between the New York City and Ithaca campuses. Precision medicine is another field that may bridge the locations, she said.

Investigators at the Caryl and Israel Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell and their counterparts in Ithaca can advance knowledge of the molecular and genetic underpinnings of disease, while scientists at Cornell Tech analyze and synthesize big data and small data to contextualize and promote a greater understanding of this burgeoning field. Humanists and health policy and legal experts, who assess the ethics and logistics of precision medicine, also play an integral role in furthering this work.

"We cannot allow physical distance to keep us from integrating all that we do in New York City with the long-established campus in Ithaca, which will always represent the wellspring of the Cornell spirit," President Garrett said.

The event also marked an opportunity to celebrate President Garrett's appointment as Cornell's first female president, coming on the heels of the university's sesquicentennial. Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell, who introduced Garrett to attendees, remarked that women — including herself and Weill Cornell Board of Overseers Chairman Jessica M. Bibliowicz — now form an important triumvirate in medical college and university leadership.

"Some people say we're witnessing history," Dr. Glimcher said. "I say it's about time."

President Garrett previously served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Southern California, overseeing its Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Keck School of Medicine; 16 professional schools; and other administrative departments.

Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Dan Huttenlocher introduced Dr. Glimcher, and said he thinks Garrett "is a tremendous new president."

The Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging and its clinical program, HeartHealth, aim to revolutionize cardiac disease prevention and treatment

By Beth Saulnier

Photographs by John Abbott

Alain Baume is 59, the same age his father was when he died of heart failure in their native Italy. Because of that family history, Baume has long been concerned about his cardiac health; when he'd get out of breath from hurrying up a flight of stairs, for example, he'd worry that it was a harbinger of incipient disease rather than simply a sign of being a bit out of shape.

His wife, 67-year-old Marialuisa Baume, on the other hand, has no family history of heart disease. Although she does smoke cigarettes on occasion, she exercises regularly — "more than him," she says with a laugh, in her lyrical Venetian accent — and has no worrisome symptoms. But during a routine visit to the family internist, Dr. Serena Mulhern, an assistant professor of medicine, the physician detected a moderate heart murmur and referred her to a colleague, cardiologist Dr. Erica Jones.

Dr. Jones, an associate professor of clinical medicine and of medicine in clinical radiology, doesn't run a typical cardiology practice. She has a special emphasis on prevention — and when the Baumes came to see her, she was gearing up an ambitious new program that aims to curb heart disease long before symptoms appear. "Right now we're in our infancy, but we have a lot of vision," Dr. Jones says of the program, dubbed HeartHealth. "We're going to be able to take patients who are at risk and show them significant change." Formally launched this winter, HeartHealth combines tried-and-true strategies — promoting a nutritious diet and regular exercise; prescribing medications like statins — with state-of-the-art imaging technologies that promise to revolutionize how medicine approaches heart disease. "What's the problem in cardiac care?" Dr. Jones muses. "More than half the time, it's that we find people in the end stage of disease. They have a positive stress test, they're having angina, they've had a heart attack. Most cardiologists are very interested in prevention — it's just that by the time we see our patients, it's often too late. They tend to be referred to us after they've had an event."

Where the heart is: Dr. James Min (center) and colleagues at the Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging in the Belfer Research Building

The Baumes, who live in Manhattan and run a high-end shoe company with offices on Fifth Avenue, routinely attend their medical appointments as a couple, and both signed on as Dr. Jones's patients. They each had a comprehensive exam, plus CT scanning that sought to identify calcium in the arteries that could lead to heart attack. The results were surprising. "He, with the bad risk, ended up having a completely beautiful, clean scan, but hers actually showed a lot of calcium," says Dr. Jones, who spoke about the Baumes' cases with their permission. "It showed he was at less risk than he thought he would be, and she was at more."

Based on those results, Alain is continuing on the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor at the same level as before; Marialuisa has had her dose doubled and is working to quit smoking. Dr. Jones is monitoring the murmur, and Marialuisa is heartened by the fact that even if a valve replacement becomes necessary down the road, it can be done non-invasively. "I didn't know what to expect, so when I went there I was a bit nervous, but the people there are so nice they make you feel relaxed," Marialuisa says of her experience at the practice, located on the eighth floor of the Weill Greenberg Center. "I feel like I'm in good hands. I would recommend it to everyone."

HeartHealth's special focus stems from its affiliation with the program that oversees it: it's the clinical arm of the Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging, a joint venture between NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell that was established in fall 2013 with the aim of better understanding heart disease through the use of such tools as MRI, CT, PET, and novel technologies such as 3D printing and computer modeling of blood flow dynamics. Funded by a $20 million gift from NewYork-Presbyterian life trustee Raymond Dalio through his Dalio Foundation, the institute has set an ambitious goal. "Our hope," says director Dr. James Min, a professor of radiology and of medicine who is board certified in cardiology, "is to imagine a world without heart disease."

Headquartered on the first floor of the Belfer Research Building, the Dalio Institute is involved in some two dozen multicenter trials, with ongoing investigations into a wide variety of topics — from the efficacy of absorbable stents to the role that endothelial wall shear stress (pressure that runs perpendicular to the artery) plays in heart disease. Dalio researchers are casting their net wide, partnering with experts in engineering, fluid dynamics, genetics, metabolomics, molecular imaging, and a host of other specialties.

They're studying data from healthy patients — one project, for instance, is examining the coronary calcium scores of members of an Amazonian tribe that never gets heart disease — as well as from people who have died of heart attack, and from those in between. In an effort to develop more accurate guidelines for diagnosis, for example, Dalio researcher Dr. Quynh Truong, an assistant professor of radiology and of medicine and co-director of cardiac CT, is leading a clinical imaging program for patients who come into the ED with chest pain. "In more than 50 percent of patients who have coronary heart disease, their first symptom is either a heart attack or death," Dr. Min notes. "That accounts for more than 500,000 sudden cardiac deaths per year. It's a true public health epidemic, and it occurs in people who are healthy and asymptomatic. So if we have early detection and good treatments, we can cut into that."

The essential takeaway, says Dr. Jones, is that not all plaques are created equal — and while medicine has become much better at assessing cardiac risk in recent decades, it still has a long way to go. "There are many people at risk who do great until their '90s and '100s — and many who are at ‘no risk' and have their first heart attack at 40," Dr. Jones says. "Who are these people? We're not good at understanding that yet."

For researchers and clinicians working in the field today, the canonical example of a patient that the current system failed is Tim Russert. In 2008, the journalist died suddenly of a heart attack due to an arterial blockage at age 58, just weeks after having passed a stress test. "They told him, ‘You're OK,' " Dr. Min says. "But we didn't use the proper tools to assess his risk, and I think we can do more for patients like that." The key — and the Dalio Institute's holy grail — is to identify what's known as "vulnerable plaque," the kind that actually causes heart disease and leads to ill health and death. "Dalio is challenging the existing paradigm with new ways to see the coronary arteries — and not just seeing them broadly, but looking at aspects that can't be easily seen on noninvasive or even invasive tests," says Dr. Joshua Schulman-Marcus, a fellow in clinical cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Does the way they look affect how they're going to behave or respond to medication? That kind of research is only being done in a few places in the country. And while not all of it is ready for clinical prime time, it's a game-changing, paradigm-challenging research that will advance the field as a whole, and may advance prevention in a way that we just can't anticipate right now."

Dr. Schulman-Marcus — whom Dr. Jones lauds as "the future of prevention" — is working with Dr. Min on a project analyzing cardiac CT data with the aim of ascertaining which medications have the best results in patients with arterial blockages; he's also collaborating with Dr. Truong on the study of cardiac CT in the emergency department. In July, he began a one-year fellowship in cardiovascular disease prevention at HeartHealth, which ultimately aims to offer patients such risk-reduction resources as behavioral psychology, nutrition counseling, and exercise physiology. "Clinically, the most interesting aspect to me, and the part that I want to spend more of my career focusing on, is how to change behavior," Dr. Schulman-Marcus says. "It's easy and nice to talk about risk factors, but it's hard to change people's behavior from a lifestyle standpoint."

In addition to altering patient behavior, the clinicians note, change is needed in the healthcare funding system to promote early detection. Dr. Jones points out that while technologies like CT angiogram — which illustrates blood flow through the heart — can help cardiologists better assess risk, they're new enough that insurance companies often have to be convinced that they're necessary. Sometimes, she says, her patients opt to pay $100 to $150 out of pocket for a blood test to assess calcium score, which is increasingly seen as a predictor of a potential heart attack, or even foot the $650 to $800 bill for a CT angiogram. "I have to tell some of my patients, ‘The insurance company will pay for x, y or z, but it isn't the study that I want,'" Dr. Jones says. "For whatever reason, insurers have not jumped on board — which to me is quite shocking, because they're willing to pay for a nuclear stress test that costs more than $2,000 and gives the patient more than 10 times the radiation."

As an example, Dr. Jones cites a hypothetical patient who's 45, the same age his father was when he died of a heart attack — but who's so fit that he runs marathons. "I don't need a stress test on that gentleman," she says. "He's not symptomatic; his EKG is normal. I want to know if he's got asymptomatic disease." Ultimately, she says, the right testing doesn't just save lives — it can offer a solid return on investment. "What we need to do as clinicians and researchers is to keep at it, to prove that this is changing care," she says. "We need to work with these large insurance companies and HMOs to say, ‘Look, if I show you that this 45-year-old with a terrible family history has no calcium, then you don't have to pay for his statin for 10 years, because he's safe. If I end up telling you that he does have significant calcium, fine; you end up paying for generic statin, which is very inexpensive, but I've possibly just saved you from a hospitalization for a heart attack.'"

Dr. Michael Wolk, a clinical professor of medicine, is a past president of the American College of Cardiology and the chief contracting officer of the Weill Cornell Physician Organization. He places the new technologies that Dalio and HeartHealth are spearheading in a long line of advances he has seen in his four decades of practice — lifesaving breakthroughs that include bypass surgery, angioplasty, percutaneous valve replacement, and the development of statins. "I love the concept that Dr. Min has brought forward," Dr. Wolk says, "which is, ‘How early can we diagnose coronary artery disease before there are clinical symptoms, decreasing cardiovascular events and therefore minimizing the need to do expensive interventions?'" While heart disease remains the leading cause of mortality in the United States, he notes that thanks to such advances, the incidence of vascular-related death has been cut by half in the past 35 years — and that the World Health Organization has set an ambitious goal of continuing that trend by reducing mortality from noncommunicable disease by 25 percent by 2025. Says Dr. Wolk: "It's only through people like Dr. James Min — who are getting innovative and thinking of how to diagnose people before events occur — that we'll be able to achieve such progress."

With the aim of getting patients at elevated risk into the HeartHealth program, Dr. Jones has been spreading the word about the practice to her colleagues. She's been speaking to high-risk obstetricians, for example, because women who had preeclampsia or diabetes during pregnancy are at higher risk of cardiac events later in life. Similarly, she led grand rounds at Hospital for Special Surgery — speaking to rheumatologists about patients with inflammatory disorders, also at increased risk — and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, since cancer survivors can have arterial calcification due to the higher doses of radiation that were administered in years past. "The purpose of HeartHealth is not to see the patients who've already had a heart attack, but to serve the population who isn't sick enough to have a cardiologist but has risk factors like family history or inflammatory diseases that predispose them to heart disease," says Dr. Truong, who is also a cardiologist and will be seeing patients through the new clinical program. "HeartHealth is unique in that it integrates the latest technology to help patients understand their risk. It's really important for us to have this armamentarium of imaging modalities and incorporate it into how we treat patients. Even something like a calcium score, which is very inexpensive, will be able to guide us in terms of, ‘Do you need to take that statin for the rest of your life, and how low do we need to bring that LDL cholesterol level?' These are all beneficial tools to help us decide how aggressively to manage patients in their lifestyle and risk factor modifications."

For Alain and Marialuisa Baume, Dr. Jones's combination of individual attention and appropriate testing is the perfect fit. They also praise the practice's patient-friendly logistics. "When we call, we get immediate responses," says Alain, speaking in the midst of a busy week last February, when the couple was working on their shoe company's winter 2015–16 collection and Marialuisa was preparing for a trip to India. "You never feel like you're ‘just another patient.' It's so personal, and we feel so well taken care of."

This story first appeared in Weill Cornell Medicine,Vol. 14, No. 1.

Weill Cornell's Belfer Research Building. Architectural photos: ©Jeff Goldberg/Esto for Ennead Architects

Weill Cornell Medical College's state-of-the-art Belfer Research Building has achieved LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainable design and green construction.

LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — certification is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. There are four levels of certification; gold is the second best level obtainable.

The Belfer Research Building, designed by Todd Schliemann, a founding partner and design principal for Ennead Architects, is only the second laboratory building in New York City to receive a LEED Gold rating, earning points in every section of the LEED checklist, including excellent energy performance, design innovation and other sustainable practices.

"It's very gratifying to have received LEED Gold Certification for our Belfer Research Building," said William Cunningham, Weill Cornell's campus architect. "High-impact medical research, by its very nature, requires and consumes a substantial amount of energy. It was important for Weill Cornell to build a research facility that harnessed energy-efficient technologies and sustainable building practices, minimizing its environmental impact and contribution of greenhouse gases. This recognition is a reflection of our commitment to do just that."

The $650 million, 480,000 square-foot facility, which opened in January 2014, is an archetype for a green, high-rise laboratory facility — a rare structure in an urban setting like Manhattan. It uses sustainable materials and highly efficient mechanical systems to support the 16 above-ground floors — three public and 13 of laboratory space — as well as two research-support floors in the basement.

A double-skinned, fritted glass curtain wall is one of the bulding's green features.

It consumes 18 percent less energy than a minimally code-compliant structure by employing energy-saving mechanical systems, including a high-efficiency HVAC system, energy conserving heat exchangers, and daylight-responsive lighting controls. A double layer glass curtain wall is designed so that the outer fritted glass wall reflects the sun's heat and shades the inner high-efficiency glass, greatly reducing the heat load on the building's air conditioning system.

The building complements the adjacent Weill Greenberg Center, the medical college's National Healthcare Design Award-winning ambulatory care center, which was also designed by Schliemann and completed in 2007.

Dr. Varmus, Director of the National Cancer Institute, Also to Promote Cancer Genomics at the New York Genome Center

New York (March 5, 2015) — Dr. Harold Varmus, director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and co-winner of the Nobel Prize, will join Weill Cornell Medical College's faculty as the Lewis Thomas University Professor, effective April 1. In conjunction with his appointment at Weill Cornell, Dr. Varmus, internationally recognized for his research on retroviruses and the genetic basis of cancer, will team up with the New York Genome Center (NYGC) as a Senior Associate Core Member to promote the use of cancer genomics throughout the New York region.

In his new position at Weill Cornell, Dr. Varmus will continue to conduct research on fundamental aspects of cancer, in collaboration with investigators at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, led by Meyer Director Lewis C. Cantley. By working with the NYGC, Dr. Varmus will strive to amplify work on cancer genomes and its application to cancer care through its consortium of member institutions.

"This is a remarkable time in cancer research," Dr. Varmus said. "Technological advances have enabled scientists to conduct comprehensive genomic studies that are revealing detailed portraits of cancer cells, sparking new opportunities to develop next-generation therapies, diagnostics and prevention strategies. I'm excited to join Weill Cornell Medical College and the New York Genome Center as we strive to reduce the burden of cancer and enhance human health in New York and around the world."

Dr. Varmus will also serve as a senior advisor to Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell and provost for medical affairs for Cornell University, and will have an appointment in the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

Appointed by President Barack Obama, Dr. Varmus began his tenure as director of the National Cancer Institute in July 2010. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 2000 to 2010, as well as director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to the end of 1999.

"As one of the world's leading cancer geneticists, Dr. Varmus, a physician, has dedicated his career to driving excellence in cancer research by investigating the underlying mechanisms that cause these diseases," Dr. Glimcher said. "We are delighted and honored that Dr. Varmus, an esteemed leader, scientific pioneer and champion of cancer research, will continue this distinguished and vital work at Weill Cornell, catalyzing groundbreaking discoveries into improved patient care."

"Having Dr. Varmus on our team is a significant step forward for the New York Genome Center," said Robert B. Darnell, President, CEO and Scientific Director of NYGC. "His decades of experience as a cancer researcher running complex organizations will allow us to create a collaborative resource that will improve cancer treatment for patients in New York City and beyond."

Dr. Varmus' laboratory, which will be housed in the Belfer Research Building, will continue to focus on lung adenocarcinoma and the cancer-driving mutations found in that disease. Those mutations affect cell signaling, cell growth and processing of RNA. In his seminal work, conducted during 23 years as a faculty member at the University of California San Francisco Medical School, Dr. Varmus, his collaborator Dr. J. Michael Bishop and their colleagues demonstrated the cellular origin of the oncogene of a chicken retrovirus. Their discovery led to the isolation of many cellular genes that normally control growth and development and are frequently mutated in human cancer. Drs. Varmus and Bishop were awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and numerous other accolades for this discovery. Dr. Varmus is also renowned for his studies on the replication cycles of retroviruses and hepatitis B viruses, the functions of genes implicated in cancer and the development of mouse models of human cancer.

During his tenure at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Varmus initiated a reorganization of its clinical trial activities and promoted the use of precision medicine, harnessing each tumor's genetic profile to individualize treatment. He also helped to guide The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), an NCI and National Human Genome Research Institute-supported program that has identified genomic changes in more than 20 different types of human cancer, and established new Centers for Global Health and Cancer Genomics.

About Dr. Harold Varmus

Dr. Varmus is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and is involved with several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries. He is the author of more than 350 scientific papers and five books, including the 2009 memoir "The Art and Politics of Science." He was co-chair of President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and served on the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Dr. Varmus was co-founder and chairman of the board of the Public Library of Science and chair of the scientific board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health. He was also a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Board's Funding Committee.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Varmus has received numerous accolades, including the National Medal of Science and the Vannevar Bush Award.

Dr. Varmus received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Amherst College, a master's in English from Harvard University and his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. During his medical training, Dr. Varmus worked as a medical student in a hospital in India, later joining NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center's medical house staff. He began his scientific training as a public health service officer at the National Institutes of Health, where he studied bacterial gene expression with Dr. Ira Pastan, and then trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Bishop at UCSF. In 1993, Dr. Varmus was named by President Bill Clinton to serve as director of the NIH, a position he held until 1999. After his tenure at the NIH, Dr. Varmus joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as president and CEO. Under his leadership, Sloan Kettering forged new graduate programs in cancer biology at its Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, as well as in chemical biology and computational biology for the Tri-Institutional Research Program — a collaboration between Weill Cornell, Sloan Kettering and The Rockefeller University — and greatly expanded its research faculty, many of whom work in the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center, also constructed during Dr. Varmus' tenure.

About the New York Genome Center

The New York Genome Center (NYGC) is an independent, nonprofit at the forefront of transforming biomedical research and clinical care with the mission of saving lives. As a consortium of renowned academic, medical and industry leaders across the globe, NYGC focuses on translating genomic research into clinical solutions for serious disease. Our member organizations and partners are united in this unprecedented collaboration of technology, science, and medicine. We harness the power of innovation and discoveries to improve people's lives — ethically, equitably, and urgently. Member institutions include: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medical College, Hospital for Special Surgery, The Jackson Laboratory, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, The New York Stem Cell Foundation, New York University, North Shore-LIJ, The Rockefeller University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Stony Brook University and IBM. For more information, visit: www.nygenome.org.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Cornell University is the first in the U.S. to offer a M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances — including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

It's been an exceptional year for Weill Cornell Medical College that unveiled an innovative curriculum, heralded the opening of the new Belfer Research Building and celebrated an expansion of its clinical footprint in metropolitan New York.

Standing in front of Uris Auditorium on Dec. 12 for her annual State of the Medical College address, Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell, lauded these and other triumphs that she said have bolstered Weill Cornell's position as a global healthcare leader dedicated to providing the best care to patients.

"These multiple transformations taking place in medical education, biomedical research and patient care will have an enormous impact on our medical school and will help set its course for years to come," she said.

Training the Next Generation of Physicians and Scientists

The Class of 2018 collectively has the highest ever undergraduate grade point average in the history of Weill Cornell, and their MCAT scores tied with a previous class for highest ever at the medical college and were fifth highest in the United States. Medical college officials selected these 101 students from nearly 6,400 applications — the highest number of applicants for an incoming class in 15 years.

The class is the first to learn under Weill Cornell's new curriculum, which transforms the paradigm of medical education by integrating basic science with clinical care so that students can immediately apply what they are learning in the classroom to patients. It focuses on a cross-disciplinary, thematic view of medicine. Dr. Glimcher said students are reporting high levels of satisfaction with it.

The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences is thriving under the leadership of Dean Dr. Gary Koretzky, Dr. Glimcher said. It has accepted the highest quality students this year, with most of them having published an article in a journal or having one under review before they matriculate. And the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. Program — "one of the jewels in our crown," Dr. Glimcher said — accepted 18 students this year thanks to the perfect score it received in 2013 in its NIH Medical Scientist Training Program grant renewal.

Qatari citizens comprise 27 percent of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar's incoming class, achieving the location's goal of helping to build a talented cadre of physicians for the country, Dr. Glimcher said. To strengthen this pipeline program, WCMC-Q is restructuring its curriculum to integrate its premedical and medical programs into a cohesive, six-year medical-education program.

Building a Robust Biomedical Research Program

More than 45 faculty programs have moved into the Belfer Research Building since it opened in January, and the built-out floors are now at 75 percent occupancy. Construction crews are currently building out three more of the shelled floors, with completion expected by late summer, Dr. Glimcher said. Hunter College and a dozen of its scientists will soon move into the fourth floor.

Since 2012, Weill Cornell has successfully recruited nearly 50 top-flight researchers to pursue groundbreaking translational research. Among them are immunologists focusing on gastrointestinal diseases who complement the medical college's GI clinicians.

"We have always been outstanding in clinical care for GI diseases — wonderful surgeons and GI physicians," Dr. Glimcher said. "We now have, I think, a scientific clinical enterprise in GI medicine that is the best in New York City."

Collectively, the recruits have successfully secured new research funding from the National Institutes of Health — despite steep cuts to its budget — helping Weill Cornell buck the national trend.

"We are a rare institution where the amount of NIH funding has actually grown rather than decreased," Dr. Glimcher said.

But Weill Cornell is not immune to the challenges facing all academic medical centers. In addition to seeking out NIH grants and lobbying New York State to provide biomedical research support, Weill Cornell has forged more than a dozen research alliances with the biopharmaceutical industry to advance promising early- stage applied and translational research into innovative therapeutics for patients. And the first projects selected for funding by the Daedalus Fund for Innovation were announced this fall to help Weill Cornell investigators make research that has commercial potential more appealing to industry partners.

"The most effective way to get discoveries that are made in the lab into new therapeutics for patients is to partner with industry," Dr. Glimcher said. "We can move these promising basic science projects ahead with greater speed and efficiency if we team up with the private sector."

Expanding Clinical Care

The Weill Cornell Physician Organization has had enormous growth, with a 37 percent increase in patient visits. This upward trajectory will likely continue as the organization expands its footprint in the metropolitan area to provide more New Yorkers with its exceptional clinical care. It has added more than 150 physicians to its ranks at NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital and will open a new primary care practice on the Upper East Side. It also will establish new outpatient units at 156 William St. and 40 Worth St., as well as expand services offered by Weill Cornell Imaging at NewYork-Presbyterian.

"This is a rapidly growing organization, which I think is necessary because clinical care is at the heart of what we do and it is the economic engine by which we are able to carry out our missions in research and medical education," Dr. Glimcher said.

Leadership Transitions

After two decades of visionary leadership, the medical college announced earlier this month that Sanford I. Weill was retiring as chair of the Weill Cornell Board of Overseers on Jan. 1. Jessica Bibliowicz, a successful entrepreneur in the financial services business, was announced as his successor.

"Sandy has given his heart and soul, passion and commitment, and I really can't think of any other person who has shaped a medical school over such a long period of time to the extent that he has," Dr. Glimcher said. "But we will be gaining another talented leader, and I am really thrilled that Jessica Bibliowicz will be lending her skills and expertise to us."

Cornell University also named Elizabeth Garrett, provost at the University of Southern California, as Cornell's next president, effective July 1. She will succeed President David J. Skorton, who will become the next secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

"Dr. Skorton is an absolutely marvelous president of Cornell University," Dr. Glimcher said. "I think he will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents of any American university. But we are fortunate to have Beth Garrett join us. She's an extremely talented leader who has done wonderful things at USC and we look forward to integrating her into the medical college here."

This new triumvirate in medical college and university leadership is notable not just for the wealth of expertise they each bring, she added.

"It's not so bad to have three leaders who have two X chromosomes," Dr. Glimcher quipped. "That's got to be pretty unique."

The Belfer Research Building

Weill Cornell's new Belfer Research Building is the architectural reflection of the medical college's vision for 21st century translational research. It's also an archetype for a green, high-rise laboratory facility — a rare structure in an urban setting like Manhattan.

"Can you believe this building?" enthused Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell. "It is magnificent. It is really beautiful. I get so excited just walking around and looking at this building because I can imagine it filled with senior researchers, filled with junior researchers, post-docs, graduate students and expanding our research enterprise so significantly."

From open and adaptable floor plans and airy stairwells that link every two floors together, to comfortable break rooms and transparent glass walls, the 18-story building is designed to break down research silos, encourage collaboration and elicit a sense of community. The $650 million, 480,000-square-foot facility took nearly four years to build.

"The idea is to create what we call 'productive collisions,'" said Todd Schliemann, who designed the building as a design partner for Ennead Architects. "We created opportunities for researchers to meet each other and discuss what they are doing. Research these days is necessarily interdisciplinary. There is a lot of cooperation within research teams, but we want the various teams to get together, as well."

Built by Tishman Construction, the building includes 16 above-ground floors — three public and 13 of laboratory space — as well as two research-support floors in the basement. Construction workers spent a year excavating 90 feet of rock called Manhattan Schist to build the basement floors.

"Laboratories aren't often done this way," Schliemann said. "To build a building this tall, especially in Manhattan, is unique."

By its very nature, high-impact research requires and consumes a significant amount of energy, Schliemann said, making a building that used sustainable materials, highly efficient mechanical systems and green construction to maintain energy stability a priority.

On the south side of the building, Ennead created a double-skinned, fritted glass curtain wall with openings and sun-shading devices that absorb the sun's heat before it gets trapped inside, which would require air conditioners to pump out more cold air. Continuous ribbon windows flood the building with natural light, and energy-efficient HVAC, lighting control and water-conservation systems save on power and resources. The building's green infrastructure is expected to shrink Weill Cornell's energy bill by about 30 percent and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 26 percent compared to a building complying with the minimum requirements set by typical industry guidelines and standards. Weill Cornell is seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings, for the facility.

An airy stairwell links two floors together.

Nearly $400 million was gifted by more than 100 donors to support construction of the Belfer Research Building, including a $100 million gift from Robert and Renée Belfer, for whom the building is named. The building is designed to complement the adjacent Weill Greenberg Center, the medical college's National Healthcare Design Award-winning ambulatory care center, which was completed in 2007.

"Together with the Weill Greenberg Center, which is just next door, this building and that building form a kind of pairing, which begins to project the mission of Weill Cornell as a great urban medical college," Schliemann said.

Designing the Belfer Research Building was particularly meaningful for Schliemann, a 1979 Cornell University School of Architecture, Art and Planning graduate. Cornellians, he said, share a commitment to improving society.

"The advancements in science in this building will offer tremendous contributions to society and the future of mankind," he said. "It's a very, very inspirational time to be working on laboratories because the breakthroughs in science are exponential, and this building will give scientists a state-of-the-art vehicle to accomplish Weill Cornell's mission."

Invoking the Spirit of Discovery in Art

Weill Cornell's media wall located inside the Belfer Research Building's main lobby. Credit: Richard Lobell

Weill Cornell leaders set out to create an environment that was not just conducive to high-impact research, but was also warm, inviting and engaging. The building's artwork enhances that intention. Capital planning officials, longtime benefactor Mrs. Belfer and consultants spent months handpicking the art that will hang in the building's conference rooms, public spaces and hallways.

"On the one hand, we were looking for art that related to the spirit of discovery, that would be reminiscent of the kinds of images that are found during scientific research," said William Cunningham, Weill Cornell's campus architect. "But we were also looking for pieces for our informal spaces that that would offer some relief, be relaxing and restful and give a change of pace for people who are concentrating on their science all day."

The most prominent and high-profile works are a digital media wall in the lobby, and three installations from the late American artist Sol LeWitt, who helped pioneer Conceptualism and Minimalism as dominant movements of the 20th century.

The custom-made, animated and programmable digital media wall, designed by London-based multimedia firm Squint/Opera and visible from 69th Street, features thousands of LCD screens that project photos and text that highlight scientific discoveries at the medical college.

The first of two Sol LeWitt wall drawings found on the 12th floor of the Belfer Research Building. Credit: John Abbott

"It's intended to both to tell the story of the research that's going on in the building as well as honor the donors who made the building and medical research possible," Cunningham said.

LeWitt, whose father Abraham was a 1900 graduate of Weill Cornell Medical College, was an internationally acclaimed artist who conceived his wall drawings to be executed by other artists. Three artists spent two weeks at the Belfer Research Building in December executing two of those drawings — complementary isometric figures with red, yellow, gray and blue color ink washes, one color on each plane. The drawings are located on the 12th floor, which is dedicated to children's health research. A team of artists will spend six weeks in the spring installing a third wall drawing — visible from both inside and outside the building — in the stairwell between the second and third floors.

The LeWitt wall drawings on the 12th floor are on loan from the LeWitt family and estate, and the wall drawing on the second and third floors was gifted to Weill Cornell by the estate. Overseer Ronay Menschel and her husband Richard underwrote the installation of all of the LeWitt artwork.

Weill Cornell also commissioned original artwork from painter Isabel Bigelow, whose art will hang in seven lounges on upper building floors, and purchased art, prints and photographs from various artists that will hang across all floors.

"It is our hope at the medical college that viewers of these pieces not only find the works to be visually stunning," Dr. Glimcher said, "but also feel inspired to come up with the ideas that lead to future discoveries at the lab bench in this state-of-the-art research space."

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer Helps Commemorate Opening of Building that Nearly Doubles Medical College's Research Space, Enhances Student Education

NEW YORK (January 31, 2014) — Weill Cornell Medical College today opened the Belfer Research Building, a state-of-the-art facility that ushers in a new era at the institution for cutting-edge, translational science. The 18-story, $650 million building, made possible through the generosity of numerous donors, nearly doubles Weill Cornell's existing research space and empowers scientists to rapidly translate groundbreaking discoveries into the most advanced patient care.

Weill Cornell hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony today in the presence of U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, and New York City Councilman Ben Kallos, as well as Cornell University's Board of Trustees and the Weill Cornell Medical College Board of Overseers, to commemorate the building's opening after seven years of fundraising and nearly four years of construction.

Weill Cornell's new Belfer Research Building

The 480,000-square-foot building, located at 69th Street and York Avenue, is devoted to translational bench-to-bedside research targeting some of the most formidable health challenges of the 21st century, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, children's health, global health and infectious diseases. Its proximity to the adjacent Weill Greenberg Center, the medical college's flagship ambulatory care center at 1305 York Ave. at 70th Street, ensures that breakthroughs made in the laboratory can be quickly and seamlessly applied to patient care as improved treatments and therapies in the clinic. The Belfer Research Building will also serve as a nucleus where physician-scientists, educators, students and researchers from Weill Cornell and around the globe can collaborate on the latest discoveries and research breakthroughs.

"Weill Cornell is an undisputed leader in cutting-edge medical education and research, and I am absolutely certain that the opening of the Belfer Research Building will only add to its sterling reputation," Sen. Schumer says. "It is medical institutions like Weill Cornell that have enabled New York to become a world leader in the medical field, and projects like Belfer that will ensure New York stays at the top."

"The Belfer Research Building is a monumental achievement for Weill Cornell, the city and the state of New York," says Sanford I. Weill, chairman of the Weill Cornell Medical College Board of Overseers. "Through the remarkable generosity of our many donors — we received an impressive 154 gifts of $1 million or more to our campaign, including $100 million from Bob and Renée Belfer, for whom the building is named — Weill Cornell has been able to dramatically expand its research enterprise in record time. This building is a testament to the power of public-private partnerships and the collaborative discoveries it promises will cement our role as one of the world's leading centers for biomedical research."

"Today marks an extraordinary milestone for Weill Cornell," says Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College. "Our new Belfer Research Building is an inspiring symbol of scientific breakthroughs that can advance patient care, enhance health and change lives. I am deeply appreciative of our loyal donors and friends, distinguished physicians and scientists, and our esteemed government and civic leaders, whose unwavering dedication and support is a testament to this building's promise."

"My wife Renée and I along with our children and grandchildren are deeply honored to have our name associated with such a noble effort and such a remarkable building," says Robert Belfer. "This world-class facility will catalyze biomedical research discoveries and empower Weill Cornell's brilliant scientists and our newest recruits to develop game-changing therapies that can transform human health. It's the embodiment of Weill Cornell's vision and mission, and it's the legacy one hopes for when considering philanthropy."

The Belfer Research Building is the centerpiece of Weill Cornell's Discoveries that Make a Difference campaign, launched in 2006 and successfully completed last year. Of the $1.3 billion raised, nearly $400 million was gifted by more than 100 donors to support construction of the Belfer Research Building, with an additional $152 million dedicated to program support and to endowments and recruitment of leading researchers. Among Weill Cornell's philanthropic support was a $250 million gift from Joan and Sanford I. Weill and gifts totaling $100 million from Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, his wife Corinne and The Starr Foundation.

The Belfer Research Building features 13 floors of laboratories equipped with the most advanced research technology.

The Belfer Research Building includes 13 floors of laboratories equipped with the most advanced research technology. Its open floor plan and thematic orientation is designed to break down research silos and foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among Weill Cornell's premier scientists, transforming the paradigm for high-impact translational research. Scientists from multidisciplinary translational research centers and institutes focused on precision medicine, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the molecular underpinnings of cancer will investigate alongside one another to encourage unconventional partnerships. This new research standard will empower Weill Cornell's world-class scientists and attract additional top-tier talent to the medical college.

Featured research hubs include the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer's Disease Research Institute, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Center for Metabolic Health, Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center and the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine.

"The completion of the Belfer Research Building represents a major expansion of Cornell University's footprint in New York City," says David J. Skorton, president of Cornell University. "It opens the door to an even greater role for Weill Cornell physicians and researchers in benefitting the health and wellbeing of New Yorkers and many others around the globe. I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped make this building a reality, whether by skilled and dedicated work or through visionary philanthropy."

The Belfer Research Building also headquarters the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, Inc. (Tri-I TDI), an innovative partnership between Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medical College that includes Takeda Pharmaceutical Company to expedite early-stage drug discovery into treatments and therapies for patients. In addition, CUNY Hunter College will conduct translational research on the fourth floor of the building, extending Hunter's and Weill Cornell's rich history of public-private partnership and expanding the Upper East Side Medical Research Corridor as a growing powerhouse in the biomedical research sector.

"Because Cornell University has world-class programs in the basic sciences and in medicine, we are in a uniquely strong position to deliver on the great promise of translational research to solve some of the world's most intractable medical problems," says Bob Harrison, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees. "The Belfer Research Building will be a magnet for collaborations between researchers and clinicians from our Ithaca and Weill Cornell campuses, and I have no doubt that the work they do here will be transformative."

"This is clearly a momentous event in the history of science at Weill Cornell Medical College," says Dr. Gary Koretzky, dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and senior associate dean for research at Weill Cornell Medical College. "This is an institution that is excellent in its science and we seek to be absolutely outstanding. In our new Belfer Research Building, internationally renowned scientists will tackle our greatest health care challenges, pinpointing the cellular origins of disease and finding targeted treatments for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases. Weill Cornell is committed to making a difference in this world by enhancing human health, and I am excited for what we can accomplish."

Innovative and Sustainable Design

Designed by Todd Schliemann, a founding partner and design principal for Ennead Architects, the Belfer Research Building uses sustainable materials, highly efficient mechanical systems and green construction. The building is designed to maximize energy efficiency and features a high-performance, double-skinned fritted glass curtain wall with openings and sun-shading devices that enhance visual and thermal comfort. The building design maximizes natural light, ample yet effective space design and the functional use of sustainable materials to enhance quality of life within the building. Energy-efficient HVAC, lighting control and water conservation systems will enable the Belfer Research Building to save approximately 30 percent on energy consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 26 percent, in comparison to a building complying with the minimum requirements set by typical industry guidelines and standards. Weill Cornell is seeking gold certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

The Belfer Research Building is designed to complement the medical college's National Healthcare Design Award-winning Weill Greenberg Center, which Ennead completed in 2007. A two-story space extends from the Belfer Research Building's entrance to a landscaped garden on the interior of the block on the second floor, connecting the two buildings and creating an internalized "campus green." Conference rooms, lounge and study spaces, as well as a café are connected to the garden.

In addition to laboratory space, the Belfer Research Building features The Starr Foundation-Maurice R. Greenberg Conference Center and Terrace. This space, which spans the second and third floors, includes a reception hall and three conference rooms equipped with video-conferencing technology for in-house and international meetings. In addition, the Daisy and Paul Soros Student Meeting Room, located on the first floor, provides an inviting open space where students can study, relax and meet.

The Jan. 31 ribbon cutting for the Belfer Research Building included remarks by Sen. Schumer; President Skorton; Chairman Harrison; Chairman Weill; Dr. Glimcher; Mr. Belfer; Dr. Steven J. Corwin, CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; and Dr. Randy Longman, assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell and an assistant attending gastroenterologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Cornell University is the first in the U.S. to offer a M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances — including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

Academic medical centers face an uncertain future, especially as federal research funds continue to shrink, but Weill Cornell Medical College is poised not only to thrive, but to lead the way in providing excellent education, research and clinical care.

In Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher's annual State of the Medical College address — her second as the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College — she said that Weill Cornell is positioned for a prosperous future by evolving with the ever-changing health care environment.

Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher delivers annual State of the Medical College address on Dec. 4. Photo credit: Ira Fox

Standing in front of a crowded Uris Auditorium on Dec. 4, Dr. Glimcher reviewed the medical college's accomplishments over the past year and shared her goals for 2014 — among them, establishing a new medical school curriculum, strengthening the biomedical research enterprise, and expanding Weill Cornell's footprint in clinical care.

"I think that we have made some significant progress," Dr. Glimcher said. "I think we are already on our way to putting many of these agendas into action here at Weill Cornell — thanks to the help and commitment and passion of all of you."

While Weill Cornell is in the black, it's not immune to the challenges facing all academic medical centers, she said. Research funding from the National Institutes of Health has plummeted 20 percent over the past decade, with the $1.7 billion in cuts enacted this spring through sequestration inflicting even greater pain on scientists who can no longer obtain research grants. It's clear, Dr. Glimcher said, that the academic medical centers can no longer rely solely on traditional funding streams for their work.

To counteract Washington belt-tightening, Dr. Glimcher said the medical college will continue to seek philanthropy and build public-private partnerships to spur advances in each facet of Weill Cornell's mission.

"We need more resources because we have big plans in medical education, in research and in clinical expansion," she said.

Reimagining Medical School Curriculum

To prepare the next generation of physicians and scientists, Weill Cornell faculty have spent the last few years rewriting the medical school curriculum, which was last updated in 1996. Leadership will pilot the new educational blueprint — which will accelerate students' access to the clinic by a semester — in January with full roll-out next fall.

"Our curriculum has trained our students well, but needed to be reinvigorated and altered to fit the very rapidly changing health care environment and very rapidly changing research environment," Dr. Glimcher said.

This reform will enhance Weill Cornell's education program, which continues to attract the best and brightest students, Dr. Glimcher said. The diverse Class of 2017 — 19 percent of its students are from groups underrepresented in medicine — has the highest mean Medical College Admission Test score ever recorded at the medical college, and boasts 18 M.D.-Ph.D. students. At Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, nine of the 41 students in this year's entering class have successfully completed the medical college's pre-pre-med and pre-med programs.

The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, led by new Dean Dr. Gary Koretzky, accepted 56 students from 653 applicants. Some 13 percent are from groups underrepresented in medicine. In the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. program, ranked first among M.D.-Ph.D. programs nationally for diversity, 24 percent of students enrolled in the program come from groups underrepresented in medicine. Last winter the program received a perfect score in its NIH Medical Scientist Training Program renewal grant application.

Expanding Weill Cornell's Biomedical Enterprise

Much of the medical college's successes are entwined with the prowess of its faculty, Dr. Glimcher said. Over the past two years, Weill Cornell has added 32 leading scientists to its ranks — among them nine senior recruits — who together will advance basic, clinical and translational research along with clinical care at the medical college.

She highlighted the backgrounds of three new leaders at Weill Cornell — Dr. Koretzky, who is also senior associate dean for research, Dr. Augustine Choi, chairman of the Department of Medicine, and Dr. Hugh Hemmings, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology.

Weill Cornell is fortunate to already have a first-rate biomedical enterprise, Dr. Glimcher said, which will be enriched with the opening of the Belfer Research Building next month and efforts to recruit more of the world's leading lights — all possible due to the generosity of Weill Cornell benefactors.

To advance its mission of bringing the most advanced care to patients, Weill Cornell has established nearly a dozen interdisciplinary centers and institutes — some in partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — that transform the paradigm for high-impact biomedical research. These hubs — the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and the Institute for Precision Medicine among them — are charged with fostering collaboration between basic and translational scientists and clinicians to accelerate the application of groundbreaking discoveries made in the lab to innovative therapies for patients.

But drug development cannot be done in a vacuum. It is crucial to get the private sector involved to help ensure that findings in academic labs are translated into treatments, Dr. Glimcher said.

"Academe is very good at biology and target discovery and proof of principle," she said. "We're not so great in medicinal chemistry and that's where pharma is very strong."

To that end, Weill Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University joined forces with pharmaceutical company Takeda this fall in forming the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, which is tasked with expediting early-stage drug discovery into innovative treatments and therapies. The Tri-I TDI has just selected Dr. Michael Foley as director, and Takeda's scientists will arrive in March.

As the Tri-I TDI embarks on its work, Larry Schlossman, managing director of BioPharma Alliances and Research Collaborations at Weill Cornell, continues to develop partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and the medical college.

Providing Top-Notch Clinical Care

These initiatives would be for naught were they not infused with Weill Cornell's primary mission: "to keep the patient at the center of everything we do," Dr. Glimcher said. Discoveries made by basic scientists are increasingly being applied by physicians as Weill Cornell expands its clinical presence.

In March, the medical college and the Weill Cornell Physician Organization opened a new, comprehensive medical practice on Manhattan's West Side, offering imaging, primary care and high-demand specialty services to children and adults — all under one roof. And in July, when New York Downtown Hospital merged with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to become NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan; the 140 physicians on staff became credentialed members of the Weill Cornell faculty, as well as members of the physician organization. Both practices create a bridge between Weill Cornell's world-class physicians on the Upper East Side with areas in Manhattan that previously had limited access to the high-quality patient care that the academic medical center provides.

"I think Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are known for providing absolutely outstanding clinical care, both here and abroad," Dr. Glimcher said.

These efforts in clinical care, medical education and biomedical research continue to occur in partnership with Cornell University, CUNY Hunter College and Houston Methodist. And Weill Cornell's global initiatives in places like Weill Bugando in Tanzania, Gheskio in Haiti and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar remain strong, Dean Glimcher said.

"I think the experiment in Qatar started by Dean [Antonio M.] Gotto has really proven itself to be a success in terms of the quality of young people we are training to be physicians," she said.

The strength of Weill Cornell's mission is what sets Weill Cornell apart, Dr. Glimcher said, and is what will keep the medical college thriving.

"I want to thank all of you, faculty, staff, administration, students for your commitment to and passion for this really wonderful institution," she said. "It's been a great privilege to work with all of you over the last year, and I think the best is yet to come."