News from WCM

The biologic drug interferon-alpha can benefit patients with blood cancers called myeloproliferative neoplasms by forcing mutant blood stem cells to become shorter-lived white blood cells, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have received a $17.4 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to discover new approaches to shorten tuberculosis (TB) treatment, potentially making it easier for patients to complete therapy. 

Metabotropic glutamate receptors, which are important but difficult drug targets, interact in surprisingly varied ways with their principal regulatory proteins, according to two new studies led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

Weill Cornell Medicine and Rutgers Health in New Brunswick have received a four-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to build the infrastructure and resources that will accelerate discoveries about HIV-associated brain injury. 

Dr. Geraldine McGinty, an esteemed academic healthcare leader and radiologist, has been appointed executive vice dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, effective Sept. 8.

Dr. Zachary Grinspan, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a four-year, $1.6 million CDC grant to undertake wide-reaching research aiming to produce a new, more detailed picture of childhood epilepsy.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery have discovered the stem cells—unspecialized cells that can develop into specific cell types—that give rise to the body’s tendons and ligaments, the tissues connecting muscles and bones. They also found that when these stem cells become hyperactive in the lower spine, they contribute to lumbar spinal stenosis.

A commonly used systemic antifungal medication may help reduce symptoms in a subset of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by restoring a healthier gut microbiome, according to a preliminary study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. 

A team of Weill Cornell Medicine investigators has developed a computer model that will help scientists more efficiently develop protein-destroying therapies, a newer type of treatment that is particularly promising for cancer.

Obesity caused by disrupted stress-hormone rhythms is metabolically very different from obesity caused by a high-fat diet, according to a new preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have discovered specific mechanisms that enable the bacteria not only to survive drying but also to generate mutations linked to antibiotic resistance. 

Contrary to some predictions, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents could lead to more, not fewer, health care professionals working in the United States, according to a new article by a physician and health policy researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine who surveyed economic theory and the history of technology in health care.

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have developed a set of molecular tools to regulate the activity of specific genes in one of the most common classes of intestinal bacteria. 

On Aug. 18, 106 first-year medical students in the Class of 2030 earned their white coats during the annual White Coat Ceremony, officially marking the beginning of their medical education. 

Fifty physician assistant students donned their white coats Aug. 18 during the annual White Coat Ceremony—the first time PA students attained this milestone on the same day as medical students. 

Prostate tumors can rewire amino acid metabolism to override the normal brakes on cholesterol production, a process that may fuel hormone therapy resistance, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

A conceptual framework like the one engineers use for characterizing the transmission of sound and electrical signals can be useful in studying how olfaction—the sense of smell—is influenced by the air flow that carries odor molecules, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Colorado—Boulder.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Pakistan is associated with a high risk of death and disability long after the initial injury, even in mild to moderate cases, according to two new studies in JAMA Network Open led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

Brain-resident immune cells that have reached an old-age state called senescence secrete a protein that causes dysfunction in other brain cells, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. 

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered how a key Parkinson's protein called LRRK2 shifts between inactive and active forms, revealing the structural changes that enable certain mutations to push the protein into an overactive state.