News from WCM

An understudied type of liver cell may drive scarring in liver disease and could be a promising target for new treatments, suggests a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

An enzyme has been discovered to play a critical role in blocking the metabolic processes that contribute to the rapid growth and spread of liver cancer, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The hormonal shifts that occur with menopause can increase the risk of brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

A new technique that involves growing brain tumors in a miniature laboratory model of the human brain recreated the complex genetics of the disease better than other approaches, according to research by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

The benefits of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to screen men for prostate cancer may be greater than the harm, say investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, University of Washington School of Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Dr. Kevin Holcomb, a prominent gynecologic oncologist with a longstanding commitment to medical education and leadership, has been named associate dean for admissions at Weill Cornell Medical College, effective July 1. Dr. Jessica Peña, an expert in cardiology and a dedicated mentor of students, residents and fellows, has been appointed to the newly created position of assistant dean for admissions.

An intensive, one-year, lifestyle-modification treatment for type 2 diabetes patients, featuring a low-calorie diet and physical exercise, resulted in a large average weight loss, and remission of diabetes for most patients, in a clinical trial led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.

Three proteins bind to chemical marks on molecular messages in cells, targeting the messages for degradation, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The results overturn some prevailing models of how cells use chemical tags to control their genes' expression and may offer new targets for treating leukemia, which can arise when the chemical tags go awry.

In randomized clinical trials, commercial sponsorship influences how studies are designed and the results reported in ways that often benefit the study’s sponsor, Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators report.

A DNA-sequencing strategy powered by machine learning may pick up even very low levels of tumor DNA in blood samples, potentially enabling the early detection of cancer recurrence after surgery or other treatments, according to a study led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center (NYGC).

Like more than half of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Class of 2020, Dr. Kevin Ackerman chose to graduate early to be of service to New York City’s healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A drug that blocks a male hormone receptor prolonged life by nearly a year compared with the placebo in men with nonmetastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to the final analysis of the results of an international, multi-center Phase 3 clinical trial led by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators.

Dr. Henry Masur, M.D., ’72, chief of critical care medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been awarded the Weill Cornell Medicine Alumni Association Award of Distinction.

Students from the Weill Cornell Medical College Class of 2020 were recognized for their outstanding achievements, with the winners announced on May 27. 

Graduate school alumni have been recognized with this award since 1997 for their outstanding contributions to biomedical research in education, focusing on science and scholarship, leadership, mentoring and teaching, and service to society.

The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences honored the Class of 2020 for their academic achievements during a virtual convocation ceremony on May 27. Students and their families and friends watched a livestream of the event, as graduate school faculty announced the recipients of special awards and prizes.

A triple combination of an investigational drug that enables immune cells to infiltrate tumors, an immunotherapy drug and chemotherapy showed promising responses in patients with the most common type of metastatic pancreatic cancer, according to data from an international phase 2a clinical trial led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center investigators.

Higher levels of a type of fungus in the gut are associated with better outcomes for patients with a type of inflammatory bowel disease called ulcerative colitis who are treated with gut microbes from healthy donors.

Neurologists traditionally have expected that patients who remain in coma after cardiac arrest have almost no chance of making a meaningful recovery if they fail to emerge from coma within a week.

Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar on May 6 celebrated the dedication and hard work of some of the world’s newest doctors as the Class of 2020 received their Cornell University medical degrees during commencement.