Institute for Computational Biomedicine

The way DNA folds inside the nucleus of brain cells may hold the key to understanding a devastating form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, suggests a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

Dr. Chenxu Zhu, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and a core faculty member of the New York Genome Center, has been awarded the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award to fund an ambitious project to develop single-cell sequencing tools, known collectively as “multi-omics,” that will help track age-related changes in gene regulation programs, as well as cell decay, in brain cells from preclinical models. 

Two Weill Cornell Medicine faculty members, Dr. David Lyden and Dr. Harel Weinstein have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Two multi-institutional teams led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists have been awarded grant support from the Starr Cancer Consortium. Both grants will fund work applying new technologies to develop more detailed knowledge of tumor biology, with one team focusing on Hodgkin lymphoma and the other on the purity of tumor samples on pathology slides.

Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine have identified significant differences in the molecular characteristics of tumors from younger and older cancer patients across several cancer types.

The master regulator behind the development of antibody-producing cells has been identified in a study by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings provide new insight into the inner workings of the immune system and may help understand how tissues develop and how certain cancers arise.

The structure and function of an important protein that transports essential omega-3 fatty acid molecules from the bloodstream into the brain has been determined by a team led by scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Duke-NUS Medical School.

Scientists have made major advances in understanding and developing treatments for many cancers by identifying genetic mutations that drive the disease. Now a team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and the New York Genome Center (NYGC) has developed a machine learning technique for detecting other modifications to DNA that have a similar effect.

A team led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian has used advanced technology and analytics to map, at single-cell resolution, the cellular landscape of diseased lung tissue in severe COVID-19 and other infectious lung diseases.

A significant percentage of patients with urothelial cancers have inherited gene variants that drive the progression of these cancers, according to a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

Space travel, illnesses like COVID-19, and climbing Mount Everest can trigger the body’s stress response systems in similar ways, according to new studies by Weill Cornell Medicine, space agencies and many other investigators.

Drawing on New York’s diverse population, Weill Cornell Medicine scientists have been awarded grants from the New York Genome Center (NYGC) to study how several types of cancer differ in patients with different genetic backgrounds and point to precision treatments for groups that have been historically underrepresented in cancer research. 

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

Growth of the prostate is exceptionally common in aging men, leading to problems with urination. This overgrowth is not a tumor-like condition driven by gene mutations, and may be treatable in many cases with a class of drugs called mTOR inhibitors, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

Gene mutations that are thought to be very early events in the development of leukemias and other blood disorders appear to set the stage for malignancy by increasing the production of certain types of blood cells at the expense of others.

Weill Cornell Medicine scientists have built the first global database of clinical trials testing a rapidly expanding approach to cancer treatment that involves genetically modifying immune cells to recognize specific targets on a patient’s cancer cells and attack them.

A new artificial intelligence approach by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators can identify with a great degree of accuracy whether a 5-day-old, in vitro fertilized human embryo has a high potential to progress to a successful pregnancy. 

Ongoing monitoring for genetic changes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) during targeted treatment may allow clinicians to adjust patients’ treatments as the cancer evolves, according to a study in Nature Communications led by Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Genome Center scientists.

Two Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have received 2017 Clinical Scientist Development Awards from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support their ongoing research projects. 

Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Neel Madhukar always assumed he would become a physician.