Microbiology and Immunology

A multi-institutional team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators has been awarded a five-year, $20.8 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, for advanced preclinical development of a promising experimental HIV vaccine.

The award recognizes Dr. Nathan’s outstanding contributions that have advanced scientists’ understanding of the building blocks of innate immunity and how the immune system fights infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, and cancer.

Along with an international team, Dr. John Moore, has brought biomedicine closer than ever to an HIV vaccine.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered how a parasite that causes malaria when transmitted through a mosquito bite can hide from the body’s immune system, for years sometimes.

A new study from Weill Cornell Medicine provides insights into how cells maintain the tiny end caps of chromosomes as they divide, a key process in keeping cells healthy. Using yeast, the researchers reveal protein interactions that could explain how the enzyme telomerase is tightly regulated to prevent cells from dividing uncontrollably or aging prematurely.

As chair, Dr. Ehrt seeks to build on the department’s already robust national and international footprint in tuberculosis research and expand its portfolio in other areas of research and innovation.

Tuberculosis bacteria rely on a family of genes that help them survive the challenging journey from one person’s lungs to another person’s during coughing, sneezing or talking, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Working toward more effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, researchers have developed two strains of mycobacteria with "kill switches" that can be triggered to stop the bacteria after they activate an immune response.

Weill Cornell Medicine has received $4.2 million to study how the immune system in some people infected with HIV can keep the virus under control, which could lead to novel therapeutic strategies for thwarting or eliminating HIV.

A multinational team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators developed a test that will help measure the persistence of HIV in people affected by viral strains found predominantly in Africa—a vital tool in the search for an HIV cure that will benefit patients around the world.

A new consortium co-led by Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a five-year, $31 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to accelerate the development of faster, more effective treatment regimens for tuberculosis (TB).

Dr. Carl Nathan, chair of the department of microbiology and immunology and the R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor of Microbiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, answers questions about interferon-γ's history and future.

Structural insights into a potent antimalarial drug candidate’s interaction with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum have paved the way for drug-resistant malaria therapies, according to a new study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Van Andel Institute.

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers and the TB Drug Accelerator have received two grants totaling $6.8 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study tuberculosis (TB) drug development.

A key developmental step in the lifecycle of the most virulent species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, depends in part on a series of molecular signals that are detailed in a new study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.

A typical gut bacterium that can spread through the body and cause a serious infection resists natural immune defenses and antibiotics by enhancing its protective outer layer, known as the cell envelope, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. 

Small proteins, called chemokines, that direct immune cells toward sites of infection can also form DNA-bound nanoparticles that can induce chronic, dysfunctional immune responses, according to a new study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS).

Immunotherapy unleashes the power of the immune system to fight cancer. However, for some patients, immunotherapy doesn’t work, and new research may help explain why. 

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have identified a protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that contributes to drug tolerance, a phenomenon that allows bacteria to survive treatment with drugs that would normally kill them.

A finding from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers sheds new light on the transmission of malaria, one of the biggest global public health challenges, which kills a young child every two minutes – more than any other infectious disease.