News | Graduate School of Medical Sciences

Telehealth Restrictions May Limit Opioid Use Treatment

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that restricting telehealth prescriptions for opioid use disorder could keep thousands from accessing buprenorphine, a medication that helps people recover from addiction. The study, published March 3 in JAMA Network Open, warns that requiring in-person visits—as had been proposed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)—may undo the progress made during the COVID-19 pandemic when telehealth increased access to this life-saving treatment. Previous studies...

Lowering Bioenergetic Age May Help Fend Off Alzheimer’s

A person’s “bioenergetic age”—or how youthfully their cells generate energy—might be a key indicator of whether they’re at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, new research from Weill Cornell Medicine shows. The study, published Feb. 24 in Nature Communications, suggests healthy living can turn back the bioenergetic clock for some people, helping them fend off Alzheimer’s as effectively as a new drug called lecanemab.

“That’s quite big because it means some people can lower their...

image of a pregnant woman getting a vaccine

New Targets Needed for Vaccine that Blocks Maternal Herpesvirus Transmission

A new Weill Cornell Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University co-authored study provides critical insight for the development of a vaccine that can more effectively block the spread of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, across the placenta to babies before they are born.

CMV is one of the most common viruses and most people don’t even know they’ve been infected. However, it carries significant risks to the developing fetus, including lifelong health complications such as hearing loss,...

Study Discovers Tuberculosis Genes Necessary for Airborne Transmission

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. The findings provide new targets for tuberculosis therapies that could simultaneously treat infection and prevent the spread of bacteria.

Until now, very little was known about this transmission process—when...

colorized greyscale image of blood cells expanding on top of vascular endothelial cells

FLIpping the Switch: Boosting Stem Cell Numbers for Therapies

A single molecular switch is essential for blood stem cells to enter an activated, regenerative state in which they produce new blood cells, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The discovery could lead to more effective bone marrow transplants and gene therapies.

Stem cells are immature cells that have a basic regenerative role in virtually all tissues. They normally exist in a quiescent, slowly dividing state, but after an injury can replace...

illustration of the different joints affected in spondyloarthritis

Possible Biomarker Identified for Crohn’s Disease with Arthritis Type

People with Crohn’s disease and related joint inflammation linked to immune system dysfunction have distinct gut bacteria or microbiota, with the bacterium Mediterraneibacter gnavus being a potential biomarker, according to new study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The study, published Feb. 13 in Gut Microbes, also demonstrated that the gut microbiota of people with Crohn’s and axial spondyloarthritis, which is joint inflammation of the spine and lower back, differs from...

Study Establishes “Ball and Chain” Mechanism Inactivates Key Mammalian Ion Channel

A new study unveils a precise picture of how an ion channel found in most mammalian cells regulates its own function with a “ball-and-chain” channel-plugging mechanism, according to investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings boost the understanding of ion channel biology and could lead to new drugs that target these channels to treat disorders such as epilepsy and hypertension.

Ion channels are protein structures embedded in cell membranes that allow charged molecules to...

Designing Self-Destructing Bacteria to Make Effective Tuberculosis Vaccines

Working toward more effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed two strains of mycobacteria with "kill switches" that can be triggered to stop the bacteria after they activate an immune response. Two preclinical studies, published, Jan. 10 in Nature Microbiology, tackle the challenge of engineering bacteria that are safe for use in controlled human infection trials or as better vaccines. While TB is under control in most developed countries, the...

image of islets and blood vessels, both host and grafted

Islet Transplantation with Blood Vessel Cells Shows Promise to Treat Type 1 Diabetes

Adding engineered human blood vessel-forming cells to islet transplants boosted the survival of the insulin-producing cells and reversed diabetes in a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The new approach, which requires further development and testing, could someday enable the much wider use of islet transplants to cure diabetes.

Islets, found in the pancreas, are clusters of insulin-secreting and other cells enmeshed in tiny, specialized blood vessels. The...

Atomic force microscopy images of hepatitis B DNA

Digging Into a Decades-Old Hepatitis B Mystery Suggests a New Potential Treatment

In their effort to answer a decades-old biological question about how the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is able to establish infection of liver cells, research led by Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and The Rockefeller University identified a vulnerability that opens the door to new treatments.

The team successfully disrupted the virus’s ability to infect human liver cells in the laboratory using a compound already in clinical trials against cancer —...

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