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Collaborative Cancer Research Projects Awarded Grants from Starr Cancer Consortium

Seven Weill Cornell Medicine faculty members leading multi-institutional research teams were awarded grants from The Starr Foundation's 12th Starr Cancer Consortium Grant Competition to fund their innovative cancer research projects.

The Starr Cancer Consortium, established in 2006 through a generous gift from The Starr Foundation, advances research in new ways that will improve the understanding, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer. The consortium is a...

Weill Cornell Medicine Graduate School opportunity

Opportunity Knocks

By Molly Schulson
Illustrations by Aaron Sacco

For three Weill Cornell Medicine summer training programs—all dedicated to helping socioeconomically disadvantaged or minority undergraduates explore careers in the medical sciences—this is a milestone year. Two of them, Advancing Cornell Career Experiences for Science Students (ACCESS) and Gateways to the Laboratory, mark 25 years of service, while the Travelers Summer Research Fellowship celebrates 50. All three provide research...

Researchers Identify Critical Role for Protein in Colon Inflammation

A protein induced by gut microbes is vital in healing colons that have become inflamed due to a short-term form of colitis, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers discovered in a new study. However, they also found that this molecule, called TNF-like ligand 1A (TL1A) contributes to the sustained inflammation characterized by chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

In a study published Dec. 11 in Immunity, Dr. Randy Longman, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of...

Battling Burnout

By Beth Saulnier
Photos by Stephanie Diani

When Dr. Sandeep “Sunny” Kishore, PhD ’12, MD ’14, gave the commencement speech for the Class of 2014, he stood onstage in Carnegie Hall and confessed something: as a third-year medical student, he’d initially failed his surgical “shelf” exam, one of the rigorous tests given after each core rotation. Having resumed his MD studies after a lauded five years as a doctoral candidate and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School—which included...

Study Reveals New Role for Methotrexate in Fighting Cancer

A study of the dual pathways that process the essential vitamin folate by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators unexpectedly revealed a new way the cancer drug methotrexate works and may suggest strategies to boost its cancer-killing effects.

For the study, published Nov. 29 in Cell, the investigators used genome editing and biochemical experiments to show that interfering with folate metabolism in the cell’s energy-producing mitochondria leads to the accumulation of an unstable form of...

Sensing of Fungi by Gut Immune Cells Can Contribute to Airway Allergic Diseases

Common drug treatments that lead to changes in gut fungi can persistently exacerbate allergic airway diseases such as asthma, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The study, with findings published online Nov. 29 in Cell Host & Microbe, suggests that the enormous modern prevalence of allergic airway diseases may be attributable in part to the widespread use of antimicrobials, including antifungals and other therapies that disrupt the normal balance between...

Weill Cornell Medicine Awarded $9 Million Prestigious Grant for Mantle Cell Lymphoma Research

Weill Cornell Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $9 million Program Project Grant (P01) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to better understand how and why patients with an aggressive and incurable form of lymphoma initially respond to treatment, only to relapse over time. The findings may enable investigators to develop superior therapies that are effective, well tolerated and tailored to individual patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

The NCI, part of the National...

Measuring Brain Responses to Speech Provides Evidence of Cognition in Patients with Severe Brain Injury

Measuring brain activity in response to hearing a brief narrative can identify patients with severe brain injury who have preserved high-level cognition despite showing limited or no consciousness at the bedside, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The paper, published Nov. 21 in Current Biology, is the first to describe a method for measuring the delay in brain processing of continuous natural speech in patients with severe brain injury reflected in the...

Knowing Exactly What Genes Are Saying – And Where

Scientists can now discover how the fine details of gene activity differ from one cell type to another in a tissue sample, thanks to a technique invented by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The technique, described in a paper published Oct. 15 in Nature Biotechnology, will enable biologists to better understand the distinct molecular workings of different cell types in the body. It may also enable the improved understanding and treatment of diseases caused by abnormal gene activity...

High Fat Diet Has Lasting Effects on the Liver

Consuming a high-fat, high-sugar diet causes a harmful accumulation of fat in the liver that may not reverse even after switching to a healthier diet, according to a new study by scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

For the study, published Oct. 3 in Science Translational Medicine, the investigators developed a nanosensor that can detect and noninvasively track the accumulation of fat in the liver. They used the sensor to assess the effects...