News | Page 22 | Graduate School of Medical Sciences

Dr. Barbara Hempstead Appointed Dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences

New York (January 10, 2019)—Dr. Barbara Hempstead, a preeminent physician-scientist, educator and academic leader, has been appointed dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, effective Jan. 14. She succeeds Dr. Carl Nathan, who led the graduate school since 2017 and completed a planned two-year term.

The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences offers professional scientific training for doctoral students, researchers in health policy and healthcare...

A Kinder Cut

In 2013, scientists at MIT and at UC Berkeley optimized a way to use bacterial gene sequences to cut and change DNA at precise locations. The genome-editing system, called CRISPR, is cheaper and simpler than previous methods, and it has led to breakthroughs in diagnostics and the creation of more accurate disease models. And because it can permanently modify a living organism’s DNA, CRISPR technology may one day allow physicians to treat genetic diseases—anything from congenital deafness to...

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...