The Weill Center for Metabolic Health brings together scientists and clinicians across Weill Cornell Medicine and our Tri-I partners to advance the understanding of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases. Our mission is to drive breakthrough discoveries and develop new therapeutics. Directed by Dr. Laura Alonso, our investigators leverage stem cells, cellular and molecular biology, genetics, proteomics, and nutritional research to uncover the molecular mechanisms of these critical conditions. The Metabolic Phenotyping Core conducts sophisticated metabolic studies in rodent models and delivers the highest-quality assays of blood markers. Our work is at the forefront of advances in metabolic health, including research on the biology and therapeutic use of GLP-1/GIP agonists to manage diabetes and obesity.
We unite faculty across institutions to catalyze transformational team science and collaborative growth, fostering faculty and trainees to address pressing real-world challenges in metabolic health.
With expertise spanning clinical medicine, biochemistry, pharmacology, physiology, pathology, and cell biology, our investigators apply the Center’s resources to tackle today’s most urgent metabolic health issues. We are proud to support 47 faculty members (20 PhDs, 18 MDs, and 7 MD-PhDs). Click here to view members.
October 23, 2025
A five-year, $10.8 million grant from the NIH was awarded to Albert Einstein College of Medicine to create the New York Regional Diabetes Research Center (NYR-DRC), a newly expanded multi-institutional center co-led with Mount Sinai and Weill Cornell Medicine. Metabolic Center Member Dr. Shuibing Chen leds the effort at Weill Cornell where we have been developing human organoid and stem cell platforms that model diabetes and its complications.
October 14, 2025
Scientists have discovered a method to induce human endothelial cells from a small biopsy sample to multiply in the laboratory, producing more than enough cells to replace damaged blood vessels or nourish organs for transplantation, according to a preclinical study led by Metabolic Center member Dr. Shahin Rafii. The findings, published Oct. 14 in Nature Cardiovascular Research, may provide a reliable way to generate an enormous number of a patient’s own endothelial cells, enabling vascular grafts for heart disease, diabetes treatments and organ transplants and strategies to target abnormal tumor blood vessels.
October 2, 2025
A new tool greatly improves scientists’ ability to identify and study proteins that regulate gene activity in cells, according to a study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences led by Metabolic Center Member Dr. Shuibing Chen. The technology should enable and enhance investigations in both fundamental biology and disease research.
September 18, 2025
Patients taking an experimental oral GLP-1 drug lost significant weight and improved their heart and metabolic risk factors in a large, international, phase 3 clinical trial led by Metabolic Center Member Dr. Louis Aronne. The results from the ATTAIN-1 trial were published Sept. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
September 11, 2025
Metabolic Center Member Dr. Shuibing Chen will lead a project that received a four-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, for a study of the details and dynamics of the autoimmune process that causes type 1 diabetes.
August 21, 2025
Each year, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health awards the Paul-Gallin Trailblazer Prize to an early- to mid-career physician-scientist who is translating their basic science discoveries into new ways to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure disease or disability. This year, Metabolic Center member Dr. Matthew Greenblatt was selected by a jury of biomedical research leaders for the discovery that bone contains multiple populations of stem cells with different anatomic locations and functions.
July 21, 2025
Center Member Dr. Louis Aronne joins Bloomberg TV to talk about the impact the new GLP1 weight loss drugs have had on overcoming obesity.
July 17, 2025
The aging liver undergoes dramatic changes in its functional organization and other key attributes, which may underpin its increasing susceptibility to disease, according to findings led by Center Member Dr. Robert Schwartz at Weill Cornell Medicine. The study, published on July 4 in Hepatology, suggest the possibility of future therapies that would block or reduce such changes to treat or prevent age-related chronic liver diseases—effectively making the liver more youthful and resilient.
June 30, 2025
Center Member Dr. Anyanate Gwendolyne Jack receives the Innovations in Technology Award from Weill Cornell Medicine.
Nov 14 2025 - 11:00am to 2:00pm
525 East 68th Street New York, New York, Garden Cafe
