April 24, 2023
Dr. Matthew Greenblatt, an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded the Pershing Square Foundation’s Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery (MIND) Prize to support his work studying how bone cells may influence Alzheimer’s disease progression.
April 11, 2023
The Endocrinology and Metabolism T32 received Notice of Award
March 21, 2023
A study, published in the Feb. 22 issue of Science Translational Medicine, suggests that weight management and medications that impact metabolic health may be an important part of preventive care for women with these genetic mutations, although further research is needed.
Obesity and poor metabolic health are known breast cancer risk factors in the general population, “but whether these modifiable risk factors contribute to breast cancer development in BRCA mutation carriers has been largely unknown,” said senior study author Dr. Kristy A. Brown, the Emilie Lippmann and Janice Jacobs McCarthy Research Scholar in Breast Cancer and an associate professor of biochemistry in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.
March 18, 2023
National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) announced its 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health for 2023 that will receive recognition and awards during National Minority Health Month in April.
Since 2016, NMQF has selected 40 health leaders from minoritized populations under the age of 40 who have been leading the charge to better patient outcomes and build sustainable healthy communities. These leaders are clinicians, patient advocates, researchers and policy makers. These 40 leaders have persevered in strengthening their communities and reducing health disparities amid ongoing challenges within the healthcare system.
March 11, 2023
The ISSCR Board of Directors consists of 23 members. Nominations for the Board of Directors are submitted by the ISSCR community annually between August and September. All nominations are reviewed by the Nominating Committee, chaired by the Past President. Candidates are selected with attention given to scientific authority, international diversity, overall board composition, and strategic initiatives of the organization.
March 16, 2023
In a study, published March 16 in Nature Cell Biology and led by Dr. James Lo and colleagues measured gene expression in individual beta cells collected from mice to determine how many different types of beta cells exist in the pancreas. The team discovered four distinct beta cell types, including one that stood out. The cluster 1 group of beta cells produced more insulin than other beta cells and appeared better able to metabolize sugar. The study also showed that loss of this beta cell type might contribute to type 2 diabetes.
March 13, 2023
In a study led by Dr. Shuibing Chen, which appears March 13 in Nature Cell Biology, the researchers used multiple models of human organs, called organoids, to search for general host factors that influence infections by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. They identified CIART as a strong SARS-CoV-2-enabling factor in organoids modeling both lung and heart tissue. The researchers traced CIART’s permissive effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection to its stimulation of the synthesis of small molecules called fatty acids.
February 14, 2023
Founded in 1908, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, composed of more than 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical specialties, is one of the nation’s oldest medical honor societies and is among the few organizations focused on the special role of physician-scientists in research, clinical care, and medical education, as well as leadership positions in academic medicine and the life sciences industry.
February 10, 2023
The Weill Center for Metabolic Health and the Center for Precision Nutrition and Health at Cornell University have been awarded a grant to co-host the Intercampus Research Symposium Metabolic Health: From Molecules to Populations to be held on September 11-12 in Ithaca, NY.
January 6, 2023
The Endocrinology and Metabolism T32 is awaiting Notice of Award
November 18, 2022
Dr. Alpana Shukla has been invited to serve as Co-Investigator on an NIH Center Grant on Nutrition for Precision Health, ancillary to the All of Us project, through Cornell University in Ithaca
November 11, 2022
Dr. Tim McGraw, along with Drs. Steven Lipkin and Nasser Altorki, received a $5.6M grant from the National Cancer Institute for a study entitled, "CAP-IT Center for LNP RNA Immunoprevention"
November 1, 2022
Maryanne Richardson, CDCES, one of our stellar Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialists in the ambulatory endocrinology clinic, rang the opening bell of the NASDAQ this morning in celebration of National Diabetes Month
September 13, 2022
NIH Common Fund’s Bridge2AI program is designed to use AI to tackle complex biomedical challenges. The University of South Florida is the lead institution on the project in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine and ten other institutions. The first year of the project includes $3.8 million from the NIH, with potentially $14 million subsequent funding over the following three years. Voice as a Biomarker of Health is being co-led by Olivier Elemento, PhD, a Metabolic Center member and Dr. Yaël Bensoussan, MD, from USF.
August 3, 2022
Metabolic Center member Dr. Joe Zhou, Professor of Regenerative Medicine, received the Daedalus Fund for Innovation of Weill Cornell Medicine for his proposal: Developing a Novel Cell Therapy to Treat Type 1 Diabetes. The Daedalus Fund for Innovation is designed to advance early-stage applied and translational research projects and/or technologies that have clear-cut, relatively near-term commercial potential. Recipients of Daedalus funding are selected through a very stringent review process.
June 23, 2022
Dr. Laura Alonso has been selected to be a fellow of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program at Drexel University College of Medicine. The competitive, year-long fellowship is the only program in North America dedicated to preparing women for senior leadership roles in academic science institutions.
June 16, 2022
Representing a total investment of $100m funded through the partnership between Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US, the Cancer Grand Challenges community unites more than 700 researchers and advocates to take on 10 challenges, across 11 teams and 10 countries. The CANCAN team will take on the Cachexia challenge. Led by Eileen White (Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey), Marcus DaSilva Goncalves (Weill Cornell Medicine) and Tobias Janowitz (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), the team will develop a deeper understanding of this debilitating wasting condition often in the later stages of cancer and identify urgently needed therapies.
June 6, 2022
The weight-loss results seen in SURMOUNT-1 “put tirzepatide squarely in the range of weight loss achieved with bariatric surgery,” concluded Metabolic Center member Louis J. Aronne, MD, a coinvestigator on the trial, professor at WCM, director of the Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Clinical Research of Weill Cornell.
June 1, 2022
The Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists Rising Star Award recognizes a diabetes care and education specialist who has less than five years of diabetes care and education. experience and has demonstrated leadership and commitment in their practice.
May 31, 2022
The Research Assistance for Primary Parents Initiative provides technical support to exceptional faculty members, both male and female, who are primary caregivers for an infant or child. Its goal is to help recipients advance their research projects while also negotiating childcare responsibilities.
April 11, 2022
Three distinguished Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientists, Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Dr. Rainu Kaushal and Dr. Shahin Rafii, have been elected to the esteemed Association of American Physicians (AAP).
Regarded as one of the top honors in the field of health and medicine, election to the AAP recognizes physician-scientists exhibiting excellence in the pursuit of medical knowledge and advancing basic or translational science discoveries and their use in clinical medicine.
April 1, 2022
The SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect specialized pacemaker cells that maintain the heart’s rhythmic beat, setting off a self-destruction process within the cells, according to a preclinical study co-led by Metabolic Center member Dr. Shuibing Chen at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The findings offer a possible explanation for the heart arrhythmias that are commonly observed in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the study, reported March 8 in Circulation Research, the researchers used an animal model as well as human stem cell-derived pacemaker cells to show that SARS-CoV-2 can readily infect pacemaker cells and trigger a process called ferroptosis, in which the cells self-destruct but also produce reactive oxygen molecules that can impact nearby cells.
March 22, 2022
Metabolic Center faculty member Dr. Shuibing Chen was featured in a New York Post article titled “New research shows higher risk of developing diabetes after COVID infection.”
There are several possible biological reasons why a diabetes diagnosis might follow a COVID-19 infection. “The beta cells lost their cell identity and turned into a different type of cell,” says Shuibing Chen, director of the diabetes program at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, who led the study. Dr. Chen says COVID-19 infection appears to be triggering a new type of diabetes that isn’t Type 1 or Type 2. Dr. Chen says her team is studying treatments specifically for COVID-19 patients newly diagnosed with diabetes to see whether they can block the process by which the cells might change.
January 5, 2022
Members of the Weill Center for Metabolic Health, Dr. Rebecca Craig-Schapiro, Dr. Shahin Rafii, and Dr. Qiao Zhou, have received a two-year $500,000 grant from JDRF to evaluate an innovative approach to islet cell transplantation, an experimental treatment for difficult-to-control type 1 diabetes. The research will be conducted in mouse models of this disease.
December 30, 2021
Metabolic Center member Dr. Louis Aronne, the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research and a professor of clinical medicine, has been awarded the Clinician of the Year Award by the Clinical Management of Obesity Section of The Obesity Society. The Clinician of the Year Award signifies excellence in the practice of obesity medicine and distinguishes a physician as having achieved a high level of competency and understanding in obesity care.
December 7, 2021
Investigators led by our Metabolic Center member Dr. Olivier Elemento have identified significant differences in the molecular characteristics of tumors from younger and older cancer patients across several cancer types. Their research, published Dec. 7 in Cell Reports, suggests that cancer treatment could potentially be tailored by age. The study also identified pre-existing drugs that could target mutations predominantly found in younger cancer patients—promising candidates for future clinical research.
December 6, 2021
A new protein variant underlies the ability of gastric cancers to resist an otherwise effective family of chemotherapy drugs, according to a study by a multidisciplinary team including co-senior author Dr. Olivier Elemento, a member of the Weill Center for Metabolic Health. The results suggest a treatment strategy that could improve the prognoses of many patients with cancer.
October 28, 2021
Loss of the gene SATB2 contributes to changes in stem cells that typically develop into the inner lining of the colon, or large intestine, transforming them into a cell type that normally lines a portion of the small intestine called the ileum, according to new preclinical research led by our Metabolic Center member, Dr. Joe Zhou, in a study published Sept. 27 in Cell Stem Cell.
October 9, 2021
