Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Olivier Elemento has been awarded The National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award to build an artificial intelligence tool to accelerate cancer research. Part of the Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the award supports distinguished scientists to develop innovative approaches to major biomedical challenges. Only seven such awards were given this year. The five-year, nearly $6 million grant will fund an AI-human discovery engine that uses large language model agents, such as those used in AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT, to generate hypotheses from human cell and tissue data. The system will then test the hypotheses using robotics testing platforms that can run hundreds to thousands of experiments in parallel on human cells or organoids, miniature three-dimensional tumors grown from patients’ own cells. “We have been able in the past few years to create a very large dataset of information on the molecular and cellular features of lung cancer,” said Dr. Elemento of Weill Cornell Medicine. “We can now put everything together and let AI run the scientific process, with human oversight, and hopefully make some major discoveries along the way.” Scientists will supervise the AI tools by setting research objectives, rejecting spurious hypotheses, and rejecting experiments that are too costly or unlikely to succeed. They will also ensure that the work adheres to strict safety and ethical standards. Full story: https://bit.ly/46Zr6PQ

Our PAs put excellence into action as vital members of care teams, and we're inspired by their dedication to improving patient lives and uplifting the communities we serve. Happy National Physician Assistant Week!

Despite the rain, our exceptional teams showed up strong at the Annual Atlantic Antic hosted by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation in Brooklyn. Doctors and staff from across Weill Cornell Medicine came together to hand out education materials and talk about our commitment to improving the health of local communities. Festival goers who stopped by were warmly greeted by members from urology, reproductive medicine, primary care, cancer care and the health education and screening van. Thank you to our dedicated colleagues!

Surgery to remove lymph nodes in the neck may interfere with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage from the brain and contribute to cognitive impairment. The multicenter research led by Weill Cornell Medicine found that patients with head and neck cancer who had nearby lymph nodes surgically removed to reduce cancer spread experienced a higher rate of cognitive impairment than the general population. The scientists followed up with preclinical studies that showed how the procedure can disrupt the brain's waste-clearance system, leading to fluid buildup and a process that damages cells and triggers inflammation. Weill Cornell Medicine's Dr. Laura Santambrogio led the research with colleagues Cristina Clement Ph.D. and Dr. Zohaib K. Khan. Full story: https://bit.ly/4AzqXjv

Scientists have discovered how a molecule within cells can help adjust the light sensitivity of the eyes. The study, led by Weill Cornell Medicine's Dr. Crina Nimigean and Dr. Taehyun Park, identified the molecule’s binding site on a protein in retinal cells, which should enable the development of drugs that target this site to treat related eye diseases. The team explored how the molecule PIP2 (PI(4,5)P2) works. This phospholipid is found in the membranes of most human cells and has a wide range of signaling and regulatory functions. Prior research suggests that PIP2 can help tune the sensitivity of light-sensing “rod” cells in the retina by inhibiting the activation of a key ion channel called a CNG channel. But how PIP2 may do this has been unclear. The researchers used model membranes containing CNG channels and well defined PIP2 concentrations, plus high-resolution imaging techniques, to determine precisely how and where PIP2 binds to CNG channels to inhibit their activity. Full story: https://bit.ly/4yY66oi

Chronic stress may trigger changes in the bladder and nervous system that lead to the pain and discomfort experienced by people with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome. While stress and anxiety have been linked to urinary symptoms, whether stress can impact the bladder itself was unclear previously. “Our study shows that stress can cause direct changes to the bladder that contribute to discomfort,” said Weill Cornell Medicine's chair of urology Dr. Larissa Rodriguez, who led the preclinical study with Shaista Chaudhary, a senior research associate in urology. “We also found that exercise may modulate those changes and could be a non-surgical, non-pharmacologic way of treating some stress-linked urinary tract conditions.” The team discovered that chronic stress disrupted the bladder's natural defenses against harmful molecules called reactive oxygen species. These reactive molecules are naturally produced as cells use oxygen to generate energy but can cause damage when they build up faster than the body can remove them. Full story: https://bit.ly/4Azhc4V

From collaborative clinical trials to studies on the inner workings of cancer, Weill Cornell Medicine has received significant funding for research aimed at improving outcomes for patients with challenging cancers. 🔬 Dr. Effie Apostolou American Association for Cancer Research Trailblazer Award Dr. Apostolou has received $1 million over three years to investigate how the three-dimensional arrangement of DNA inside the cell's nucleus influences the genes that drive cancer growth. 🔬 Dr. Juan R. Cubillos-Ruiz Department of Defense Grant Dr. Cubillos-Ruiz received a $1.05 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the biology of ovarian cancer progression and recurrence. 🔬 Dr. Mohamad Hamieh MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Dr. Hamieh has received a five-year, $3.5 million grant with a two-year extension to develop next-generation CAR T-cell therapies that are more durable and effective against resistant tumors and able to treat a wider range of cancers. 🔬 Dr. Scott Tagawa Department of Defense Grant Dr. Tagawa has received a $2 million grant from the Department of Defense to lead Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's participation in the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium (PCCTC), part of the DoD’s Prostate Cancer Research Program. Full story: https://bit.ly/4xNPvTx

As a child, Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley discovered a book about Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the U.S. and founder of the Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary, which later became part of Weill Cornell Medicine. “I thought, ‘How cool. Look at her. I want to do what she did,’” recalls Dr. Imperato-McGinley, now a globally recognized endocrinologist and scientist and founding director of the Clinical and Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. After graduating as one of only eight women in a class of 100 medical students at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, she developed an unusual approach to scientific discovery during her endocrinology training. “Most research goes from bench to bedside to community,” she says. “I go from community back to bench to figure out why.” That strategy fueled her landmark early work following a community in the Dominican Republic, where she identified a rare, inherited deficiency of the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. The deficiency causes genetically male children to appear female at birth and then masculinize at puberty. The enzyme transforms testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is essential for forming external male genitalia and the prostate gland. Dr. Imperato-McGinley also found these men didn’t develop baldness or prostate enlargement. That discovery, published in 1974, resulted in the development of finasteride, which comprises two blockbuster drugs used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia and male pattern baldness. Dr. Imperato-McGinley was also the first physician and first woman at Weill Cornell to have her research drive the development of one of the world’s leading drugs. Persistence, she says, has propelled her success over 50 years at Weill Cornell Medicine. “That is my personality, good or bad. I can’t give up,” she says. Full story: https://lnkd.in/gpvHrnU3

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have received a $17.4 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to discover new approaches to shorten tuberculosis (TB) treatment and make it easier for patients to complete the therapy. “The current regimen works, but the drugs are far from ideal and must be taken over four to six months,” said Dr. Kyu Rhee. “They have serious side effects, so many patients stop taking them once they feel better but long before they are cured.” Dr. Rhee and Dirk Schnappinger will lead this research, collaborating with colleague Dr. Carl Nathan and Dr. Jeremy Rock of The Rockefeller University. Full story: https://bit.ly/3Vb6Tnq