News

Targeting the Brain’s Immune Cells May Help Prevent or Treat Alzheimer’s Disease

multicolor dots representing different microglial cell states

A gene mutation linked to Alzheimer’s disease alters a signaling pathway in certain immune cells of individuals with the disease, according to a new study by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine. The team also found that blocking the pathway—with a drug that’s currently being tested in cancer clinical trials—protects against many features of the condition in a preclinical model. The results could lead to new strategies to...

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Department of Defense Funds Research on Rare Eye Condition

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Weill Cornell Medicine has received a $1.27 million grant from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to develop treatment for a rare but devastating eye condition largely affecting military personnel who suffer traumatic eye injuries in combat.

Under the three-year grant, investigators will test the safety and effectiveness of two newly developed antibodies to treat proliferative vitreoretinopathy, or PVR. Currently not treatable or preventable,...

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Annual Appel Alzheimer's Disease Research Institute Symposium Highlights Latest Research in Dementia

brain illustration

Some of the latest research discoveries in neurodegenerative disease and their potential therapeutic applications were featured at the ninth annual Appel Alzheimer's Disease Research Institute Symposium, held remotely on Nov. 9. 

Sponsored by Weill Cornell Medicine’s Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute and its home department, the Feil Family Brain...

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Dr. Costantino Iadecola Wins the American Heart Association’s 2021 Basic Research Prize

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Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director and chair of the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and the Anne Parrish Titzell Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded the 2021 Basic Research Prize from the American Heart Association (AHA).

The AHA Basic Research Prize is given annually to an individual in recognition...

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$9M Grant Funds Study of Gut-Brain Connection in Parkinson’s Disease

an illustration of a human brain scan

Dr. Michael Kaplitt, a professor of neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and a longtime leader in developing cutting-edge surgical therapies for movement disorders, leads a team that has been awarded a three-year, $8.9 million grant from the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative. The grant will fund an...

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Structural and Functional Alignment in the Brain Linked to Age, Sex and Cognition

brain images with color waves

The degree to which the brain’s wiring aligns with its patterns of activity can vary with sex and age, and may be genetic, suggests a study published by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study finds that this alignment may also have implications on cognition.

The results published July 12 in Nature Communications help shed light on one of the biggest mysteries in biology—how the brain works, according to senior...

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Academic Year 2021

Gulcan Akgul (PI)

Brain & Behavior Research Foundation BBRF 29805-01
The Effects of Schizophrenia Associated Somatic Mutations on Connectivity and Function in Prefrontal Neocortical Circuits

Li Gan (PI)
National Institute on Aging 1 R01 AG074541-01
cGAS inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease treatment

Taylor Floyd (PI)
National Institute...

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Study Finds High Blood Pressure Linked to Loss of Estrogen in Peri-menopause

estrogen receptor under microscope

Women become more susceptible to hypertension as they approach menopause, and now a preclinical study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute suggests that this “perimenopausal” hypertension may be driven by declines in estrogen signaling in a brain region called the hypothalamus—and may be preventable with estrogen-like treatments.

In the...

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Dr. Giovanni Manfredi Awarded NIH Outstanding Investigator Award

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Dr. Giovanni Manfredi, the Finbar and Marianne Kenny Professor in Clinical and Research Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, has received an Outstanding Investigator Award (R35) from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to study the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in brain disease.

The highly competitive award...

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Prefrontal Cortex of Brain Provides Feedback to Redirect Attention

brain showing flurorescent prefrontal cortex cells

To enable animals to shift their attention in response to changing circumstances, the prefrontal cortex of the brain helps keep track of which types of stimuli have recently been most relevant, suggests a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. This discovery could lead to new treatments to help restore cognitive flexibility.

“Animals and people make split-second decisions about what to do in changing circumstances and what to pay attention...

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