News

Blame the Messenger? : Faulty Building Instructions for Brain Cells May Give Rise to Neurological and Psychiatric Conditions

October 15, 2019

By now there’s no question that genetics contributes to many brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, autism and depression. But exactly how genetic malfunctions translate into disorders remains unclear, rendering cures elusive. Dr. Hagen Tilgner, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the Center for Neurogenetics of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Feil Family Brain and Mind...

September 17, 2019

A novel mechanism that regulates activity in the brain, discovered by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, may help explain the origins of one common type of dementia.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) primarily affects personality, emotion, behavior and motor function. It is the most common form of dementia in people under 60 years old. Investigators know that one form of FTD is caused by a mutant form of the tau protein in neurons in the brain, but exactly how this leads to dementia has...

July 2, 2019

By Agate Boxe

Despite decades of research, it’s still not clear what causes autism, which now affects one in 59 children in the United States. While genetic factors are involved, they don’t fully explain how the disorder arises in the brain. This lack of certainty contributes to the dearth of universal treatments for the condition, whose prevalence has more than doubled since the turn of...

May 20, 2019

While heart attacks that cause classic symptoms such as pressure and pain in the chest are an established risk factor for stroke because they can lead to blood clot formation, new research by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators indicates that heart attacks that have few, if any, recognized symptoms may also increase risk.

Notably, the study, published May 20 in JAMA...

May 16, 2019

The chemical element selenium, an essential nutrient for humans and other animals, protects the brain after a stroke and may be a basis for future stroke therapies, according to a study from scientists at Burke Neurological Institute and Weill Cornell Medicine.

The study, published in print on May 16 and online May 2 in Cell, found that selenium drives a molecular response in brain cells that protects them from a...

Exploring the disease-modifying effects of EH301 in mouse models of ALS

April 26, 2019

Giovanni Manfredi (PI)
ALS Association ALS 190452-01

Prefrontal circuit mechanisms underlying antidepressant effects of sleep deprivation: a role for metabotropic glutamate receptors

April 26, 2019

Puja Parekh (PI)
National Institute of Mental Health 1F32MH117973-01A1

Weill Cornell Medicine Experiences Dynamic Growth in Research Funding

April 23, 2019

Weill Cornell Medicine has experienced dynamic growth in its research enterprise over the past five years, an achievement that underscores the institution’s mission to provide patients with the most advanced treatments and therapies.

Since 2014, Weill Cornell Medicine’s research support from the National Institutes of Health has surged more than 40 percent. This expansion in the research enterprise coincides with the opening of the Belfer Research...

Samantha Meadows Receives the 2019 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

April 17, 2019

Astrocytes have many functions in the brain and have recently been shown to modulate cognition. However, it remains unclear exactly how astrocytes affect cognitive function and if those mechanisms are impaired by aging or disease.

The Orr laboratory is focused on understanding...

Efficacy of biomarker-guided rTMS for treatment resistant depression

April 12, 2019

Conor Liston (PI)
National Institute of Mental Health 1R01MH118388-01

Blame the Messenger? : Faulty Building Instructions for Brain Cells May Give Rise to Neurological and Psychiatric Conditions

Mutant Protein Fails to Modulate Neuronal Activity, Leading to Dementia

Failure to Communicate: Early Disruptions in Brain Cell Activity May Give Rise to Autism