March 26, 2018: Varun Chandrashekaran, Postdoctoral Associate in Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medical College, has been awarded a 2-year fellowship from the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Dr. Chandrashekaran works in the laboratory of Dr. Lorraine Gudas.
Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sevenxth most common cancer worldwide. Surgery is the preferred treatment for early stage HNSCC. However, aggressive local invasion and metastasis lead to a high recurrence rate, which makes HNSCC a challenging disease to treat. To this end, prevention of HNSCC is an important goal.
The project builds on existing research that has shown that one type of retinoid (vitamin A derivative) drug can prevent tumor formation in a mouse model of this cancer. Dr. Chandrashekaran proposes that a combination of retinoids will have greater cancer preventive effect. Retinoids include vitamin A and related molecules. 13-Cis-RA, a retinoid, can reverse premalignant lesions and prevent the development of second primary tumors in head and neck cancers because of its ability to restore normal cell growth and differentiation. The lab uses a carcinogen to induce HNSCC tumors in mice, and has shown that the synthetic retinoid CD1530 effectively prevents the development of oral tumors in the mice. AC261066 is another synthetic retinoid drug that has been identified in the laboratory. AC261066 may also have cancer preventive effects in HNSCC because its target protein is a purported tumor suppressor. Dr. Chandrashekaran's hypothesis is that AC261066, in combination with CD1530, will prevent the induced HNSCC tumor formation with greater efficacy than either drug alone. Collectively, this research has the potential to identify new strategies for more effective retinoid-based cancer prevention in HNSCC. These findings should save lives by preventing cancer in high-risk individuals.
March 15, 2018: Dr. Norman (Ned) Sharpless, the new Director of the NCI, gave an inspiring talk at Weill Cornell Medicine. He discussed new treatment strategies, funding of the NCI, and a variety of other related topics.
January 11, 2018: The first lecture, given by Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez, of the "From Molecule to Prescription" Drug Development PhD course was outstanding. Here is a picture of the class. Postdocs and faculty are most welcome to sit in on lectures! For a link to the syllabus, click here: click here
December 12, 2017: Dr. Anthony Sauve's research on NAD was recently featured in the December 2017 issue of SHAPE magazine! To read more: click here
November 16, 2017: Dr. John Blenis, his postdoc Gina Lee, and colleagues just published a paper in Cell on a new signaling pathway that regulates fat production. Congratulations! For more information: click here
November 13, 2017: PhD student Shira Yomtoubian (PI, Dr. Mittal) won first prize in the school-wide 3 Minute Thesis presentation. Congratulations!
November 9, 2017: Here is the syllabus listed under Quarters III & IV, of the new graduate school course in Drug Development starting in January 2018: click here
October 25, 2017: Drs. Jochen Buck and Lonny Levin, Pharmacology Department professors, won a prestigious Daedalus award, for Development of "First of Their Kind" Activators of Soluble Adenylyl Cyclase for the Treatment of Glaucoma.
Dr. Samie Jaffrey, Greenberg-Starr Professor of Pharmacology, also won a Daedalus award for a Platform and Rapid Discovery of Small Molecules That Bind and Modulate Disease-Associated RNA Targets. Congratulations! To read the award announcement:click hereOctober 10, 2017: A new course in drug development taught by scientists in the pharmaceutical industry will be offered in 2018. The course is titled, "Drug Development: From Molecule to Prescription." For more information contact Aileen Ibagon.
August 16, 2017: Some of the research from the laboratory of Dr. Lorraine Gudas was just featured on the Cornell University Research website. To read click here
August 7, 2017: Lisa Standke (Tan lab) was just awarded an F31 fellowship from NIH. Congratulations are in order! The title of her project is: "Development of Pharmacologically Optimized Inhibitors of M. tuberculosis MbtA as Novel Antibiotics."
June 1, 2017: Graduation 2017 at Carnegie Hall in NYC. For more pictures click here
April 22, 2017: March for Science, NYC!! For more pictures from the March for Science, click here
April 18, 2017: Dr. Samie Jaffrey has won the 2017 ASPET Abel Award, an award to stimulate fundamental research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics by young investigators. Dr. Dr. Jaffrey will deliver the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology Lecture on Sunday, April 23, 2017 at the annual meeting. Well done, Samie! Congratulations! For more: click here
March 14, 2017: Pharmacology PhD student Jackson Harvey and his advisor, Dr. Dan Heller, have a paper accepted in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Congratulations! The paper is titled: "A Carbon Nanotube Reporter of miRNA Hybridization Events In Vivo." To read: click here
January 20, 2017: Dr. Christopher Triggle, one of our faculty in WCMC-Qatar, was elected as a fellow of the British Pharmacology Society. Congratulations, Chris!! For details: click here:
January 20, 2017: Congratulations to Jaclyn Kubala on her new F31 fellowship from NCI titled: The Role of NDUFA4L2 in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma! Jackie is a Pharmacology PhD student co-mentored by Drs. Heller and Gudas, with Dr. David Nanus as a collaborator on this kidney cancer project.
January 17, 2017: Dr. Paul Watkins, UNC Inst. for Drug Safety Sciences, gave a fascinating talk for the annual Marcus Reidenberg lecture, titled "Why Good Drugs are Sometimes Bad for the Liver." Pictured are Henry Earle, June Reidenberg, Arleen Rifkind, Marcus Reidenberg, Paul Watkins, & Lorraine Gudas at a reception after the talk. For more pictures: click here
January 12, 2017: Congratulations to Dr. Samie Jaffrey, who just won the Abel Award from ASPET! Dr. Jaffrey's mentor, Dr. Sol Snyder, received this award in 1970 (three years before he discovered the opiate receptor) and Dr. Jaffrey is his fourth student to receive this award. To read more, click here:
January 7, 2017: Nature Methods just named epitranscriptome mapping their "Method of the Year," highlighting Dr. Jaffrey's role in initiating this field with Kate Meyer's 2012 Cell paper. To read more, click here:
December 22, 2016: Dr. Samie Jaffrey and his postdoctoral fellow (and first author Dr. Jan Mauer) have a new publication in Nature answering a major question in biology, how the amount of protein generated from an mRNA is determined. The paper is titled: "Reversible methylation of m6Am in the 5' cap controls mRNA stability." Congratulations! For more information click here: PRESS RELEASE and ARTICLE:
December 19, 2016: One of our newest faculty members, Dr. Kristen Pleil, has been selected as the recipient of the Kellen Junior Faculty Fellowship. Very nice, Kristen! To read more, click here:
December 12, 2016: Dr. Arleen Rifkind has been appointed to the FDA Non Prescription Drug Advisory Committee. Congratulations, Arleen!!
November 14, 2016: Dean Augustine Choi (left) honored faculty members Dr. Roberto Levi (2nd from left) and Dr. Michi Okamoto (4th from left) for 50 & 55 years of service at Weill Cornell! The event also honored Pharmacology faculty Drs. Arleen Rifkind, Diane Felsen, Silvia Moore, Lorraine Gudas, & Xiao-Han Tang! click here:
November 14, 2016: Drs. Patrizia Levi and Roberto Levi have donated one of Patrizia's beautiful paintings to the Pharmacology Dept. Thank you both so much! We will all treasure and enjoy this painting for many years to come!
October 16, 2016: Dr. Chiosis and her Pharmacology Program faculty collaborators Drs. Lewis and Melnick have an exciting publication just out in Nature on the epichaperome! To read more click here:
September 7, 2016: Dr. Jaffrey & his colleagues recently published a stellar paper in Nature in which they determined the mechanism for X-chromosome inactivation in females. How the X-chromosome is inactivated is a question that has been under study for many years, a key question in biology! To read their publication click here: PRESS RELEASE and ARTICLE
August 22, 2016: We welcomed our newest class of PhD students with a boat ride around Manhattan! Here are some of the students in front of Lady Liberty..
August 15, 2016: Dr. Gudas has a new publication in Molecular Cell! For more click here
August 2, 2016: Dr. Inturrisi has been selected as an Honorary Fellow of the Weill Cornell Alumni Association because of his dedicated service to the Medical Center
June 28, 2016: Dr. Kristen Pleil and Dr. Lorraine Gudas both led symposia and spoke at the RSA (Research Society on Alcoholism) national meeting in New Orleans. Here is a picture of Dr. Pleil giving her talk.
June 15, 2016: Congratulations to Dr. Lonny Levin, who won the 2016 Charles Bardes Teaching Prize. This prize is awarded annually to a member of the faculty who has been an outstanding teacher at Weill Cornell Medical College, demonstrated leadership, dedication, and concern for the students.
May 17, 2016: Dr. Diane Felsen is a co-author on a publication in Nature Communications titled, "CLIC4 regulates apical exocytosis and renal tube luminogenesis through retromer-and actin-mediated endocytic trafficking." Read more: click here
May 13, 2016: Dr. Miklos Toth and his colleagues, including former grad student Emma Mitchell, have just published an exciting study in Nature Communications showing the transmission of non-genetic behavioral traits to new generations! For a more detailed description: click here
April 28, 2016: The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences announced that Pharmacology graduate student Sara DiNapoli is one of the recipients of the 2016 Student Service award, and faculty member Dr. David Scheinberg is the recipient of the 2016 Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award. Congratulations are in order!!
April 5, 2016: Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi, Professor of Pharmacology, will serve on a workgroup of the NIH sponsored 'National Pain Strategy. The workgroup is composed of leading pain researchers and is charged with developing a long- term plan that will guide federal agencies in their efforts to coordinate a research agenda with the ultimate goal of improving pain care through evidence based studies.
April 4, 2016: Dr. Kate Meyer, a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Samie Jaffrey, has won the Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize for Junior Investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine for 2016. This is truly a great honor and reflects the fantastic research Dr. Meyer and Dr. Jaffrey have carried out together. Congratulations!!
March 30, 2016: Dr. Samie Jaffrey has been awarded the Greenberg-Starr Endowed Chair. This is a great honor for Dr. Jaffrey and for the Pharmacology Department. Congraluations to Dr. Jaffrey!!
March 22, 2016: Congratulations to graduate student Wan-Ying Hsieh, who was awarded a FY15 Horizon Award from Department of Defense for her proposal titled: "Characterization of Ran Binding Protein (RanBP6) as a Candidate Tumor Suppressor". Very nice, Wan-Ying!!
March 1, 2016: Dr. Inturrisi will present a named lecture on 4/13/2016 in honor of Dr. Jain!
December 17, 2015: Pharmacology PhD student Bonnie Quach was awarded a fellowship from PhRMA for her proposal titled: A novel optical dynamic clamp method to make iPSC-CMs a more viable platform for drug screening. Congratulations!
November 9, 2015: Dr. Steve Gross and his colleagues, including Dr. Lew Cantley, senior author, have a lovely article in Science this week showing that vitamin C selectively kills KRAS and BRAF mutant colorectal cancer cells by targeting GAPDH. To read more, click here:
November 3, 2015: Congratulations go to Dr. Ju Youn Kim, who was recently awarded a CTSC Postdoctoral Training Award, and to Jason Dumelie, awarded a Tri-I Starr Stem Cell Scholars Fellowship! Both are working with Dr. Jaffrey.
November 2, 2015: Drs. Steve Trasino, Xiao-Han Tang, Jose Jessurun, and Lorraine Gudas have shown in mouse models that obesity causes a profound vitamin A deficiency in major organs, including the liver, pancreas, and kidney, but the deficiency is not detected by measuring serum levels of the vitamin. These findings could have major implications for human health. For more information, click here:
October 22, 2015: Dr. Kate Meyer, a postdoctoral fellow, and Dr. Samie Jaffrey reported in the journal CELL this week that N6-methyladenosine containing mRNAs can be translated in a cap-independent manner. Cellular stress induces redistribution of methyladenosine transcriptome-wide, with broad implcations for diseases such as cancer. Use these links: PRESS RELEASE and ARTICLE
October 13, 2015: Dr. Reidenberg gave a lecture in Barcelona, Spain on essential medicines for the WHO . To read about his lecture, click here.
October 1, 2015: We welcome our newest faculty members, just hired, Drs. Daniel Bachovchin and Dr. Kristen Pleil!!
September 16, 2015: Ben Schwartz, a graduate student in Dr. Gross' lab, was awarded an F31 fellowhship from NINDS to investigate a potential bioenergetic/metabolic basis for sporadic ALS. Congratulations!
July 23, 2015: Ryan Serio, a PhD student in the labs of Dr. Gudas & Dr. Gross, has received a 3-year F31 predoctoral fellowship from the NIAAA. Congratulations to Ryan!!
July 1, 2015: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg was appointed to the USP Healthcare Quality Expert Committee for a 5 year term starting July 1, 2015. One of several charges to the committee is to set standards and criteria for acceptable drug benefits for Medicare Part D and is the default option for the drug benefits for the Affordable Care Act.
June 23, 2015: A Farewell Party was held for Jeanne Powers and for Barbara Inturrisi. We will miss you both! Here Barbara & Jeanne cut their cake for more pics. click here.
June 10, 2015: Six young scientists at Sloan Kettering, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell have been named the inaugural winners of a new prize established to recognize postdoctoral investigators in the life sciences. The Tri-Institutional Breakout Awards for Junior Investigators, which include a $25,000 prize for each recipient, were established by three Tri-Institutional winners of the 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Science. Dr. Dilek Colak, a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Samie Jaffrey, was one of the six winners. Our congratulations to Dilek!
June 1, 2015: Dr. Qiuying Chen, an Asst. Research Professor, and Dr. Miriam Sindelar, a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Gross, presented major research talks at the 63d meeting of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry annual meeting in St. Louis. Dr. Sindelar's talk was titled: The Human Plasma REDOXOME: A Broad Compendium of Oxidative Stress Biomarkers.
April 8, 2015: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg, a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center of Fordham University, discussed patient-centric cancer care at an open public lecture at Fordham University.
April 1, 2015: We welcome Dr. David Foster, the Rosalyn Yalow Professor at Hunter College, and his lab members to Pharmacology. Dr. Foster has an adjunct faculty position at WCMC, and his lab is now on the 4th floor of the Belfer Research Building.
March 9, 2015: Dr. Francis Lee and Dr. Iva Dincheva, a former PhD student in our Pharmacology Program and now a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Lee's lab, have published a fascinating study in Nature Communications concerning fronto-amygdala function. Congratulations!! This work was also featured in the NY Times: click here or click here
February 5, 2015: Great news! Congratulations go to Pharm. PhD student Sara DiNapoli, who was awarded an F31 fellowship from NCI for her project titled: "Understanding the role of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 in Melanoma." Her PhD mentor is Dr. Yariv Houvras, and co-mentor is Dr. Ari Melnick.
January 2, 2015: Dr. Michael Peterson, a postdoctoral fellow on the Cancer Pharmacology Training Grant (Danishefsky lab), has accepted a faculty position at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Congratulations, Mike!
December 12, 2014: Jocelin Kalish, a Pharmacology PhD student in the Gudas lab, will receive funding from NIH for her F31 fellowship. Congratulations to Jocelin!!!
December 1, 2014: Drs. Jaffrey and Sauve have shown that noise-induced hearing loss in a mouse can be prevented by using a simple chemical compound, nicotinamide riboside, that is a precursor to vitamin B3!! To read more: click here
October 2, 2014: Dr. Anthony Sauve spoke at the New York Weill Cornell Council on "From A to Zinc: What you and your family don't know about vitamins and supplements." The other speaker was Dr. Orli Etingin, Medical Director, Iris Cantor Women's Health Center, Weill Cornell. Here is a picture of Dr. Sauve with some of the attendees who had questions after the talks.
September 30, 2014: Dr. Dilek Colak, a postdoctoral associate in professor Dr. Samie Jaffrey's laboratory, was selected as a finalist in life sciences for the Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists from the New York Academy of Sciences. Congratulations, Dilek!! To read more: click here
September 19, 2014: Dr. John Blenis and his lab members were the guests of honor at a wine and cheese reception in the Pharmacology Dept. to welcome them to NYC!! For pictures of the event: click here
September 9, 2014: Dr. Tony Davis and Dr. Derek Tan have just published in ACS Chemical Biology. Congratulations! To read more: click here
July 31, 2014: Drs. David Scheinberg, Co-Chair of the Pharmacology PhD Program at Weill Cornell; Lucy Kappel, Regeneron; Barry Kappel, VP at CFRX; & Jimmy Rotolo, CFRX, ring the opening bell at NASDAQ! Lucy, Weill Cornell Immunology Program PhD, Barry & Jimmy, Pharmacology Program PhDs! CFRX is now listed on NASDAQ.
July 21, 2014: Congratulations to Dr. Minkui Luo on his promotion!
June 17, 2014: Dr. Roberto Levi was selected by the WCMC Alumni Association Awards Committee to receive the Honorary Fellowship Award. This honor is awarded to individuals who by their scholarship, dedication, and leadership have greatly enhanced and enriched the life of Weill Cornell Medical College, its faculty and students. The award will be presented to Dr. Levi on October 10, 2014.
June 3, 2014: Tony Davis was selected to give a student talk at the Annual Year-End Chemical Biology Symposium at the NYAS. To read more: click here
June 1, 2014: Eric Chea is a coauthor on a paper from Dave Gin's group that just appeared in Nature Chemistry. To read more: click here
June 1, 2014: We are proud to announce that Dr. Anthony Sauve has been awarded tenure as an associate professor in the Pharmacology Dept. Congratulations, Anthony, for this great achievement!
May 16, 2014: Brian Yinge Zhao a junior at the Dalton school and Maggie Ren a senior at Hunter College High School, two students who were in Dr. Hazel Szeto's lab, went all the way to become finalists at the International Science & Engineering Fair that just took place in LA.
April 24, 2014: The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences duVigneaud Symposium-our PhD students presented lots of exciting scientific research!
April 28, 2014: Dr. Jaffrey wins the Young Investigator Award from the ASBMB! Congratulations! For more information:click here
April 16, 2014: Dr. Hazel Szeto was interviewed by Dean Glimcher about the company she founded, Stealth Peptides. To listen to the interview: click here
April 15, 2014: Bill Mills and Michael Boice, two Pharmacology PhD students, won this years Cornell Venture Challenge; they were awarded $25,000 to push their business plan forward. To read more click here
March 4, 2014: Alissa Brandes (lab of Dr. Yueming Li) received an F31 predoctoral fellowship from The National Institute on Aging. Congratulations, Alissa!
February 27, 2014: Drs. Samie Jaffrey and Dilek Colak have uncovered the mechanism for a common form of intellectual disability and autism, and potential drug treatment. Their findings are published in Science. To read the article, click here
January 31, 2014: Dr. Mark Lundquist, who received his PhD in Pharmacology last year from our program, Dr. Samie Jaffrey, and their colleagues have identified an important new pathway responsible for the development of cancer and its spread to other parts of the body, a process known as metastasis. The finding provides new opportunities to prevent cancer metastasis and helps to explain how one drug that is already in development works to stop the disease's spread. This work was published in Cell 2014 Jan 30;156(3):563-76.
January 9, 2014: The recent Nature Neuroscience paper by Dr. Miklos Toth and colleagues, "Maternal hematopoietic TNF, via milk chemokines, programs hippocampal development and memory" was selected to be highlighted in the Editors' Choice section of Science Signaling, the weekly journal from the publisher of Science magazine. For more, click here.
December 18, 2013: Dr. Lonny Levin was featured on NPR in a discussion of the NIH budget. To listen, click Lab Mice Rejoice Over Pending Budget Vote
December 16-17, 2013: Stealth Peptides, a company founded on research performed by Dr. Hazel Szeto, one of our faculty, held a Mitochondrial Therapeutic Symposium at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in NYC. The symposium featured talks by a large number of researchers from around the USA who have tested Bendavia for the treatment of various diseases. The talks generated much excitement among the attendees! For pictures from the event, click here.
Dr. Gerald Chan talks with Dr. Nico Schiff of Weill Cornell at the dinner the night before the symposium.
December 15, 2013: On Nov. 18, 2013, the New York Academy of Sciences honored Dr. Samie Jaffrey at Cipriani at the "Science & The City 10th Annual Gala" and presented him with one of five Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, which recognizes innovative accomplishments by young faculty in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Here is a picture of Dr. Jaffrey speaking at the event. For more information about the 2013 awards, click here.
December 12, 2013: Dr. Deming Chau, who received his PhD from our program, returned to NYC to visit the Pharmacology Program faculty; Dr. Chau is now on the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universiti Putra Malaysia! Here is a picture of Dr. Chau with Dr. Gudas.
December 1, 2013: Drs. Bingfang Liu and Miklos Toth published their exciting data in Nature Neuroscience this week! Their research was picked up by the Scientist Magazine. To read more, click here.
October 22, 2013: Justin Mulvey, an MD/PhD student in the Pharmacology Program, published a paper in Nature Biotechnology titled "Self-assembly of carbon nanotubes and antibodies on tumours for targeted amplified delivery" with his advisor, Dr. Scheinberg. Congratulations are in order! For more information, click here.
October 21, 2013: Abby Horstmann, a PhD student in the Gudas lab, recently was awarded a 3 year, F31 predoctoral fellowship from NIH (NIDCR). Congratulations to Abby!
September 6, 2013: Congratulations to Dr. Samie Jaffrey, who has just won the prestigious ASBMB Young Investigator Award! For more information, click here.
August 28, 2013: Nawreen Rahman, a PhD student in the lab of Drs. Levin and Buck, recently received an F31 Predoctoral Fellowship Award. Congratulations!
July 26, 2013: Dr. Lorraine Gudas has been appointed as a member of the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration for a 3 year term.
June 28, 2013: Former Pharmacology PhD student from our program, Dr. Gianina Panaghie, was featured on the screen in Times Square when PTC Therapeutics, the company she works for now, went public.
June 20, 2013: Dr. Samie Jaffrey is a recipient of the 2013 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, given by the NY Academy of Sciences. For more information, click here.
June 20, 2013: Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg has been elected to the USP Therapeutic Information and Formulary Support Expert Committee. The USP has been given a statutory role in developing the Medicare Model Guidelines under the Medicare Modernization Act. This committee will develop revised guidelines for drug benefits for Medicare and guidelines for other drug benefit programs among its various activities.
June 6, 2013: Dr. Dilek Colak, a postdoctoral fellow, is first author on a paper with Dr. Samie Jaffrey in Cell focused on the basis of brain miswiring. For the link to the press release, click here.
May 17, 2013: Pharmacology PhD graduate, Dr. Dan Rohle was the first author on a paper in the May 3d issue of Science (340:626) titled: "An Inhibitor of Mutant IDH1 Delays Growth and Promotes Differentiation of Glioma Cells."
May 15, 2013: Dr. Lorraine Gudas was elected to the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences for a 3 - year term. As a member of the Board, she will be a liaison between the faculty and the Overseers.
May 15, 2013: Dr. Yueming Li was the recipient of the MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease. Congratulations to Dr. Li! Pictured are Dr. Li and his lab members at the award ceremony. For more information click here
May 6, 2013: Dr. Lorraine Gudas was awarded the 2013 Future of Health Technology Award in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for her research in cancer pharmacology. For the press release, click here
May 2, 2013: The Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center of the Schools of Business of Fordham University had a day long roundtable on May 2, "Determining the Value of Healthcare - A Multi-stakeholder Perspective". Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg chaired the panel, "The Overall Value of Evidence Based Healthcare" at the roundtable. The output of this roundtable will be a scholarly paper by faculty of the Schools of Business of Fordham.
May 2, 2013: The 33d Annual du Vigneaud Graduate Student Symposium was a success! The Symposium featured student posters (33 from Pharmacology PhD Program students!), student talks, & Dr. Thomas Schwarz as the keynote speaker. A dinner reception followed the scientific events. For pictures, click here
April 23, 2013: The second Marcus M. Reidenberg Lecture was held on April 23, 2013. Dr. Anna Krieger, Director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Weill Cornell, spoke on "The Pharmacology of Sleep." For pictures from the lecture and the reception that followed, click here.
April 4, 2013: The 8th Annual Weill Cornell Postdoctoral Research Day was a huge success. The day featured a keynote address by Dr. Petsko, a pharma panel discussion, & a lively poster session. Pictured are organizers Dr. Kwame Osei-Sarfo (Gudas lab), Dr. Julia Detert (Hemmings lab), & Dr. Alison Urvalek (Gudas lab).
For more pictures, click here.
March 18, 2013: Pharmacology PhD student Joel Schrock participated in the ASBMB Capitol Hill Day on March 18, 2013. This event allows graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to meet with their Representatives in Congress to discuss the importance of biomedical research. Here is the group (Joel is 4th from left) with Congressman Holt, 12th district, NJ.
March 15, 2013: Established this year, the Marcus M. Reidenberg Award in Community Service will recognize one to two student groups or initiatives for their outstanding contribution to the community. While chairing the Faculty Advisory Board of the Weill Cornell Community Service Program, Dr. Reidenberg initiated the development of the Honors in Service Award by adding a scholarly component worthy of academic recognition to the service achievements of those students who made major commitments of time, effort, and thought to this Community Service Program. Thus, the award is named in his honor to recognize Dr. Reidenberg's contributions to this important effort.
March 4, 2013: Congratulations to the WCMC Class of 2016 from the Pharmacology Dept. for their great class show: "How I met my cadaver!"
February 1, 2013: Dr. Minkui Luo just received a Starr Cancer Consortium Grant for the project "Oncogenic Mechanisms of Protein Methyltransferases SETDB1 and SUV39H1 in Melanoma." Co-investigators include Pharmacology Program faculty Dr. Steven Gross & Dr. Ari Melnick from Weill Cornell. Congratulations!
January 15, 2013: Dr. Lorraine Gudas attended the 3d Annual Research Retreat of WCMC-Qatar, held in Doha, Qatar, on January 12-13, 2013. Pictured: Dr. Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin J. AL-Thani, Director of Public Health, Supreme Council of Health, Qatar; Dr. Gudas; & Dr. Chris Triggle, Pharmacology WCMC-Qatar.
For more pictures click here.
December 15, 2012: Congratulations to Alyssa Verano, a PhD student in Dr. Derek Tan's lab, who was awarded a PhRMA predoctoral fellowship!
November 18, 2012: Dr. Samie Jaffrey delivered the keynote lecture at the 2012 Cold Spring Harbor Meeting on Translational Control in September, 2012. He was also recently appointed to the Editorial Board of Translation.
November 9, 2012: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg chaired a meeting for the FDA Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee at the FDA on Nov. 9, 2012.
November 6, 2012: The First Gary Matoren Lectureship Darrell R. Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Director for Drug Safety in the office of Clinical Pharmacology at the Food & Drug Administration, lectured at the first Gary Matoren Lectureship/Visiting Professorship in honor of Dr. Marcus Reidenberg on November 6, 2012. Pictured are Mr. Gary Matoren, Dr. Marcus Reidenberg, Dr. Darrell Abernethy, & Dr. Lorraine Gudas before the lecture.
For more pictures click here
October 2, 2012: Congratulations to Drs. Tan and Jaffrey! Dr. Derek Tan and Dr. Samie Jaffrey have both been promoted to the rank of Professor! Congratulations to both Derek and Samie from the members of the Pharmacology Program.
September 28, 2012: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg had a Letter to the Editor focused on the importance of basic research for drug discovery published in Science on September 28, 2012. Click here for link
September 6, 2012: Dr. Timothy Hla is leading a prong of an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research study from the Personalized NSAID Therapeutics Consortium. Dr. Hla will receive $709,800 over the course of five years to test in mouse models the role of COX-2 regulatory factors, such as the RNA binding protein HuR, in vascular function and the effects of pain killers (NSAIDs and COXibs).
September 4, 2012: Dr. Miklos Toth, was invited to serve as an External Advisory Board Member for the Vanderbilt Conte Center for 5 years. The research is titled: "Enduring Effects of Early Life Serotonin Signaling".
July 25, 2012: Dr. Miklos Toth, a faculty member in The Pharmacology Department, was an invited speaker in the Spring Meeting of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child held on June 18-20 in San Francisco. The Council is a multi-university collaboration designed to close the gap between the science of early childhood and early brain development and public decision-making on promoting physical and mental health for young children. Dr Toth talked about current research in his lab focusing on the role of maternal environmental factors on the development and behavior of the offspring across multiple generations. He focused on his new research on epigenetic changes in the brain induced by stress.
June 6, 2012: The cover story of today's Cell Metabolism journal Dr. Anthony Sauve is a co-author on an exciting new publication in Cell Metabolism about the positive effects of nicotinamide riboside on obesity prevention and increasing muscle performance. To read more, click here
May 17, 2012: "Researchers Reveal that RNA Modification Influences Thousands of Genes." Dr. Samie Jaffrey, Dr. Kate Meyer, and their colleagues report in the May 17, 2012 issue of CELL that messenger RNA (mRNA), long thought to be a simple blueprint for protein production, is often chemically modified by addition of a methyl group to one of its bases, adenine. "This finding rewrites fundamental concepts of the composition of mRNA because, for 50 years, no one thought mRNA contained internal modifications that control function," says the study's senior investigator, Dr. Samie R. Jaffrey, an associate professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College. To read more, click here
April 27, 2012: CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. YANNICK BENOIT! Dr. Yannick Benoit (Gudas lab) was awarded a two year postdoctoral fellowship from the Quebec Health Research Fund (or FRSQ)
April 10, 2012: Weill Cornell Postdoctoral Research Day! Weill Cornell Postdoctoral Fellows Postdoctoral research Day was a great success! For more information , go to http://weill.cornell.edu/news/deans/2012/04_12_12.shtml . For more pictures go here
March 8, 2012: Weill Cornell Researchers Develop Powerful Tool to Measure Metabolites in Living Cells. Dr. Jaffrey comments on the article from his lab, published in the March 9 issue of Science. "The ability to see metabolites in action will offer us new and powerful clues into how they are altered in disease and help us find treatments that can restore their levels to normal." To read more click here
December 19, 2011: PHARMACOLOGY MAJORS AMONG MOST HIRED GRADUATES: The Wall Street Journal, using data from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, has created an interactive tool where users can search for the average employment rate and median income of people who studied each major. Pharmacology is one of at least six fields of study whose graduates are virtually 100 percent employed right now.
December 16, 2011: CELEBRATION IN HONOR OF DR. HAZEL SZETO: A luncheon was held in celebration of Dr. Hazel Szetos' scientific achievements and a generous gift for her laboratory research program in mitochondrial therapeutics from Stealth Peptides, International. Dean Antonio Gotto led the event; other speakers included Larry Schafer, Vice Provost for Development; Dr. Lorraine Gudas, Chairman of the Pharmacology Dept.; Travis Wilson, CEO, Stealth Peptides; and Dr. Gerald Chan, Co-Founder, Morningside.
Pictured are Dr. Gerald Chan, Dean Gotto, and Dr. Szeto at the luncheon.
For more pictures please go here
November 21, 2011: "Researchers from the Pharmacology and Dermatology Depts. have developed a new technique that is greater than 90% sensitive in identifying melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer." This research was performed by one of our former MD/PhD students, Dr. Jonathan Zippin, now a faculty member in Dermatology; Pharmacology faculty members Dr. Lonny Levin and Dr. Jochen Buck; and Dr. Cynthia Magro in the Dermatology Dept. For more information, go to <"http://weill.cornell.edu/news/releases/wcmc/wcmc_2011/11_21_11-b.shtml">
October 28, 2011: Yana Cen, a talented postdoc in the Sauve laboratory, has been awarded a Keystone Symposia scholarship to attend the Keystone meeting on "Sirtuins in Metabolism, Aging and Disease" to present her abstract: "Transition States of ADP-Ribosylation Catalyzed by Plasmodium falciparum and Archeaglobus fulgidus Sirtuins" Congratulations to Dr. Cen!
The article RNA mimics of green fluorescent protein.Paige JS, Wu KY, Jaffrey SR. Science. 2011 Jul 29; 333(6042):642-6 has been ranked by the Faculty of 1000 in the "All time top 10 list" (12 years worth of paper rankings) for biomedical research in the categories "All" and "Biology." The article is also #2 on the all time top 10 list in the Pharmacology subdiscipline. Pls use this link to see the list: http://f1000.com/rankings/topten/alltime/faculty/pharma
On Thursday, October 6, 2011, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center hosted its 29th Annual Women's Health Symposium Luncheon titled "Medication: Helping or Harming?" with leading medical specialists Lorraine J. Gudas, Ph.D and Mark S. Lachs, M.D. The 2011 Symposium, moderated by Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian, featured presentations and a panel discussion on medicine, "How Do You Know If a Medicine Works?" by Dr. Gudas, and "Is Medicine Helping or Hurting?" by Dr. Lachs.
Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Laura Forese, Dr. Orli Etingin, Dr. Mark Lachs, & Dr. Lorraine Gudas.Barbara Pearlman, Dr. Orli Etingin, Dr. Lorraine Gudas, Anita Gotto, & Heidi Neuhoff-McWilliams.September 6, 2011: Dr. Alison Urvalek, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Lorraine Gudas, received an NRSA fellowship from the NIAAA. Congratulations!"
August 29, 2011: Ms. Jessica Falco, a PhD student in Dr. Anthony Sauve's lab, will present a seminar on her research titled: " Mechanism-based Affinity Capture of Sirtuin Enzymes" at Stonehill College on Friday, September 2nd, as part of their Chemistry and Biochemistry Seminar Series.
July 28, 2011: Dr. Samie Jaffrey was featured on the science section of "All things considered" of the NPR news on Thursday, July 28. Please click here for the full press release.
June 23, 2011: Kerry Purtell, a pharmacology graduate student in Dr. Abbott's lab, won a Travel Award for her poster at the FASEB Ion Channel Regulation Summer Research Conference in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, June 2011. Her poster described use of positron emission tomography to elucidate the mechanism of impaired thyroid hormone biosynthesis in Kcne2 -/- mice.
June 1, 2011: Congratulations to Dr. Kate Meyer (Jaffrey lab) for her success in obtaining an NIH F32 individual postdoctoral fellowship! The title of her proposal is : "Dynamic regulation of N6-methyladenosine sites in neuronal RNAs".
May 9, 2011: Vasundhra Kashyap, who just finished her PhD research with Dr. Gudas, has been awarded the Lee Family Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship for the Johnson School of Management portion of the Accelerated 12 Month MBA program at Cornell University.
May 2, 2011: Dr. Michael Cohen, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jaffrey's lab, has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). Congratulations, Michael!
April 26, 2011: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg gives a reprise of his ASPET 2011 Torald Sollmann Award Lecture "Cardiovascular Drug Discontinuation Effects" in the Pharmacology Department seminar series.
April 25, 2011: Dr. Lorraine Gudas was just elected to the Executive Council of AMSPC, The Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs. This is the professional organization of current and former Chairs of Medical School Pharmacology Departments in the USA and Canada.
April 4, 2011: Congratulations to Dr. Geoffrey Abbott, who was elected to tenure in the Department of Pharmacology and was promoted to Professor of Pharmacology, effective April 1, 2011.
The WCMC basic science department chairs visited WCMC-Qatar in mid-March, 2011, to increase scientific collaborations and teaching interactions.
l to r: Dr. Khaled Machaca, Asst. Dean of Research, WCMC-Q; Dr. Lorraine Gudas (Pharmacology); Dr. Fred Maxfield (Biochemistry); Dr. Dan Knowles (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine); Dr. Kathy Hajjar (Cell and Developmental Biology); Dr. Harel Weinstein (Physiology and Biophysics); and Dr. Carl Nathan (Microbiology and Immunology).l to r: Drs. Gudas and Weinstein in front of WCMC-Qatar.Dr. Chris Triggle, Professor of Pharmacology, WCMC-Qatar, presents his research to the chairs from New York City.March 29, 2011: Congratulations to Pharmacology PhD Student Brittany Carson on her recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled: "Feature Article: An RNAi-based chemical genetic screen identifies three small-molecule inhibitors of the Wnt/wingless signaling pathway". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Mar 10. [Epub ahead of print]
March 25, 2011: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg was recently appointed to the FDA Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee.
March 22, 2011: Congratulations are in order for Nicole Ramsey, an MD/PhD student with Drs. Levin and Buck, who was just awarded the 2011 UNCF/Merck Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowship.
March 1, 2011...The Pharmacology faculty toast Dr. Steve Gross, whose MERIT research award was renewed by the NHLBI this month.
The Pharmacology Dept. congratulates the WCMC Class of 2014 for their absolutely wonderful class play, presented on February 28, 2011, titled: "An Original Musical PROBLEM BASED YEARNING!"
Noel Chan, a pharmacology graduate student in Dr. Levi's lab, has received a "Graduate Student Travel Award" to the ASPET annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2011 Meeting in Washington, DC .
Dr. Francis Lee and colleagues have just published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (January 10, 2011) titled: "Selective early-acquired fear memories undergo temporary suppression during adolescence". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jan 18;108(3):1182-7. Epub 2011 Jan 10
Marcus M. Reidenberg, MD, Professor of Pharmacology, Medicine, and Public Health at the Weill Cornell Medical College is receipient of the 2011 Torald Sollmann Award. The Award was established to commemorate the pioneering work in America of Dr. Torald Sollmann in the fields of pharmacological investigation and education. Dr. Reidenberg was selected for this Award because of his outstanding and productive research career, his significant contributions to medicine utilizing education, research, and service and his unparalleled service to ASPET and the discipline it represents. Dr. Reidenberg will be presented the ASPET-Torald Sollmann Award on April 9, 2011 at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics/Experimental Biology Meeting in Washington, DC.Dr.
Charles E. Inturrisi, Professor of Pharmacology, WCMC has been appointed to the Institute of Medicine Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care, and Education. The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health has requested that the IOM address the current state of the science with respect to pain research, care, and education; and explore approaches to advance the field. This IOM committee was mandated by a provision of the National Pain Care Policy Act incorporated into the health care reform bill. The committee will meet in both public and private sessions over the next 6 months, with a final report due to Congress in July, 2011. Dr. Inturrisi is the Immediate Past President of the American Pain Society.
The World Health Organization program on Essential Medicines improves the availability of medicines to people in many countries. Students, with the help and guidance of Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg, prepared applications to add propofol and glucagon to the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. They also sent in applications to revise the list of medicines for treatment of acetaminophen (Tylenol) poisoning and of heart failure. The students are: Daniel Agarwal, Dorothy Chyung, Brittany Carson, Lina Yi, Lena Makaroun, Sharline Madera, William Shipman, Nicole Ramsey, Kristi Shigyo, Isa Watson, Rosa Kim, and Sandeep Kishore. These applications are posted on the WHO web site at: http://www.who.int/selection_medicines/committees/expert/18/applications/en/index.html. Public comment is invited by WHO. The applications will be acted upon at the next WHO Expert Committee meeting in March.
In a comprehensive study by the National Research Council Weill Cornell's Pharmacology PhD Program was rated in the top 10% in the USA in both the R (reputational factors) and the S (faculty surveys) rankings! To read more, http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/nrc
Drs. Arleen Rifkind and Anthony Sauve have an interesting publication titled: "IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARYL HYDROCARBON RECEPTOR TARGET GENE TIPARP AS A MEDIATOR OF SUPPRESSION OF HEPATIC GLUCONEOGENESIS BY 2,3,7,8-TETRACHLORODIBENZO-p-DIOXIN AND OF NICOTINAMIDE AS A CORRECTIVE AGENT FOR THIS EFFECT". J Biol Chem. 2010 Sep 28. [Epub ahead of print]
Dr. Charles Inturrisi's 2002 paper entitled "Clinical pharmacology of opioids for pain" was one of the ten most frequently cited articles ( #4) from 2001-2009 in the Clinical Journal of Pain
Ms. Noel Chan, a Pharmacology PhD Student in Dr. Levi's laboratory, is one of the authors on the recently published paper titled "Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Activation Prevents Reperfusion Arrhythmias by Inhibiting Local Renin Release From Cardiac Mast Cells", published in Circulation 2010;122:771-781
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg was one of the authors of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) brochure, Clinical Pharmacology in Research, Teaching, and Health Care, published in Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology 2010; 107: 531-559. It was presented to IUPHAR at WorldPharma 2010 on July 20. He was then a member of a small group of IUPHAR clinical pharmacologists who met with World Health Organization representatives to develop the process by which the WHO will accept and publish this brochure as an official WHO document.
Dr. Toth and his research team published paper titled: "The serotonin1A receptor gene as a genetic and prenatal maternal environmental factor in anxiety", in PNAS 2010 Apr 20;107(16):7592-7.
Vasundhra Kashyap, a graduate student in the Pharmacology Program, is first author on a publication that just came out on-line in the J. of Biological Chemistry. The title is: Epigenetic regulatory mechanisms distinguish retinoic acid mediated transcriptional responses in stem cells and fibroblasts. Kashyap V, Gudas LJ. J Biol Chem. 2010 May 7;285(19):14534-48.
Dr. Nigel Mongan, Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, and Dr. Brian Kelly, Director of the Cornell Center of Technology, Enterprise, and Commercialization, were honored at the Irish Consulate in New York CIty on May 20th, 2010. They both received Irish Life Science Awards from the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. The Irish Life Science 50 is a celebration of Irish Americans in the Life Science industry. All of the Honorees have two things in common-pride in their Irish heritage and a desire to contribute to advances in the treatment of illnesses. Irish President Mary McAleese was the distinguished guest of honor at The Ceremony honoring the Irish Life Science 50 on Thursday, May 20, 2010. For more information, please visit http://www.irishcentral.com/business/lists/life_science_50/
Kurtis Haro received a diversity fellowship award from NIH! Kurtis is a student in Dr. David Scheinberg's lab
Ms. Kasia Marcinkiewicz has received an F31 Individual NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship from NIH(NIDCR)! She is doing her PhD research in the lab of Dr. Lorraine Gudas.
Dr. Derek Tan recently published a manuscript in the Journal Nature (2010 Feb 18;463(7283):906-12) titled: "Active site remodelling accompanies thioester bond formation in the SUMO E1".
Ms. Noel Chan, a student in Dr. Levi's laboratory, was recently awarded a two year pre-doctoral fellowship in Pharmacology/Toxicology from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association for her project: “A novel proadrenergic effect of cardiac natriuretic peptides: inhibition by histamine H3-receptor activation”.
Drs. Lee Kraus and Anthony Sauve's publication titled "Global Analysis of Trascriptional Regulation by Poly(ADP-ribose)Polymerase-1 and Poly(ADP-ribose)Glycohydrolase in MCF-7 HUman Breast Cancer Cells" was selected as the Paper of the Week by the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Dr. Lorraine Gudas gave a research talk on November 13, 2009, at the State of the Science Workshop: Regenerative Rehabilitation, held at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The title of her talk was: “Retinoids and Stem Cells in Regeneration.” Other speakers included Dr. Ravi Bellamkonda, Deputy Director of Research, Georgia Institute of Technology; Dr. Alan Russell, Director, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine; and Major General George Weightman, currently Associate Director, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Rehabilitation. A picture of some of the speakers and organizers of the conference:
Congratulations to Dr. Samie R. Jaffrey, a recipient of an NIH 2009 Transformative R01 Award. Project title: "Novel Fluorescent Sensors for Simple, Sensitive, and Specific Protein Detection". This was a very competitive research award - only 42 were awarded throughout the USA. A press release from NIH occured on September 24, 2009. For more information about the project visit http://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_description.cfm?projectnumber=1R01EB010249-01
Congratulations to Dr. Geoffrey Abbott and his research team, which included Kerry Purtell, a second year Pharmacology Program graduate student, for their publication in Nature Medicine (2009 Sep 20. [Epub ahead of print]) that linked "genes previously known to be essential to the coordinated, rhythmic electrical activity of cardiac muscle -a healthy heartbeat- to thyroid hormone (TH) biosynthesis! The press release about this publication, which included an interview with Dr. Abbott, can be found at "http://news.med.cornell.edu/wcmc/wcmc2009/09_20_09.shtml" The full paper can be downloaded here.
Congratulations to Dr. Miklos Toth, a recipient of an NIH EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) Award for his research project entitled: “Non-Genetic Transmission of Genetic Risk: Mechanism and Relevance to Psychiatric Disorders”. For more information about the EUREKA Awards please visit http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2008/nigms-03.htm
Congratulations to Dr. Charles E. Inturris, a recipient of a two year RC2 award for a project entitled: “Comparative Effectiveness of Interventions for Chronic Pain Management”. The project will prospectively and retrospectively examine the long-term outcomes of treatments for chronic cancer and non-cancer pain received by patients at the four local hospital-based outpatient Pain Clinics. Charles E. Inturrisi, Ph.D. Professor of Pharmacology, WCMC has received a two year RC2 award ($1.64 million, direct costs) for a project entitled: Comparative Effectiveness of Interventions for Chronic Pain Management. The project will prospectively and retrospectively examine the long term outcomes of treatments for chronic cancer and noncancer pain received by patients at the four local hospital-based outpatient Pain Clinics. Collaborators include, Sudhir Diwan, MD, (Director of Pain Medicine, Anesthesiology, WCWC, NYPH), Paul Glare, MD (Chief of the Pain and Palliative Care Service, MSKCC), Vivek Malhotra MD, (Anesthesiology , MSKCC), Seth Waldman, MD, (Director Division of Pain Medicine HSS) and Susan Horn, PhD, Senior Scientist, Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research, Salt Lake City, UT.
Dr. Reidenberg is one of three outside speakers invited by the FDA to speak at an FDA public workshop on Sept. 25, 2009. The workshop, "Educating the Public about Removal of Essential -Use Designation for Epinephrine" is to address anticipated consequences of the removal of the non-prescription asthma inhaler of epinephrine with no replacement by a non-prescription medication.
Weill Cornell Medical College held its 10th Annual Celebration of Teaching at the Cornell Club on June 22, to honor 25 outstanding teachers and their contribution to the educational mission of the Medical College.
Among those who received this Award were two Pharmacology Program Faculty members, Drs. Lonny Levin and Hazel Szeto. Dr. Levin received this Award for his "Molecules, Genes and Cells" course, and Dr. Szeto received this award for "Host Defenses" course.
Congratulations Dr. Geoffrey Ling, the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences Distinguished Alumnus Award Recipient of 2009. On June 1st Dr. Ling gave a special seminar, which was followed by a reception for Pharmacology graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Ling is a 1982 PhD Graduate of the Pharmacology Department. Currently, Dr. Ling is a Professor and Vice Chairman of the Neurology Department at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS).... read more
Dr. Miklos Toth has accepted an invitation from the National Institutes of Health to serve as a member of the Pathophysiological Basis of Mental Disorders and Addictions Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, for the term beginning July 1, 2009, and ending June 30, 2013.
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg was elected chair of the 17th World Health Organization Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines at its meeting at WHO headquarters March 23-27, 2009. The WHO Essential Medicines Concept is that medicines meeting the priority medical needs of a country must be made available to everyone in that country. The Expert Committee prepares a model list of the medicines it deems essential. Procurement lists of medicines based on this list are then used by all the UN agencies like UNICEF, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), and most of the other non-governmental organizations donating drugs. Many countries' national health services also use this model list for advice for their own procurement systems.
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg, working with Dr. Andrew Walubo of the University of Free State in South Africa, has completed a proposed curriculum for training physicians who wish to specialize in clinical pharmacology. This is part of an international collaborative effort between the International Union of Pharmacology and the World Health Organization to revise the 1970 WHO document on clinical pharmacology.
Jan. 9, 2009 - Dr. Francis Lee (far left in photo), a psychiatrist and faculty member of the Pharmacology Graduate Program at Weill Cornell Medical Center, has received a commendation by the president of the United States in the form of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for outstanding scientists and engineers in the early part of their independent research careers.Dr. Lorraine Gudas has been elected to be a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The names of the new AAAS Fellows, including Dr. Gudas, are published in the December 19, 2008, issue of Science magazine.
Congratulations to Megan Ricard (Gudas Laboratory) who was awarded a Prostate Cancer Fellowship from the Department of Defense!
Pharmacology Professor Hazel Szeto was recently elected to serve as President of the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association. She will also serve for a 2-year term as an ex officio member on the WCMC Board of Overseers.
A reception was held on October 21, 2008, at the Consulate of Ireland in Manhattan to celebrate the extension of the FÁS Science Challenge Initiative student exchange program to Weill Cornell Medical College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. More details.
Dr. Lorraine Gudas has accepted an invitation to rejoin the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry for a second term!
Dr. Marcus Reidenberg has been invited to serve on the next World Health Organization Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines, March 23-27, 2009, at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland!
Congratulations to Tal Nuriel, who received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Aging!
Dr. Michael Cohen has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Life Sciences Research Foundation. Congratulations!
Dr. Sheldon Segal, adjuct professor of clinical pharmacology, will be awarded the 2008 Prix Galien USA Pro Bono Humanum Award for his role in developing implantable hormone delivery systems. The awards ceremony will take place on September 24, 2008, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Dr. Michiko Okamoto is a co-author on an article, titled "Histopathological changes of rat brain after direct injection of Hb-vesicles (artificial oxygen carriers) and neurological impact in an intracerebral hemorrhage model," recently published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Resarch Part A.
Developmental Cell has published the research of Dr. Anthony A. Sauve and colleagues, titled "Glucose Restriction Inhibits Skeletal Myoblast Differentiation by Activating SIRT1 through AMPK-Mediated Regulation of Nampt."
Congratulations to all of the graduates of Weill Cornell Medical College and GraduateSchool of Medical Sciences who received their degrees before a crowd of enthusiastic family and friends at the Commencement Exercises on May 29, 2008, at Carnegie Hall.
Pictured is Pharmacology graduate Dr. Cristina Fernandez. More graduation photos.
Congratulations to Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi who received the first Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences at the Graduate School Convocation on May 28, 2008.
Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi became the President of the American Pain Society at the annual scientific meeting on May 10, 2008, in Tampa, FL.
The Pharmacology Graduate Program would like to commend all the Pharmacology graduate students who presented their work during the 2008 Vincent du Vigneaud Symposium. We would especially like to congratulate the following individuals who were awarded prizes for their presentations:
- Lisa Placanica - du Vigneaud Award
- M. Carrie Garceau - du Vigneaud Award
- Judy Mesicek - Award of Excellence
- Clare LeFave - Award of Excellence
- Kymora Scotland - Award of Excellence
- Elissaveta Petrova - Award of Excellence
- Christina Crump - First-Year Award
During the 2008 Pharmacology Program Retreat, held at Skytop Lodge, Skytop, PA, Jeremy Paige and Vikram Kanda were awarded Best Poster prizes, while Best Talk prizes were awarded to Chad Shelton (1st place) and Eric Salazar (2nd place). Great work!
Dr. Geoffrey W. Abbott is an author on a recent article published in Nature, titled "Human cardiovascular progenitor cells develop from a KDR+ embryonic-stem-cell-derived population."
Congratulations to Sebastian Shaffer, who was awarded an American Psychological Association Diversity Program in Neuroscience Fellowship! This fellowship was awarded from a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Training Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg has been selected by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) to receive the 2008 Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics. The Hunter Award honors individual scientists for outstanding lifetime contributions to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.
Congratulations to Dr. Francis Lee, who was awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research!
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg gave a presentation titled "Mind (And Measure) Your Cytochrome P's" at the American Society of Hypertension's "Hypertension 2008: Advances in Diagnosis & Management" conference on Saturday, April 12, 2008, in New York City. For more information, please contact the ASH-Eastern Regional Chapter.
Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi was a member of an NIH Consensus Panel that met in Bethesda, MD, from February 24 to 27, 2008, to review the use of hydroxyurea for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). The panel issued a statement that made a number of recommendations including the increased use of hydroxyurea for the treatment of the nearly 100,000 Americans affected by this disease (http://consensus.nih.gov/).
For the first time, functional transcription factor mRNA is found outside the nucleus, at the tip of growing axons. Congratulations to Dr. Samie R. Jaffrey and his co-authors on this research, published in the Feb. 1 issue of Nature Cell Biology.
Cornell scientists find how a protein binds to genes and regulates them across the human genome. Congratulations to Associate Professor W. Lee Kraus and his co-authors on this research, published in the Feb. 8 issue of the journal Science.
Lungs' mast cells could provide new treatment target for asthma and other respiratory disease according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Pharmacology Professor Roberto Levi, M.D., is a co-senior author on this publication.
Dr. Hazel Szeto has received the honor of being asked to serve on the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) National Advisory Council for a 4-year term.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has awarded a $13 million grant to the Center of Vascular Biology at Weill Cornell. One of the projects on this NHLBI Program Project Grant is that of Dr. Steven Gross who leads a study of mitochondria in the function and dysfunction of eNOS (endothelial nitric oxide synthase).
Congratulations to Dr. Nigel Mongan and co-investigator Dr. Eric Kauffman for receiving a Pilot Research Award for Translational Cross-disciplinary Studies from the WCMC Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC). Their project is under the mentorship of Drs. Lorraine Gudas, Douglas Scherr, and David Nanus.
Kudos to Vasundhra Kashyap for receiving a Department of Defense Predoctoral Prostate Cancer Training Award!
Congratulations to Marisa Carbonaro for winning the T32 Predoctoral Translational Fellowship Award with Drs. Paraskevi Giannakakou and David Nanus as her mentors.
Drs. Steven Gross and Jochen Buck were both honored in November 2007 for 25 and 15 years of service, respectively.
Congratulations to Eric Salazar, who attended the 3rd ASM Conference on Cell – Cell Communication in Bacteria from October 7 - 12, 2007 and was awarded Outstanding Postdoctoral Presentation!
Dr. Charles Inturrisi has been selected for the 2007 Excellence in Mentoring Award by the Weill Cornell Medical College Postdoctoral Association. The award recognizes the importance of quality mentoring and exemplary efforts of the WCMC faculty in advising graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty.
A new high sensitivity mass spectrometry method of measuring NAD, developed by Tianle Yang, is featured in the article "Nutrient sensitive mitochondrial NAD levels dictate cell survival" published in the September 21st issue of Cell.
Dr. Anthony Sauve been selected as a 2007 Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging. The prize is given annually to a select 20 or so young faculty from across the country working on aging related problems. It comes with 4 years of research funding.
Sindy Escobar-Alvarez has been awarded the Geoffrey Beene Graduate Fellowship from the Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center at MSKCC. Congrats!
Congratulations to Dr. Derek S. Tan, who was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow for 2007-2009.
Shiying Shang has published a paper on the diversity-oriented synthesis of polyketides in Organic Letters.
Marisa Carbonaro, of Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou's lab, was awarded the 2007 Vincent du Vigneaud Award of Excellence for "HIF-1 mRNA Complexes Associate and Traffic on Interphase Microtubules for Efficient Protein Translation." Great work!
Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi is the president-elect of the American Pain Society (APS), the national organization dedicated to improving pain management through research, education and clinical practice.
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg was a mentor of junior faculty and post-doctoral fellows at the small group mentoring sessions at the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians with the American Society for Clinical Research, April 13-15, 2007, in Chicago.
Dr. Samie Jaffrey has been awarded a March of Dimes Foundation research grant for his project "Role of Local RhoA mRNA Translation in Spine Formation and Mental Retardation." Congratulations!
Dr. Marcus M. Reidenberg was elected Chairman of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines at its meeting at W.H.O headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 19Ð23, 2007. The WHO Essential Medicines program was started in 1976 and Dr. Reidenberg was appointed, with U.S. government approval, to its Expert Panel and Expert Advisory Committee in 1989.
Congratulations to Dr. Steven Gross on being awarded an N.I.H Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) award from N.H.L.B.I. The award extends funding for his research project to determine whether hyperglycemia-induced uncoupling of mitochondrial NO synthase plays a central role in triggering the pathogenesis of diabetic vascular complications.
During the 2007 Pharmacology Retreat, Elissa Petrova, Marisa Carbonara, Alex Stessin and Jimcy Platholi were honored with Best Talk and Best Poster prizes. Great work!
Congratulations to Jeremy Paige (as seen with fellow Dr. Jaffrey lab members Alyssia and Rachel) on being awarded the PhRMA fellowship for predoctoal research in Pharmacology.
Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi gave the Allan and Phyllis Treuer Lecture in Pain Research, on December 12, 2006, in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Congratulations to Dr. Samie Jaffrey for winning the 2006 Award for Excellence in Mentoring, from the Weill Medical College Postdoctoral Association. The award honors Principal Investigators who provide superior guidance of individual research, and make profound contributions to the professional development of their trainees.
Welcome to our new faculty members: Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou and Dr. David Gin!
Dr. Marcus Reidenberg was one of a small group invited to participate in a 2 day meeting (September 28-29) with senior staff from the F.D.A. and A.H.R.Q. The goal of the meeting was to promote research and identify new methods of educating the media, healthcare professionals, and the public about risks from medical products.
A paper published in J. Biol. Chem. by Alex Stessin, entitled "Soluble adenylyl cyclase mediates nerve growth factor-induced activation of Rap1," was highlighted in the Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE).
Congratulations to Christopher C. Shelton, who was recently awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award fellowship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The Pharmacology Graduate Program would like to commend all the Pharmacology graduate students who presented their work during the 2006 Du Vigneaud Symposium. We would especially like to congratulate the following individuals who were awarded prizes for their presentations:
Justin S. Potuzak - Du Vigneaud Award
Jeanne Farrell - Award of Excellence
Cristina Fernandez - Award of Excellence
Ann M. Gregus - Award of Excellence
Dan Su - Award of Excellence
Eleanor Allen - First-Year Award
On April 8th, 2006, Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi will receive a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy.
On January 27th, 2006, Dr. Gavril Pasternak gave the "1st Annual Machaskee Memorial Lectureship" at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Rose Xing has finished her post-doctoral training in Dr. Richard Kolesnick's lab and has taken a position as Assistant Professor in Pathology at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Richard Kolesnick gave the John H. Blaffer Visiting Professorship Lecture at MD Anderson on March 9, 2006.
Dr. Anthony Sauve received five year R01grant on Feb 15th 2006 from NIDDK National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases entitled "Sir2 Regulation and Chemical Modulation".
Justin Potuzak is a coauthor on a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society describing a new reaction to synthesize stereochemically diverse spiroketals: Moilanen, S. B.; Potuzak, J. S.; Tan, D. S.* "Stereocontrolled synthesis of spiroketals via Ti(Oi-Pr)4-mediated kinetic spirocyclization of glycal epoxides with retention of configuration." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 1792Ð1793.