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This article was originally posted in the WCM newsroom.

A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominant variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, including Omicron, the most recent. Their discovery could lead to more potent vaccines and new antibody-based treatments. 

In a study published March 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, senior author Dr. Patrick Wilson, the Anne E. Dyson Professor of Pediatric Research and a member of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medicine, and his colleagues tested antibodies derived from patient blood samples against successive versions of the virus that emerged during the pandemic. One of these proteins, dubbed S728-1157, proved highly effective at neutralizing not only older variants but also seven subtypes of Omicron. 

“The pandemic is over, but the virus is around for the long haul. If not well controlled, it could cause annual epidemics,” said Dr. Wilson. “This antibody and the insight it provides could help us avoid yearly surges of COVID-19 or if there is another coronavirus pandemic.”

Dr. Emilie K. Grasset, assistant professor of immunology in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded an NIH R21 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for her study, “Bacterial translocation to mesenteric adipose tissue drives pathogenic stromal-B cell interactions leading to inflammatory IgG.”

 Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that has no cure and often leads to disease complications requiring bowel resection surgery. Crohn's disease can also affect children, and antimicrobial antibodies in pediatric patients are predictive of a faster disease progression. Dr. Grasset believes that understanding how antimicrobial antibodies arise will help identify therapeutic targets for treatment of Crohn’s disease.

This article was original published in the WCM Newsroom.

NEW YORK (Feb. 23, 2023)—Dr. Omar Abdul-Rahman, a leading specialist in pediatric genetic medicine, has been named chief of the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital, effective March 1.

The Division of Medical Genetics provides inpatient and outpatient consultation and medical care for children and adolescents with common and rare genetic conditions, including screening and counseling for inherited disease risk during pregnancy. Dr. Abdul-Rahman, who was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Professor of Pediatrics, succeeds Dr. Christopher Cunniff, who has led the division since 2014 and remains on the institution’s voluntary faculty as a clinical professor of pediatrics.

This article was original posted in WCM News.

Five teams led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists have been awarded funding from the Starr Cancer Consortium in its 16th annual grant competition. The grants will fund research on the molecular origins and evolution of blood, bladder, breast, and colon cancers.

The Starr Cancer Consortium was established in 2006 through the philanthropy of the Starr Foundation, and includes The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medicine. The goal of the consortium is to support collaborative research at these institutions, with the potential to transform the understanding and treatment of cancers.