News and Updates

Danica Chen, Ph.D.
Professor, Program in Metabolic Biology, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, Principal Investigator, Berkeley Stem Cell Center, Principal Investigator, QB3 Consortium on Life Span Extension, University of California, Berkeley 

Charles M. Rudin, M.D., Ph.D. 
Chief, Thoracic Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College

Jason Mastaitis, Ph.D. 
Staff Scientist Muscle and Metabolic Diseases Division Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Katja Haedicke
Dr. Jan Grimm's Lab

Geoffrey S. Pitt, M.D., Ph.D.
Ida and Theo Rossi Distinguished Professor of Medicine Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute Weill Cornell Medicine 

Laszlo Nagy, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Genomic Control of Metabolism Program Professor, Center for Metabolic Origins of Disease Sanford Burnham Prebys at Lake Nona 

Jonathan Hale Zippin, M.D., Ph.D., FA.A.D.
Clinique Clinical Scholar in Dermatology Ellen Gary Davis-MRA Young Investigator Assistant Professor in Dermatology Assistant Attending Dermatologist New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medicine 

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D. 
Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program

Jason S. Lewis, Ph.D.
Vice Chair for Research and Chief of the Radiochemistry & Imaging Sciences Service in Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Department of Radiology Director of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Radiochemistry and Molecular Imaging Probe Core Facility Member in Memorial Sloan Kettering, head of a laboratory in the Sloan Kettering Institute’s Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program Professor at the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical...

Dr. Gerd Kempermann.
Professor, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Fetscherstraße 105, 01307 Dresden 

Dr. Anthony Sauve
Professor in Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Daniel Bachovchin
Assistant Member, Chemical Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) Assistant Professor, Tri-Institutional Training Program in Chemical Biology, Sloan Kettering Institute, Cornell University, and Rockefeller University Assistant Professor, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, MSKCC Assistant Professor, Pharmacology Program Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences,...

Vasilis Vasiliou, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health Sciences Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Yale School of Public Health/Yale School of Medicine 

January 17, 2017: Paul Watkins, M.D. 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.

Marta Melis, Ph.D.
Dr. Lorraine J. Gudas Lab

Paul Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., and Albert Resnick, M.D., Assistant Professor Head, Laboratory of Molecular Metabolism

The Rockefeller University
Dr. Lorraine J. Gudas

Kenneth A. Jacobson, Ph.D., Chief, Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry & Molecular Recognition Section National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Disease The Rockefeller University
Dr. Arleen Rifkind & Graduate Student Ryan N. Serio

Scott A. Waldman, M.D. Chair, Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics Jefferson University Hospital 
Dr. Marcus Reidenberg 

Maureen Gannon, Ph.D. Vice Chair and Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism) Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and Cell Developmental Biology Vanderbilt University Medical Center 
Dr. Marcus Reidenberg 

Navdeep Chandel, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology Harvard Medical School 
Dr. Lorraine J. Gudas 

Faten Taki, Ph.D.
Dr. Miklos Toth's Lab

Jeffrey E. Pessin, Ph.D.
Director, Diabetes Research Center Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Professional Chair in Diabetes Research  

Ryan M. Williams, Ph.D.
Dr. Daniel A. Heller's Lab

Stephen L. Helfand, M.D.
Professor Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Division of Biology and Medicine Brown University 

John G. Doench. Ph.D.
Associate Director, Genetic Perturbation Platform Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Cambridge, MA 

Barbara S. Slusher, Ph.D. MAS
Professor of Neurology (primary),Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Oncology, Director, John Hopkins Drug Discover, John Hopkins School of Medicine 

Peter Tontonoz, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine David Geffen School of Medicine Dean’s Scholar UCLA 

Craig B. Thompson, M.D.
President and chief Executive Officer, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Professor of Immunology & Microbial Pathogenesis, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences 

Dr. Maiko Matsui
Dr. Geoffrey Pitt's Lab

James Mukasa Ntambi, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry and Steenbock Professor of Nutritional Sciences University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Lorraine J. Gudas, Ph.D. 

Tom Rossetti won the first year poster prize in the 38th annual Vincent du Vigneaud Research Symposium from his work in Dr. Kristen Pleil’s lab.

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 seventh 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...

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! Link to the syllabus

Weill Cornell Faculty member, Dr. Samie R. Jaffrey has received the Pathway Visionary Award for his basic research project titled, "Rewiring Cellular Metabolic Networks in Diabetes." Dr. Jaffrey is developing a new type of gene therapy that will allow liver cells to "sense" metabolic abnormalities that occur in diabetes and then stimulate the production of proteins that would correct liver function.

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...

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. 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.

Shiying Shang has published a paper on the diversity-oriented synthesis of polyketides in Organic Letters.

Sindy Escobar-Alvarez has been awarded the Geoffrey Beene Graduate Fellowship from the Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center at MSKCC. Congrats!

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. 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.

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".

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.

On April 8th, 2006, Dr. Charles E. Inturrisi will receive a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy.

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.

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.

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.

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...

Dr. Sheldon Segal, adjunct 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.

Congratulations to Tal Nuriel, who received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Aging!

A reception was held on October 21, 2008, at the Consulate of Ireland in Manhattan to celebrate the extension of the F&S Science Challenge Initiative student exchange program to Weill Cornell Medical College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

...

Congratulations to Megan Ricard (Gudas Laboratory) who was awarded a Prostate Cancer Fellowship from the Department of Defense!

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.

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....

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."

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!

Kudos to Vasundhra Kashyap for receiving a Department of Defense Predoctoral Prostate Cancer Training Award!

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).

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.

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.

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).

Congratulations to Dr. Francis Lee, who was awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research!

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...

Sindy Escobar-Alvarez has been awarded the Geoffrey Beene Graduate Fellowship from the Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center at MSKCC. Congrats!

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. 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 19-23, 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...

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!

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.

Congratulations to Dr. Francis Lee, who was awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research!

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.

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.

Congratulations to Marisa Carbonaro for winning the T32 Predoctoral Translational Fellowship Award with Drs. Paraskevi Giannakakou and David Nanus as her mentors.

Congratulations to Jeremy Paige (as seen with fellow Dr. Jaffrey lab members Alyssia and Rachel) on being awarded the PhRMA fellowship for pre-doctoral research in Pharmacology.

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, 1792-1793.

December, 2016: Dr. Noel Chan and Matt traveled to Iceland and had a great time.

May 13, 2016: Dr. Jian Shen, who received his Ph.D. in 1999, came back for a visit with his thesis adviser, Dr. Gudas, on May 11, 2016. He gave a talk in the Surgery Dept. at Weill Cornell as well.

December 2015: News about Dr. Noel Chan (2012). 2015 was a year full of blessings and happiness. I got married in Hong Kong in June. Matt and I were both born in Hong Kong, and then we met in New York 5 years ago. We are now living in Cambridge, MA. Matt is now working in Sullivan & Worcester law firm in Boston as the Network and Security Engineer. I am in my second year Research Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School. My current research investigates the genomic...

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".

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.

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.

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 -...

On January 27th, 2006, Dr. Gavril Pasternak gave the "1st Annual Machaskee Memorial Lectureship" at the Cleveland Clinic.

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.

July 21, 2014: Congratulations to Dr. Minkui Luo on his promotion!

June 3, 2014: Tony Davis was selected to give a student talk at the Annual Year-End Chemical Biology Symposium at the NYAS.

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!

April 24, 2014: The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences duVigneaud Symposium-our PhD students presented lots of exciting scientific research!

April 15, 2014: Bill Mills and Michael Boice, two Pharmacology Ph.D. students, won this years Cornell Venture Challenge; they were awarded $25,000 to push their business plan forward.

September 9, 2014: Dr. Tony Davis and Dr. Derek Tan have just published in ACS Chemical Biology. Congratulations!

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 and Pub Med.

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 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!

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!!

March 4, 2014: Alissa Brandes (lab of Dr. Yueming Li) received an F31 predoctoral fellowship from The National Institute on Aging. Congratulations, Alissa!

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 20, 2013: Dr. Samie Jaffrey is a recipient of the 2013 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, given by the NY Academy of Sciences.

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.

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 6, 2013: Dr. Lorraine Gudas was awarded the 2013 Future of Health Technology Award in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for her research in cancer pharmacology. Read the press release.

September 6, 2013: Congratulations to Dr. Samie Jaffrey, who has just won the prestigious ASBMB Young Investigator Award!

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.

April 16, 2014: Dr. Hazel Szeto was interviewed by Dean Glimcher about the company she founded, Stealth Peptides.

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...

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.

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!

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.

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! Read the...

December 12, 2016: Dr. Arleen Rifkind has been appointed to the FDA Non Prescription Drug Advisory Committee. Congratulations, Arleen!!

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!

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! Read the Nature journal article for more information.

August 15, 2016: Dr. Gudas has a new publication in Molecular Cell!

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.

August 16, 2017: Some of the research from the laboratory of Dr. Lorraine Gudas was just featured on the Cornell University Research website. Read news article

June 1, 2017: Graduation 2017 at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

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!

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!

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

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.

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 implications for diseases such as cancer. Read the CELL journal article for more information.

October 1, 2015: We welcome our newest faculty members, just hired, Drs. Daniel Bachovchin and Dr. Kristen Pleil!!

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!!

June 23, 2015: A Farewell Party was held for Jeanne Powers and for Barbara Inturrisi. We will miss you both!

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!

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."

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 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 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!!

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...

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!" 

Kurtis Haro received a diversity fellowship award from NIH! Kurtis is a student in Dr. David Scheinberg's lab.

Dr. Derek Tan recently published a manuscript in the Journal Nature (2010 Feb 18;463(7283):906-12) titled: "Active site remodeling accompanies thioester bond formation in the SUMO E1".

Drs. Lee Kraus and Anthony Sauve's publication titled "Global Analysis of Transcriptional 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.

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 occurred on September 24, 2009.

Vasundhra Kashyap, a graduate student in the Pharmacology Program, is the first author on a publication that just came out online 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.

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 .

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...

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!

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.

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...

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...

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 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.

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...

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 Tal Nuriel, who received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Aging!

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.

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 Ph.D. 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).

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...

Congratulations to Megan Ricard (Gudas Laboratory) who was awarded a Prostate Cancer Fellowship from the Department of Defense!

Dr. Lorraine Gudas has accepted an invitation to rejoin the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry for a second term!

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." View lecture and reception photos

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).

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...

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...

April 10, 2012: Weill Cornell Postdoctoral Research Day! Weill Cornell Postdoctoral Fellows Postdoctoral research Day was a great success! View photos

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.

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).

View more Research Day photos

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...

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!

December 15, 2012: Congratulations to Alyssa Verano, a PhD student in Dr. Derek Tan's lab, who was awarded a PhRMA predoctoral fellowship!

November 9, 2012: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg chaired a meeting for the FDA Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee at the FDA on Nov. 9, 2012.

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,...

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.

The WCMC basic science department chairs visited WCMC-Qatar in mid-March, 2011, to increase scientific collaborations and teaching interactions.

l to r: Drs. Gudas and...

March 25, 2011: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg was recently appointed to the FDA Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee.

March 1, 2011 The Pharmacology faculty toast Dr. Steve Gross, whose MERIT research award was renewed by the NHLBI this month. 

May 9, 2011: Vasundhra Kashyap, who just finished her Ph.D. 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.

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.

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. See the full list

September 6, 2011: Dr. Alison Urvalek, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Lorraine Gudas, received an NRSA fellowship from the NIAAA. Congratulations!"

July 28, 2011: Dr. Samie Jaffrey was featured on the science section of "All things considered" of the NPR news on Thursday, July 28. See full press release

Jeanne Farrell, who received her Ph.D. in our Weill Cornell Pharmacology Program (advisors Drs. Buck and Levin), was just promoted to the position of Associate Vice President, Office of Technology Transfer, The Rockefeller University. Congratulations, Jeanne!!