News and Updates

B. Paige Lawrence, Ph.D. 
Professor of Environmental Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology Director, Toxicology Training Program University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry 

Nathanael Gray, Ph.D. 
Professor, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School Professor, Cancer Biology, Dana –Farber Cancer Institute 

James C. Lo, M.D., Ph.D. 
Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Hsia-Yuan Ying
Dr. Ari Melnick's lab

Mary E. Choi, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Nephrology & Hypertension Weill Cornell Medicine 

Kristen Pleil, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacology Weill Cornell Medicine 

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 

Wei Min, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University

Please see this document for information on our seminars from 2005 to 2010. 

David A. Foster, Ph.D. 
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Hunter College of CUNY 

Dr. Mingxu You 
Dr. Jaffrey's Lab

Dr. William Lee Kraus
Director, Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Science, Department of Ob/Gyn Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Cecil H. and Ida Green Distinguished Chair in Reproductive Biology Sciences, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 

Dr. Francis S. Y. Lee
Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry and a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and an Attending Psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College.

Thomas L. Kash, Ph.D.
Vice–Chair of Faculty Development, Department of Pharmacology John Andrews Distinguish Professor of Alcohol Studies Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 

David E. Cohen M.D., Ph.D. Division Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Center for Liver Disease, Department of Medicine
Dr. Steven S. Gross

Anthony A. Sauve, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology Weill Cornell Medicine
Dr. Lorraine J. Gudas

Wendy V. Gilbert, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Yale University 
Dr. Samie Jaffrey 

Marcia C. Haigis, Ph.D. Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology Harvard Medical School 
Drs. Anthony Sauve and Steven Gross 

Renier J. Brentjens, M.D., Ph.D. Director, Cellular Therapeutics Center, Associate Attending Department of Medicine, Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Associate Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences 
Dr. Arleen Rifkind 

Hening Lin, Ph.D. Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Howard Hughes Investigator Cornell University
Dr. John Blenis 

Kelly E. Henry, Ph.D.
Dr. Jason Lewis' Lab

Jochen Buck, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Dr. Lorraine Gudas  

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

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.

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

Lorraine J. Gudas, Ph.D. 

Three Developmental Research Program Awards Announced

Chuck Pratt, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Grimm, has a new publication, titled: Nanoparticles as multimodal photon transducers of ionizing radiation, out in Nature Nanotechnology.

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.

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.

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 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. Richard Kolesnick gave the John H. Blaffer Visiting Professorship Lecture at MD Anderson on March 9, 2006.

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

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

...

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).

Welcome to our new faculty members: Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou and Dr. David Gin!

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 ...

Dr. Michael Cohen has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Life Sciences Research Foundation. Congratulations!

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

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.

Drs. Alan Paau, Hazel Szeto, Gerald Chan, Dajun Yang, and Bruce Reidenberg discuss Dr. Szeto's startup company, Stealth Peptides, at the CTL Bootcamp. This is a workshop, sponsored by Cornell University, to teach students and faculty how to start companies. ...

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...

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...

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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. 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.

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

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!

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.

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 21 issue of Cell.

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.

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).

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

Drs. Steven Gross and Jochen Buck were both honored in November 2007 for 25 and 15 years of service, respectively.

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.

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.

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...

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

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.

Dr. Richard Kolesnick gave the John H. Blaffer Visiting Professorship Lecture at MD Anderson on March 9, 2006.

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

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 -...

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.

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.

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 1, 2014: Eric Chea is a coauthor on a paper from Dave Gin's group that just appeared in Nature Chemistry.

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 28, 2014: Dr. Jaffrey wins the Young Investigator Award from the ASBMB!

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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 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!!

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.

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. 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.

May 17, 2013: Pharmacology Ph.D. graduate, Dr. Dan Rohle was the first author on a paper in the May 3 issue of Science (340:626) titled: "An Inhibitor of Mutant IDH1 Delays Growth and Promotes Differentiation of Glioma Cells."

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. More information from AFAR.

August 28, 2013: Nawreen Rahman, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Drs. Levin and Buck, recently received an F31 Predoctoral Fellowship Award. Congratulations!

January 31, 2014: Dr. Mark Lundquist, who received his Ph.D. 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...

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 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. More information on the...

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.

October 21, 2013: Abby Horstmann, a Ph.D. student in the Gudas lab, recently was awarded a 3-year, F31 predoctoral fellowship from NIH (NIDCR). Congratulations to Abby!

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!...

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!

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!

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! Read article on Dr. Chiosis.

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.

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. Read article on "Method of the Year."

October 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 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."

April 22, 2017: March for Science, NYC!! See more pictures from the March for Science.

March 14, 2017: Pharmacology PhD student Jackson Harvey and his advisor, Dr. Dan Heller, have a paper accepted in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Congratulations! Read the paper, titled: "A Carbon Nanotube Reporter of miRNA Hybridization Events In Vivo."

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.

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.

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.

October 13, 2015: Dr. Reidenberg gave a lecture in Barcelona, Spain on essential medicines for the WHO.

September 16, 2015: Ben Schwartz, a graduate student in Dr. Gross' lab, was awarded an F31 fellowship from NINDS to investigate a potential bioenergetic/metabolic basis for sporadic ALS. Congratulations!

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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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. Congratulations to Dr. Jaffrey!!

March 1, 2016: Dr. Inturrisi will present a named lecture on 4/13/2016 in honor of Dr. Jain!

May 2, 2013: The 33rd Annual du Vigneaud Graduate Student Symposium was a success! The Symposium featured student posters (33 from Pharmacology Ph.D. Program students!), student talks, & Dr. Thomas Schwarz as the keynote speaker. A dinner reception followed the scientific events.

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.

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...

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...

Marcus M. Reidenberg, M.D., Professor of Pharmacology, Medicine, and Public Health at the Weill Cornell Medical College is a recipient 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,...

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,...

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]

Ms. Noel Chan, a Pharmacology Ph.D. 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.

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."

Dr. Michael Cohen has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Life Sciences Research Foundation. Congratulations!

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 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 26, 2011: Dr. Marcus Reidenberg gives a reprise of hisASPET 2011 Torald Sollmann Award Lecture "Cardiovascular Drug Discontinuation Effects" in the Pharmacology Department seminar series.

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.

March 29, 2011: Congratulations to Pharmacology Ph.D. 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 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.

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!" 

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.

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

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."