New York, NY (March 17, 2003) -- Under normal conditions white blood cells, or leukocytes, circulate in the blood stream waiting to be called by damaged tissue to the site of injury or infection. Movement of the leukocytes into the damaged tissue from the blood requires the cells to squeeze between the endothelial cells that line the blood vessel walls. This rapid process is called Trans-Endothelial cell Migration (TEM), or diapedesis, and leads to the normal inflammation of the tissue. However, the white blood cell must migrate through the endothelial cells of the vessel wall without jeopardizing the integrity of the blood vessel. Just how this is accomplished has long been a source of debate among biologists and immunologists.Now, a paper in Nature by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College, led by Dr. William A. Muller, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, makes great strides towards understanding how the white blood cell moves through the endothelial cells into the damaged tissue. In their process of exploration, the Muller team has made three significant discoveries. First, they have discovered a new internal membrane structure in the endothelial cells, called the endothelial surface-connected compartment, which lies just below the cell surface (the regular outer cell membrane). Second, they have observed that in normal endothelial cells, parts of this membrane shuttle in a wave-like manner between this compartment and the cell surface. Lastly, they have found a new role and function for the adhesion molecule PECAM (Platelet/Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule), which Dr. Muller's laboratory previously discovered. PECAM, which is essential for TEM, is found in abundance within this intracellular membrane and could serve as a "traffic warden" during diapedesis. These findings are crucial because they may provide new targets for anti-inflammatory therapy and lead to more focused treatments.
NEW YORK, NY (March 17, 2003) -- While the three decades since the start of the American "War on Cancer" have witnessed many innovative offensive strategies to treat the disease, a new key battle that may well be the turning point has emerged -- the battle of prevention. As part of this attempt to keep the enemy from even entering the field, the Cancer Prevention Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has launched a national newsletter and Web site to keep both consumers and health professionals abreast of the latest developments in this new field of cancer prevention.Cancer Prevention, a joint effort of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center -- NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's two major centers -- aims to cast cancer in a new light -- to change its perception as a life-threatening disease that can only be treated to a disease that can, in many instances, be prevented. The newsletter and Web site (www.nypcancerprevention.org) will provide a forum in which the most recent cancer prevention innovations -- from the laboratory to the clinic to the public at large -- will be presented. They will feature articles by scientists and public health personnel from around the world on the very latest topics of interest in this new field of cancer prevention.
If you're opening a restaurant or renovating an existing one, a new study from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration could help you increase revenues simply by purchasing and arranging the right tables. The study, by Professor Gary Thompson, reveals, surprisingly, that midsize (about 200-seat) restaurants, particularly those affiliated with chains that serve large parties of walk-in customers, produce the most revenues with dedicated tables. Such tables are built for a variety of specific party sizes rather than made up of flexible two-seaters pushed together to form larger tables. (March 17, 2003)
There will be a weekend of celebration, March 28 and 29 — including a free public lecture, workshop and an open concert — as Cornell University welcomes the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers to Ithaca.
"Sustaining New York Communities in Times of Financial Crisis," a conference sponsored by Cornell University's Community and Rural Development Institute, will be held at the Wyndham Syracuse Hotel, East Syracuse, N.Y., May 15 and 16.
Three Cornell faculty winners of 2002-03 Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowships -- for effective, inspiring and distinguished teaching of undergraduate students -- were announced at a special dinner on campus March 6.
New York, NY (March 14, 2003)-- In the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, Dr. Teresa Milner, Professor of Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College, presents new evidence supporting the importance of estrogen in brain function. In close collaboration with Drs. Keith Akama and Bruce McEwen at The Rockefeller University, Dr. Milner elucidates how estrogen is regulating the ability of the brain to learn and encode memories. The research suggests that some form of estrogen replacement therapy might counteract the effects of aging and delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease."My colleagues and I are telling two stories in parallel, using two different approaches," says Dr. Milner, a member of the Division of Neurobiology at Weill Cornell. "We conducted these studies simultaneously but independently, to serve as sort of 'blind controls' in support of each other. Drs. Akama and McEwen were looking at isolated neurons while my lab was looking at animal tissue to explore the same idea -- namely, how does estrogen signaling affect the condition of a neuron?"
In the latest issue of Nature Medicine, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College report the discovery of a new source of neural stem cells in the adult human brain. Dr. Steve Goldman and his group made the startling discovery that glial progenitor cells of the white matter, a common population of support cells first isolated by this group three years ago, are capable of giving rise to neurons as well as to glial cells.
All ready to begin its search for the earliest, coldest and dirtiest parts of the cosmos, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) arrived March 6 at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. It is scheduled for launch Tuesday, April 15, at 4:34:07 a.m. aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket.
New York, NY (March 13, 2003) -- The guilty gene responsible for initiating oncogenesis in Kaposi's Sarcoma has been identified -- at last -- by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College. As reported in the latest issue of Cancer Cell, Kaposi's Sarcoma associated Herpes Virus (KSHV), which is consistently detected within this highly vascularized cancer, carries the gene, vGPCR. The vGPCR (viral G-Protein Coupled Receptor) gene has been a suspect for a long time. However, scientists have been faced with the conundrum that vGPCR is not expressed either long enough or in enough of the cells within the KS tumor to be "pinned"down.Now, Dr. Enrique Mesri of Weill Cornell and colleagues propose a new scenario and a new mechanism -- namely, a "hit and run" type of crime, where vGPCR is expressed just long enough to cause the initial damage, but then retreats so as not to be caught. These findings, generally, reveal a new way to look at the role of viruses in disease and to determine which genes may be important targets for treatments. Specifically, this research offers the promise for alternative treatments of Kaposi's Sarcoma by blocking the actions of the vGPCR protein itself.
The U.S. Postal Service -- America's largest public enterprise -- is in need of reform and should be transformed from a government-owned entity into a privately owned firm, says an expert at Cornell University. In a new book, Saving the Mail: How to Solve the Problems of the U.S. Postal Service (American Enterprise Institute Press), assistant professor of policy analysis and management Rick Geddes argues that the postal service should become a completely demonopolized company that offers publicly traded shares. Germany and Holland have successfully privatized their postal services. (March 12, 2003)
Culminating a six-year development and building process led by Cornell University's Steven Squyres, the second of two Mars-bound clusters of scientific instruments, called the Athena payload, arrived March 11 at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. The instruments will ride aboard NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, scheduled for separate launches beginning May 30 and June 25. (March 12, 2003)
