News and Events

Programs and providers of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine are often the focus of news stories and features appearing in major national media. We invite you to review some stories that typify the breakthrough accomplishments of our remarkable team and highlight the impact our care has had on patient’s lives.

How Food Shortages Reprogram the Immune System’s Response to Infection

Neutrophils

When food is scarce, stress hormones direct the immune system to operate in “low power” mode to preserve immune function while conserving energy, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. This reconfiguration is crucial to combating infections amid food insecurity.

“Both famine and infectious disease have been with us throughout our evolutionary history and often occurred at the same time. Yet little is known about how nutrition affects the immune system,” said senior author Dr. Nicholas Collins, an assistant professor of immunology, and a member of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the Friedman Center for Nutrition at Weill Cornell.

Dr. Nicholas Collins

Dr. Nicholas Collins

Weill Cornell Physician-Scientists Recognized with ASCI Early-Career Awards

lab

Two Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientists, Dr. Semra Etyemez and Dr. Jesse Platt, have been honored with prestigious early-career awards from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) for 2026.

The ASCI is one of the nation’s oldest nonprofit medical honor societies, which is comprised of more than 3,500 physician-scientists from all medical specialties. It recognizes and supports the scientific efforts, educational needs and clinical aspirations of physician-scientists to improve the health of all people. ASCI’s early-career awards are designed to encourage and inspire physician-scientists by engaging them with the ASCI community, while honoring their research achievements.

Dr. Etyemez, a research associate in obstetrics and gynecology and in psychiatry, received the ASCI’s Emerging-Generation Award, which recognizes post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are meaningfully engaged in immersive research. Her research focuses on the biological mechanisms underlying perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, with the goal of identifying biomarkers and developing strategies to treat and prevent perinatal mental illness.

New Laboratory to Advance Personalized, Cell-Based Cancer Therapies

Dr. Coukos

Dr. George Coukos, an internationally renowned expert on cancer immunology, is on a mission to rapidly translate tumor biology research into personalized, cell-based therapies for patients with some of the hardest-to-treat cancers. A new laboratory, part of an innovative collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, seeks to do just that.

Dr. Coukos, who served as the founding director of the Ludwig Lausanne Branch in Switzerland for the past 10 years, will launch the Ludwig Laboratory for Cell Therapy at Weill Cornell Medicine, housed within the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center. In this new role, he will fully leverage the expertise and clinical research capacity at Weill Cornell Medicine to achieve the two organizations’ shared goal of improving patients’ clinical outcomes.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to join the Weill Cornell faculty,” said Dr. Coukos, who was recruited to Weill Cornell as a professor of immunology in medicine with a secondary faculty appointment in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “It is an exceptional place that offers unique opportunities for discovery and clinical translation.”