Obstetrics & Gynecology

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.

New Clues to Understanding HIV-related Cognitive Impairment

HIV and neuron

Using participant skin cells reprogrammed into neurons, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have identified genetic signatures associated with HIV infection that may contribute to the cognitive impairment that often occurs in people living with the disease, even when the virus is controlled.

The study, published Dec. 1 in JCI Insight, collected cells called fibroblasts obtained with informed consent from the skin of six virologically suppressed people living with HIV and seven age- and sex-matched people without HIV. Applying cell-identity reprogramming techniques, they induced the fibroblasts to become neurons and found that those from the people with HIV had key differences in gene activity patterns, compared with those from people without HIV.

Some of these gene-activity differences resembled those seen in prior studies of post-mortem brain samples from people with and without HIV. Other gene-activity differences were observed for the first time, offering potential new leads to the causes of HIV-related cognitive deficits.

State of Weill Cornell Medicine: A Bright Future

1300 York Avenue

Amid a changing and challenging time for academic medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine is poised to thrive in the coming years, with a planned expansion of its clinical enterprise serving as an engine for overall institutional growth, Dean Robert Harrington conveyed Dec. 16 during his biannual State of Weill Cornell Medicine address.

Weill Cornell, like many academic research institutions nationwide, has navigated financial uncertainty stemming from rapidly changing federal research support. But these challenges also revealed an opportunity to evaluate Weill Cornell’s core strengths—culminating in a plan to create the “academic medical center of the future,” said Dr. Harrington, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and provost for medical affairs of Cornell University.

“I know this has been a tough year, but I’m also optimistic about the future,” he said. “And I’m especially optimistic because of the quality of the people that we have working across every domain: clinical, research and education.”

Microbiome May Aid in Successful Pregnancies

AI-generated image of intestines with microbes superimposed

Gut microbes may play a key role in training a mother’s immune system to adapt to the developing fetus during pregnancy, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The findings, published Dec. 17 in Cell, show that beneficial gut bacteria help prevent immune system reactions that can lead to pregnancy loss in mice. The investigators demonstrated that metabolites produced by gut microbes promote the recruitment of two types of protective immune cells, called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and RORyt+ regulatory T-cells (pTregs), to the placenta and help the mother’s immune system learn to tolerate the fetus.

headshot of a woman

Dr. Melody Zeng

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