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.

Alzheimer’s Protective Mutation Works by Taming Inflammation in the Brain

Immunofluorescent image of mouse hippocampus stained for tau

A rare gene mutation that delays Alzheimer’s disease does so by damping inflammatory signaling in brain-resident immune cells, according to a preclinical study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding adds to growing evidence that brain inflammation is a major driver of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s—and that it may be a key therapeutic target for these disorders.

In the study, published June 23 in Immunity, the researchers examined the effects of the mutation APOE3-R136S—known as the “Christchurch mutation”—which was recently found to delay hereditary early-onset Alzheimer’s. The Weill Cornell Medicine scientists showed that the mutation inhibits the cGAS-STING pathway, an innate immune signaling cascade that is abnormally activated in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. The researchers found that pharmacologically blocking the cGAS-STING pathway with a drug-like inhibitor replicated key protective effects of the mutation in a preclinical model.

Study Finds Addictive Screen Use, Not Total Screen Time, Linked to Youth Suicide Risk

teen phone addiction

New research shows that youth who become increasingly addicted to social media, mobile phones or video games are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and emotional or behavioral issues. The study, published June 18 in JAMA, was led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley.

Unlike previous studies that focused on total screen time at one point in a child’s life, this study looked at how young people’s patterns of compulsive or “addictive” use changed over time. These patterns included feeling unable to stop using a device, experiencing distress when not using it or using it to escape from problems. In contrast, simply spending more time on screens at 10 years old wasn’t associated with worse suicide-related and mental health outcomes.

Dr. Yunyu Xiao

Dr. Yunyu Xiao

Weill Cornell Medicine-Led Consortium Receives $13.5 Million to Expand Patient Data Network

Photo of a woman

The INSIGHT Clinical Research Network (CRN), a database of more than 23 million patient health records, has received $13.5 million in renewed funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

The renewed funding will support efforts to lead and conduct research of national scope over the next four years, increasing capacity for observational studies, retrospective studies, clinical trials, machine learning and more. Additionally, the funding will foster new collaborations and enable investigators to securely pool patient data, upholding the highest level of patient confidentiality, to support research on a specific topic. With this support, researchers can investigate patient-centered ways to understand and treat conditions including depression, diabetes, breast cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

INSIGHT CRN is one of the largest urban clinical networks in the nation, bringing together eight academic centers in New York City and its metropolitan area, as well as Houston, Texas. Led by a team at Weill Cornell Medicine, INSIGHT’s data contributing collaborators include Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Montefiore Health System, Mount Sinai Health System, NewYork-Presbyterian, NYU Langone Health, Houston Methodist and most recently Stony Brook Medicine, which will add approximately 1.3 million patient records to the database.

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