New Grant Received

Weill Cornell Medical College Receives $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations Grant for Innovative Global Health Research by Dr. Kyu Rhee

Weill Cornell Medical College announced on June 2 that it has received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Kyu Rhee, Assistant Attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, titled "Metabolosomes: The Organizing Principle of Latency in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis."

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March 2009--Drug Blocks Two of World's Deadliest Emerging Virsues

Existing, Low-Cost Anti-Malaria Treatment Found Effective in Laboratory Test Tube Experiments

NEW YORK (March 5, 2009) -- Two highly lethal viruses that have emerged in recent outbreaks are susceptible to chloroquine, an established drug used to prevent and treat malaria, according to a new basic science study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in the Journal of Virology. Due to the study's significance, it was published yesterday, online, in advance of the first April print issue.
 
The two henipaviruses that are the subject of the study -- Hendra Virus (HeV) and Nipah Virus (NiV) -- emerged during the 1990s in Australia and Southeast Asia. Harbored by fruit bats, they cause potentially fatal encephalitis and respiratory disease in humans, with a devastating 75 percent fatality rate. 

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February 2009--Clinical Infectious Diseases: High Mortality Among Patients With AIDS Who Received a Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in the First Three Months of Antiretroviral Therapy

Serena P. Koenig, Cynthia Riviere, Paul Leger, Patrice Joseph, Patrice Severe, Kea Parker, Sean Collins, Erin Lee, Jean W. Pape, and Daniel W. Fitzgerald

We analyzed mortality among 201 patients with AIDS and tuberculosis in Haiti. Patients who received a diagnosis of tuberculosis during the first 3 months after the initiation of antiretroviral therapy were 3.25 times more likely to die than were other patients with AIDS and tuberculosis. Failure to recognize active tuberculosis at initiation of antiretroviral therapy leads to increased mortality.

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