Findings

Potential Game Changer for Treating Pancreatic Cancer

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine with an international team have used liver biopsies to identify cellular and molecular markers that can potentially be used to predict whether and when pancreatic cancer will spread to an individual’s liver or elsewhere, such as the lung.

The study, published on June 28 in Nature Medicine, proposes that information from a liver biopsy when pancreatic cancer is diagnosed may help guide doctors in personalizing treatment, such as liver-directed immunotherapies, before cancer cells have the chance to metastasize.

Only 10% of patients with pancreatic cancer will survive more than two years after initial diagnosis. “If we can predict the timing and location of metastases, that could be a real game changer in treating pancreatic cancer, particularly for patients at high metastatic risk,” says study co-senior author Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology and professor of pediatrics and of cell and developmental biology.

A New Chief for the Division of Biostatistics

Dr. Hua “Judy” Zhong, an esteemed researcher and biostatistician, has been named chief of the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine.

In her new role as chief, Dr. Zhong will focus on pioneering innovations that leverage cutting-edge biostatistical methods, fostering collaboration and providing support to the research enterprise across Weill Cornell Medicine. She will also direct the Biostatistics Shared Resource at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, where she will lead and coordinate all biostatistical support.

Dr. Zhong’s research focuses on investigating cardiovascular disease risk and disability outcomes in older adults, including data science from electronic health records.

Recruited from NYU Langone Health, Dr. Zhong served as a professor in the Department of Population Health and co-director of the Biostatistics Shared Resource at the Perlmutter Cancer Center. There, she led the statistical reviews for the protocol review and monitoring committee and the data and safety monitoring committee, and served as core director for statistics and data management for their melanoma and lung Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) applications.

Dr. Christopher Mason, the WorldQuant Professor of Genomics and Computational Biomedicine, who co-led a massive international research endeavor by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, SpaceX and other organizations called the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) project.

Short-term space travel causes many of the same molecular and physiologic changes as long-term space missions, but most reverse within months of returning to Earth. Yet, those changes that are longer-lasting and distinct between crew members reveal new targets for aerospace medicine and can guide new missions, the researchers found.

Study Adds Confidence to Giving RSV Vaccine During Pregnancy

Vaccinating mothers against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during late pregnancy to protect their newborns is not associated with an increased risk of preterm birth or other poor outcomes, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. Infants are particularly vulnerable to the virus, which can cause a serious lower respiratory illness.

The study, published July 8 in JAMA Network Open, adds real-world evidence to the existing data from clinical trials about the safety of Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine. The researchers found that there wasn’t a significant statistical difference in preterm birth rates between vaccinated women (5.9%) and unvaccinated women (6.7%).

“The real-world evidence provides an additional layer of confidence about the safety of this vaccine during pregnancy,” says the study’s lead author Dr. Moeun Son, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Randomized clinical trials don’t always emulate the populations we see in the clinical setting, but now we have data from multiple populations showing no increase in preterm birth risk.”

The study’s senior author is Dr. Heather Lipkind (M.D. ’99), professor of obstetrics and gynecology, director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and an obstetrician-gynecologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Filling the Gap in Global HIV Research

A multinational team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators developed a test that will help measure the persistence of HIV in people affected by viral strains found predominantly in Africa — a vital tool in the search for an HIV cure that will benefit patients around the world.

The study, published July 2 in Nature Communications, helps fill a major gap in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research. Most HIV studies have focused on strains circulating in Western countries, predominantly in men who have sex with men affected by subtype B. Few studies have examined strains circulating in Africa, where women are disproportionately affected.

“HIV cure research tends to focus on viral strains circulating in developed countries, but to achieve a cure that is globally applicable, we must study viral strains that are affecting other regions of the world,” says lead author Dr. Guinevere Lee, assistant professor of virology in medicine.

Dr. Lee and her collaborators are already using the new assay to study long-term viral persistence in Uganda.

Dr. James Ip, professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a cardiac electrophysiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, speaking about results of a study he co-led, published in Circulation, which showed that the two tiny pieces of a wireless pacemaker system reliably communicate, achieving the goal of synchronizing contraction of the upper and lower heart chambers 98% of the time. Researchers conducting the multicenter, international clinical trial also found that the device continued to work well when patients engaged in various activities or when their heart rates were elevated.

Illustrations: Elia Sampò