Alumni Profiles

“Do kick-ass science, collaborate like hell and make a difference,” says Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone (Ph.D. ’80), citing the mantra that guides his work as CEO and president of Sonoma BioTherapeutics, a cell-therapy biotech company.

His company’s vision — to transform autoimmune and inflammatory diseases through therapies that rebalance the immune system — parallels the goal that Dr. Bluestone has pursued since he earned his doctorate in immunology at what was then called the Sloan-Kettering Division of Cornell University.

Through his consistent focus on T-cell activation and immune tolerance research, Dr. Bluestone has developed immunotherapies for a wide range of conditions.

In 2022, the FDA approved a drug he had developed decades earlier: teplizumab, sold under the brand name Tzield, which can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes in high-risk patients. His research also influenced the development of ipilimumab, sold under the brand name Yervoy, for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

Dr. Bluestone had a long career in academia at UCSF — and led the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Immune Tolerance Network — before founding SonomaBio in 2019. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and received the Weill Cornell Graduate School Alumni Award of Distinction for his contributions to biomedical research and education.

At SonomaBio, whose co-founder, Dr. Fred Ramsdell, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine, Dr. Bluestone and his team are harnessing cell therapy to create treatments that utilize patients’ own body tissue. They are currently working on therapies for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease and a painful skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa, which largely affects women.

He believes that precision medicine, which tackles the underlying causes of disease, remains the key to transformational therapies.

“We are in a biomedical revolution, and we’re going to look back in 10 to 20 years and see many amazing discoveries — from understanding the genome to new insights in pathobiology and new drug treatment modalities that have led to transformational medicines that are able to cure diseases that, at present, seem incurable,’’ he says.

As a member of the Weill Cornell Medicine Alumni Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee, Dr. Bluestone draws on his extensive experience to engage in meaningful dialogue around academic entrepreneurship. He advises Weill Cornell graduate students to take full advantage of the institution’s resources as they work toward making a meaningful difference in patients’ lives.

“Do your research, stay excited and make a difference,” he says.

— Linda Lombroso

Ask Natalie Azar (M.D. ’96) how she manages her whirlwind life as an NBC News medical contributor, practicing rheumatologist and associate clinical professor at NYU Langone Health, and she’ll say, “I love what I do.”

A high achiever who always wanted to become a doctor, Dr. Azar traces many of her career successes back to her time as a student at Weill Cornell Medicine. She chose the institution for its prestige and its role in providing care to a city she always loved.

She had initially envisioned a life dedicated to treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. The opportunity to report on health came unexpectedly, when a colleague asked if she was interested in being a media expert. She eventually became an NBC News contributor in 2014.

“It’s not surprising to me that I ended up on TV,” says Dr. Azar, noting that physicians who also work as medical journalists bring expertise and credibility when communicating complex issues to the public. “The job brings together the two things I love most: medicine and teaching. That’s really what I’m doing, just on a bigger stage.”

Her TV role took on new meaning in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“I spent my 50th birthday on the COVID ward,” she recalls. “It was an incredible experience. Providing needed care also enabled me to learn firsthand about this terrible pandemic and convey that knowledge to a public that desperately needed information.”

Today, Dr. Azar remains closely connected to her alma mater and keeps in touch with former classmates. She serves as a class leader, helping to plan next fall’s Reunion 2026.

“Weill Cornell Medicine was the most challenging four years of my life,” she says. “But the experience was built on a foundation of bonds that have endured and stood the test of time. I will always be grateful for my time there.”

— Peter West

Weill Cornell Medicine helped nurture Dr. Frank O. Richards Jr.’s passion for global health — and launched him on a 45-year career dedicated to eliminating parasitic diseases, such as river blindness and malaria.

“I loved being a student at Weill Cornell Medicine, and I love New York City — the most diverse place in the United States,” Dr. Richards (M.D.’79) recalls. “The school combined the highest standards of science-based medicine with a real passion for social justice and serving people in resource-poor settings.”

As a public health practitioner at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and later at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Dr. Richards focused on programs in low- and middle-income countries and was a leader in major World Health Organization efforts to eliminate neglected tropical diseases from the poorest communities.

Dr. Richards, who retired in 2024, gained particular recognition as an expert on river blindness (onchocerciasis), a parasitic infection transmitted by vectors breeding in rivers and streams that causes severe itching, skin disease and vision loss in many parts of the Global South.

From 1996 until 2020, Dr. Richards directed the Carter Center’s river blindness elimination program. The program helped distribute millions of doses of ivermectin — an effective oral treatment for the infection, donated by Merck — to endemic regions of Latin America and Africa. His tenacity and skill contributed to the elimination of the parasite that causes the disease in many areas, including from four countries in the Americas.

Still, Dr. Richards knew that eliminating a disease was only part of the battle. Early in his career, while working in a village in Guatemala, Dr. Richards asked an older resident what the community’s most serious health problem was. “He thought for a moment and said, ‘The poverty here cannot be escaped,’” Dr. Richards recalls.

“The neglected tropical diseases I have worked to eliminate during my career are manifestations of deeper problems — poverty, malnutrition, overcrowding, exposure, lack of sanitation and medical access,” he says. “Those are the root causes of many diseases that are, and will remain, a tremendous burden for the poor, even after a successful disease-elimination campaign.”

— Peter West

Photo: Susana Bates; Portraits: Nigel Buchanan