Donors Fund Groundbreaking Research to Combat Disease

 

 

Helen and Robert Appel – in white lab coats – celebrate the announcement of their gift in support of Alzheimer’s Research with Sanford Weill and Dean Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., M.D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Carl Nathan,
Chairman, Department of
Microbiology & Immunology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Shahin Rafiii, Director of the Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics, trains students.

Thanks to the generous contributions of our donors, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers are making significant scientific breakthroughs. Combating Alzheimer’s Disease and tuberculosis and gaining new insights into stem cells all hold tremendous potential to relieve human pain and suffering.

 

A gift of $15 million from Helen and Robert Appel, Weill Cornell Overseer, established the Appel Institute for Alzheimer’s Research at the Medical College. The donation, which is part of Weill Cornell’s $1.3 billion Discoveries that Make a Difference Campaign, will fund development of the Institute’s facilities and research program. It will also help assure that the Institute will be a world-class center for Alzheimer’s research by attracting, developing and retaining the highest possible level of research talent from a variety of clinical backgrounds. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Appel, research and discovery in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease will help countless patients and their families.

 

In December 2007, Weill Cornell received two grants totaling $2.4 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help fight tuberculosis, an epidemic that infects one-third of the world’s population and kills nearly two million yearly – mostly in the poorest countries. Dr. Carl F. Nathan, R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor of Microbiology and principal investigator of one of the two grants, said: “These grants support research focused on testing many existing chemical compounds for the potential ability to kill or interfere with the organism that causes TB… Being able to kill TB organisms in their non-replicating phase, which represents most of their existence, will be key to shortening curative TB therapy from the current six months or longer to perhaps just a few weeks.” Dr. Nathan is chairman of Weill Cornell’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

 

The Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics at Weill Cornell, established in 2004 through a $15 million donation from Shahla and Ambassador Hushang Ansary, Weill Cornell Overseer, has already asserted world leadership. Led by Dr. Shahin Rafii, the Arthur Belfer Professor of Genetic Medicine and an Investigator of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Center made history by causing cells harvested from adult mouse testes to develop into stem cells that can become vascular cells, cardiac tissue, and neuronal tissue. In addition, they found a way to identify those source cells, which are otherwise notoriously difficult to distinguish.  This breakthrough will likely enable the generation of stem cells from the patient’s own body that could ultimately be used for organ or tissue repair. The September 2007 issue of Nature featured this momentous finding.