Weill Cornell Medicine

Samantha Levy still thinks about the child in Peru who inspired her life's work. Samantha, newly graduated from college, was working at a school for children with special needs in Peru when she noticed that a 5-year-old student with Down syndrome wasn't playing or interacting with his classmates. When a stack of blocks fell near him, he didn't react. Samantha and her colleague wondered if he could hear, so they worked to pay for a hearing test. The test revealed that he had significant hearing loss, and the boy was fitted for hearing aids. "When we put on hearing aids for the first time, he instantly lit up. His eyes and smile," recalls Samantha, now an educational specialist in pediatric audiology and Weill Cornell Medicine's cochlear implant program coordinator. "That was my first experience with really seeing the gift of hearing and the impact of giving someone that missing piece. I thought that if I could help him, maybe I could also help others." Inspired by that experience, Samantha went on to earn a dual masters degree in deaf and hard of hearing education and in early childhood education. She joined Weill Cornell Medicine in 2017 and became the coordinator of the cochlear implant program in 2022. "It's been a dream come true," she says. "When I met Michelle Kraskin (director of audiology), she took a chance on me and developed a program here. We really grew this program from the ground up." In addition to managing treatment plans and coordinating services for her pediatric patients, Samantha provides emotional support for parents who face uncertainty and fear. "I never want our families to feel alone," says Samantha, now a mom to two sons. "To work alongside families through all phases of life -- from the time of diagnosis to when our patients grow up and go to college -- that's the greatest privilege." Along the way, she's also learned "what growth and resilience look like. I see these families coming together and making decisions for their children, and it makes me a better parent, a better provider and clinician, a better person."

A new randomized, controlled clinical trial aims to test whether a minimally invasive treatment can relieve chronic pelvic pain and improve the quality of life for women with pelvic venous disease (PeVD). The condition, caused by faulty pelvic veins around the uterus and ovaries, affects up to 15 percent of women of childbearing age and can have a major impact on daily life. Though the condition often goes undiagnosed or untreated, a procedure called embolization, which reduces blood flow to the enlarged veins in the pelvis and ovaries, may offer relief for these women. The EMBOLIZE Study, co-led by Dr. Ronald Winokur of Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Dr. Gloria Salazar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, will initially recruit 40 eligible women with PeVD at five medical centers across the United States. Participants will be randomly assigned to undergo embolization or a routine diagnostic venography procedure that uses live X-ray imaging to document their conditions. Full story: https://bit.ly/4gGNDnf

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A new study suggests that reinforcement learning, a class of artificial intelligence, has potential for guiding physicians with personalized treatment strategies for patients with chronic or psychiatric diseases. “We hope this work will facilitate more reliable assessment of reinforcement learning in health care settings and help accelerate the development of better algorithms and training protocols appropriate for medical applications,” said Dr. Logan Grosenick of Weill Cornell Medicine who led the study with researchers at The Rockefeller University. Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a class of machine learning algorithms that can make a series of decisions over time. Responsible for recent AI advances, including superhuman performance at chess and Go, RL can use evolving patient conditions, test results, and previous treatment responses to suggest the next best step to optimize patient outcomes. Full story: https://bit.ly/3ZXPmPt

Cardiology has made great strides in improving care and outcomes in recent decades. But for too many women, bypass surgery — the most common adult cardiac surgery globally — remains a far riskier intervention than it is for men. A study led by Dr. Mario Gaudino of Weill Cornell Medicine revealed that from 2011-2020, female bypass patients in the United States still had a nearly 50 percent higher risk of mortality compared to men in the first month post-procedure. Even after adjusting for age and health factors, the disparity stood at 30 percent. In our latest IMPACT issue, learn what drives the differences and how our cardiology teams work together to improve outcomes for women across racial and ethnic demographics. Full story: https://bit.ly/3ZNC9sr

Prostate cancer hijacks the normal prostate’s growth regulation program in order to grow freely, a discovery that may aid the development of new strategies for the treatment of the disease. A protein called the androgen receptor normally functions to guide the development of the prostate. The receptor is activated by androgens or sex hormones like testosterone, which triggers the receptor to bind to DNA, causing the expression of some genes and suppression of others. But in cancer, the androgen receptor is reprogrammed to tell the cells to continue growing, driving tumor development. This study, led by Dr. Christopher Barbieri of Weill Cornell Medicine, showed that androgen receptors in prostate cells can work as either an accelerator speeding cell growth or a brake inhibiting it. Tumors redirect the receptors’ normal activity to press the accelerator and release the brake. Full story: https://bit.ly/3DdNJEB

A new study from Dr. Xiaoyu Wang and Dr. Olga Boudker reveals the indirect effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids on membrane proteins. “The fact that these polyunsaturated fatty acids can dissipate sodium ion gradients has important implications not just for the glutamate transporters, but also other proteins which rely on ion gradients to function,” said Dr. Boudker of Weill Cornell Medicine. Full story: https://bit.ly/3OOg72u

Women's health experts presented at a White House Conference on Women's Health Research this morning. We were proud that neuroscientist, Dr. Lisa Mosconi, was a featured speaker, presenting updates about her research on the increased risk of Alzheimer’s that women face. Congratulations on this incredible accomplishment!

An updated hepatitis B vaccine is clearly more effective for people living with HIV than an older vaccine type, according to new findings. The international study, led by Dr. Kristen Marks of Weill Cornell Medicine, showed that hepatitis B vaccine with a cytosine phosphoguanine adjuvant induced protective levels of antibodies in up to 99.4% of the patients who received it. Such protection was seen in only 80.6% of subjects who received hepatitis B vaccine with an aluminum hydroxide adjuvant. Full story: https://bit.ly/4gcgLDc

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a $1.4 million, four-year grant to explore a new therapeutic approach for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common form of kidney cancer. The grant is one of 10 Idea Awards the U.S. Department of Defense funded this year to support innovative, high-risk, high-reward science that could lead to a shift in cancer care. The funding will enable lead researchers Dr. Lorraine Gudas and Dr. David Nanus of Weill Cornell Medicine to study a cellular reprogramming strategy that may improve patients' responses to checkpoint inhibitors, a form of immunotherapy. Full story: https://bit.ly/3D8AfK6