At Weill Cornell Medical College, a Strategic Plan for Research

By Victor Chen and Jonathan Weil

Weill Cornell Medical College has developed a comprehensive Strategic Plan for Research to expand on its existing strengths, while creating greater opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at ultimately improving patient care. The plan, which is likely to lead to major advances in biomedicine, is the result of a consensus of faculty views and of cooperation with the medical college's partners and neighbors, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University.

Three of the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College involved in the institution's comprehensive Strategic Plan for Research are, from left, Craig Basson of the Cardiology Division in the Department of Medicine, who joined the Program in Genetic Medicine in July 1999 specializing in cardiac genetics and developmental biology; Hao Wu, an Xray crystallographer in the Department of Biochemistry, who joined the Program in Structural Biology in July 1997; and Neil Harrison, a researcher with an international reputation for his work in the molecular neuropharmacology of general anesthetics, who joined the neuroscience team in the Department of Anesthesiology in November 1999. Alan R. Arellano/Weill Medical College of Cornell University

The strategic plan, under the leadership of Weill Cornell Dean Antonio M. Gotto Jr., M.D., already has markedly expanded and improved the school's overall research effort. Weill Cornell has enlarged its total research area and renovated existing space, increased the dollar amount of federal research grants awarded to the college by about 20 percent annually and opened new housing for faculty and postdoctoral fellows.

Above all, Gotto was determined to expand the college's cutting-edge basic research, which involved recruiting 30 new tenure-track faculty and providing them with new, state-of-the art research laboratories. The question was, how much would this cost?

The answer so far is $316 million, the total cost of Gotto's strategic plan. About half of this, or more than $160 million, has been raised from private gifts, including a major leadership gift of $100 million from Sanford I. Weill '55, chair and chief executive of Citigroup, and his wife, Joan. The remainder of the plan's cost is covered by medical college funds, sponsored grants, borrowing and other sources. The program represents the largest expansion of research initiatives in Weill Cornell's century-long history.

The strategic plan focuses on the development of major scientific programs in three fields:

Genetic medicine investigates the genetic factors responsible for such major health problems as cancer, diabetes, AIDS and cardiovascular disease. It aims to develop treatments using the techniques of gene therapy, a new and rapidly progressing medical treatment in which genetic material (usually in the form of DNA) is administered to patients and used to modify the genetic repertoire of cells to treat or prevent disease.

Ronald G. Crystal, M.D., director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine, and his colleagues have developed an innovative application of gene therapy ­ essentially blood vessels on demand. They have injected copies of the gene responsible for the production of a specific protein ­ vascular endothelial growth factor - directly into targeted areas of heart muscle. The researchers hope the newly inserted gene will stimulate the heart to grow brand new blood vessels. And results to date have been promising.

Neuroscience studies the intricate functions of the brain and nervous system, promising to revolutionize the treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease, among many others.

Helping to build on the existing strength of Weill Cornell's Neuroscience Program, Steven Goldman, M.D., professor of neurology and neuroscience, is leading research into the brain's ability to regenerate and restore function. He is investigating therapeutic remyelination using human neural and white matter progenitor cells. Myelin is the substance of nerve tissue that conducts impulses from one cell to another. In multiple sclerosis and other diseases, the lack of myelin damages brain tissue. Goldman is investigating the use of progenitor cells derived from the human brain to repair this damage.

Structural biology analyzes the structure and function of biological molecules and compounds through three-dimensional visualization, with the goal of designing better therapies and treatment protocols for numerous diseases, including heart disease, AIDS, diabetes and others.

Min Lu, assistant professor of biochemistry, has investigated the structure and fusion mechanisms of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other retroviruses. By analyzing the architecture of HIV with powerful new technologies, Lu can work to design new drugs to bind to the virus and prevent or inhibit its growth.

Other researchers hired under the strategic plan include Craig Basson, David Eliezer, Neil Harrison, Chris Lima and Hao Wu. They are among the 13 new tenured faculty, out of the goal of 30, recruited to date. New recruits include four of the 12 sought in genetic medicine, three of seven in neuroscience and six of 11 in structural biology.

Meanwhile, building is well underway. In the spring, the medical college dedicated a $39 million renovation of seven floors (plus one mechanical floor) of the Whitney Pavilion for new research labs.

"The choice to recruit mostly junior scientists conducting pioneering research, incorporating their uniqueness and expertise into our current faculty, will invigorate the intellectual atmosphere here and complement the strengths found at such neighboring institutions as Sloan-Kettering and The Rockefeller University, with whom we are collaborating in our recruitment," Gotto said.

This summer, the three institutions, with Cornell's Ithaca campus, announced a $160-million Tri-Institutional Collaboration in basic biological research, inspired by a private donor who is providing half the total cost.