Life Sciences Newsletter: March 2008
Basic Science Discoveries
- A Cornell-led study finds that ancient migration out of Africa left a stamp on European genetic diversity.
- A Weill Cornell team closes in on taurine's activity in the brain (Red Bull drinkers, take note).
- Lee Kraus reveals how a protein binds to genes and regulates them across the human genome.
- Watt Webb and colleagues shed light on the mechanics of gene transcription.
Food and Nutrition
- Students see firsthand how Asia is developing its first genetically engineered food crop.
- Edward Buckler and colleagues make a genetic discovery can boost the provitamin A content of Africa's maize.
- Food science chair Chang Lee finds that a fruit a day may keep Alzheimer's at bay.
- Three Cornell researchers will share $5.5 with Yale to study major cereal crops.
World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen has made news on two fronts:
- At the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, he discussed why business as usual won't fix the world's food system.
- Through a free online course on world food policy, people around the world can use the knowledge in their communities.
Health and Medicine
- Discovery that seminal fluid can affect a female fruit fly's fertility offers clues to human reproduction.
- Cornell receives almost $2 million from New York State for stem cell research.
- Researchers at Cornell and two other institutions implant embryonic cells into damaged hearts, preventing life-threatening arrhythmia.
- New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell has created a new world-class cancer center.
- John Parker receives the 2007 Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence.
Environment
Cornell takes the lead in alternative energy efforts:
- A new $6 million research lab will produce ethanol and other biofuels from grasses and other biomass.
- Cornell hosts a symposium on developing biofuels in a sustainable way.
- PhD student Ashlee McCaskill and professor Robert Turgeon show that how plants transport sugars could important in the era of global warming.
- Jefferson Tester '66, MS '67 was recruited from MIT to be the first Croll Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems.
Campaign Updates
- An overview of recent progress in the New Life Sciences Initiative.
- Andy Paul '78 sees an opportunity to attract "future stars" to Cornell in a time of great life sciences discoveries.
- Janet Swanson, the wife of John Swanson '61 BME '62, MME '63, gives the College of Veterinary Medicine its largest-ever gift: over $7 million.
- Ronald O. Perelman makes a$50 million gift to establish the Perelman heart care center and expand reproductive medicine.
- President Skorton and other leaders discuss the importance of research funding and the role of higher education.
- See the Physical Sciences Building construction webcam.