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Welcome to the Weill Institute

Welcome to the Weill Institute for Cell & Molecular Biology at Cornell University. Since 2008, The Weill Institute has thrived as an interdisciplinary hub of life science research at Cornell. Our faculty perform cutting edge cell biological research, from basic molecular mechanisms to human diseases. We bring together faculty, students, and postdocs from outstanding programs across campus in research areas that might not otherwise engage in crosstalk. From Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Computational Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology & Genetics, to Plant Biology; we seek to provide an environment that encourages cutting-edge research and the transfer of ideas and technology.

A cross-college collaboration, led by Paula Cohen and Marcus Smolka, is opening new doors in the study of male infertility by breaking down a key step in sperm formation. Isolating the intricacies of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation, will now enable researchers to identify what happens when that key step fails.

March 12, 2024

Crosstalk between auxin and cytokinin contributes to widespread developmental processes, including root and shoot meristem maintenance, phyllotaxy, and vascular patterning. However, our understanding of crosstalk between these hormones is limited primarily to angiosperms. The moss Physcomitrium patens (formerly Physcomitrella patens) is a powerful system for studying plant hormone function. Auxin and cytokinin play similar roles in regulating moss gametophore (shoot) architecture, to those in flowering plant shoots. However, auxin–cytokinin crosstalk is poorly understood in moss. Here we find that the ratio of auxin to cytokinin is an important determinant of development in P. patens, especially during leaf development and branch stem cell initiation. Addition of high levels of auxin to P. patens gametophores blocks leaf outgrowth. However, simultaneous addition of high levels of both auxin and cytokinin partially restores leaf outgrowth, suggesting that the ratio of these hormones is the predominant factor. Likewise, during branch initiation and outgrowth, chemical inhibition of auxin synthesis phenocopies cytokinin application. Finally, cytokinin-insensitive mutants resemble plants with altered auxin signaling and are hypersensitive to auxin. In summary, our results suggest that the ratio between auxin and cytokinin signaling is the basis for developmental decisions in the moss gametophore.

November 28, 2023

Postdoctoral researchers Julie Heffler and Avilash Singh Yadav have been awarded the 2023 Sam and Nancy Fleming Research Fellowships by the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at Cornell University. These prestigious three-year fellowships support talented young researchers who are doing cutting-edge research in basic biomedical sciences and are planning careers in biological or medical research. “The Fleming Fellowships provide exceptional young scientists the support and freedom to pursue ambitious projects,” said Marcus Smolka, interim director of the Weill Institute and professor of molecular biology and genetics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “The 2023 recipients are brilliant researchers. Their highly innovative proposals, one on mammalian hearts and the other on organ shape and size control in plants, beautifully illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of the Weill Institute.” The Fleming Fellowship will enable Heffler to explore a mechanism that could slow the progression of heart disease in people who have a genetic mutation that causes dilated cardiomyopathy and early death. “People whose hearts have mutations in the LMNA gene have cardiac complications with very limited treatment options,” Heffler said. “The LMNA gene controls the lamina, a dense meshwork inside the nuclei of heart cells that acts as a shock absorber. The mutation makes the lamina weaker. Since heart cells are constantly stretching and contracting, the weakened lamina eventually develops breaks, leading to DNA damage and ultimately cell death. Unlike other organs, a heart can’t regenerate. So when the cells die, that part of the heart is essentially dead. We need a way to intervene before those cells begin to die, or at least to reduce how quickly they die. Ideally, these patients would never get to the point where they need a heart transplant.” One intervention that shows promise is disrupting the LINC (Linker of the Nucleo- and Cytoskeleton) complex, a part of the heart cell that connects the lamina and nucleus to the cell’s cytoskeleton. Previous research showed that disrupting the LINC complex slowed the progression of heart disease, but how and why is not understood. To help answer this question, Heffler will use the Fleming Fellowship to investigate whether heart disease is driven by forces pushing and pulling on the nucleus or by gene expression gone awry, both of which the LINC complex can regulate. Microtubules within a heart cell’s cytoskeleton exert substantial force on the lamina when the heart contracts and may contribute to a deleterious transmission of force that damages the cells. Alternately, heart disease may be driven by abnormalities in protein kinase A (PKA) signaling, which regulates heart contractions, and the AKAP6 gene. Knowing the factors that contribute to disease progression would facilitate the creation of more refined therapeutics. “My goal is to understand the mechanisms well enough that we can find the right therapies. Do we need a drug that reduces the force transmission before it breaks the cell? Many exist already that could potentially work, or we could develop new ones,” said Heffler. “Or do we need to look for a gene therapy that keeps the cell from breaking?” For Yadav, the Fleming Fellowship positions him to answer a foundational question in biology: What determines consistency in the shape and size of organs? “Growing up I assumed we already knew this. Think about the index fingers on our hands. They are roughly the same size and shape. How did they sense they had to grow to a certain extent and not beyond that?” Yadav said. “Knowing how organ shapes are determined would be a landmark contribution and would have huge impact. As one example, in regenerative medicine, the progress of growing organs in vitro is hindered because we don’t fully understand how growth across tissue layers is coordinated to form the organ shape.” Using sepals in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana (mouse-ear cress) as the model to understand organ shape development will be at the core of Yadav’s work. Arabidopsis is a standard model in plant biology, akin to fruit flies and mice in animal biology. Sepals are leaf-like structures that protect a developing flower bud from pathogens and other harm. To make a tight seal, all four sepals must have uniform smoothness, size and shape. In previous research, Yadav developed a state-of-the-art live confocal imaging technique to document the growth rate of sepals. He then used genetic manipulation to cause the outer layer of sepals to buckle instead of maintaining the desired smoothness. He found that the ASYMMETRIC LEAVES 2 (AS2) gene plays a major role in growth coordination, but how the AS2 gene works remains unknown. The Fleming Fellowship will help Yadav discover that mechanism. Using his live imaging technique, Yadav will test whether AS2 coordinates growth via small RNAs that work to repress genes involved in hormonal response and fine-tune growth at the cellular level. Mutants of AS2 will be used comparatively to elucidate how AS2 coordinates the sepal growth rate to achieve smoothness and uniformity, and what causes differential growth rates and buckling. The Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, established in 2008, is an interdisciplinary hub of research in molecular biology and genetics, biomedical engineering, chemistry and chemical biology, computational biology, microbiology and plant biology. Beth Goelzer Lyons is a freelance writer for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.

November 7, 2023

Arf GTPases are central regulators of the Golgi complex, which serves as the nexus of membrane-trafficking pathways in eukaryotic cells. Arf proteins recruit dozens of effectors to modify membranes, sort cargos, and create and tether transport vesicles, and are therefore essential for orchestrating Golgi trafficking. The regulation of Arf activity is controlled by the action of Arf-GEFs which activate via nucleotide exchange, and Arf-GAPs which inactivate via nucleotide hydrolysis. The localization dynamics of Arf GTPases and their Arf-GAPs during Golgi maturation have not been reported. Here we use the budding yeast model to examine the temporal localization of the Golgi Arf-GAPs. We also determine the mechanisms used by the Arf-GAP Age2 to localize to the Golgi. We find that the catalytic activity of Age2 and a conserved sequence in the unstructured C-terminal domain of Age2 are both required for Golgi localization. This sequence is predicted to form an amphipathic helix and mediates direct binding of Age2 to membranes in vitro. We also report the development of a probe for sensing active Arf1 in living cells and use this probe to characterize the temporal dynamics of Arf1 during Golgi maturation.   Read more at: https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E23-07-0283

November 1, 2023

Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology is pleased to announce our 7th Institute Symposium on Cell Signaling and Molecular Dynamics, on October 10th, 2023. We will be joined by 7 distinguished scientists:   Tania Baker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thomas Bernhardt, Harvard University James Chen, University of Texas Southwestern Chuan He, The University of Chicago Titia de Lange, The Rockefeller University Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee, Carnegie Institute for Science Sara Wickstrom, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine     This year, we are also thrilled to present the inaugural Emerging Scholars Symposium on October 9th, 2023. The Weill Institute has selected 8 exceptional senior Ph.D. students in the life sciences, from institutions throughout the U.S., to share their research and explore post-doctoral collaboration with the Cornell community.   Registration for both events is open until Monday, September 25th, 2023, for all members of the Cornell community and Weill Cornell Medicine. We look forward to seeing you there!

October 10, 2023

Eight graduate students from across the U.S. to attend inaugural Weill Institute Emerging Scholars Symposium in Oct. 2023

August 25, 2023

Core Values

World-class research requires a mind open to new ideas and discoveries. The drive to discover and to create lives in each of us. The Weill Institute is committed to a diverse and inclusive community with the highest level of integrity and professional standards. We desire to promote a positive, equitable and creative environment, including freedom from harassment and discrimination. These commitments reflect our institutional values. We work to adhere to them through our policies, employment and management practices.