The Weill Institute’s four-fold mission:

• Establish Cornell as a premier university in cell biology research.
• Stimulate new discoveries that can be translated into medical advances that improve human health.
• Attract the best students, postdocs and scientists.
• Establish an environment that encourages collaboration and the transfer of ideas and technology.

The Institute not only carries out cutting-edge research but also enhances the educational environment at Cornell. In addition to research opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, the Institute organizes symposia, invites visiting scientists to come and share their expertise, and contributes to the Cornell community with the latest scientific ideas and technologies.

The Weill Institute has 12 faculty members, in the fields of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Plant Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Microbiology. There are over 150 students, postdocs, and technicians working in Institute labs. The Institute also has an administrative staff of six who support labs, events, grants, and more.

A brief history of the Institute:

In 2001, Steve Tanksley, a distinguished plant geneticist at Cornell, spear-headed a faculty movement called the Cornell Genomics Initiative whose goal was to encourage the University to invest in exploiting genomic data. As a result, in May 2002, the University announced a new program called the New Life Sciences Initiative and appointed a high-profile external advisory committee chaired by Harold Varmus, then the Director of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute and former Director of the NIH. The advisory committee met for the first time in the fall of 2002. The centerpiece of the New Life Sciences Initiative was to be the construction of a 250,000 sq. ft. cutting-edge research building initially called the Life Sciences Technology Building, designed by the famous Cornell alum Richard Meier ’57.

Former Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and Provost Biddy Martin set up a committee, chaired by Rick Cerione, Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology and Molecular Medicine, to make recommendations regarding the new facility. Their final recommendations included the following key components: that the Institute should have twelve faculty, a significant endowment, and be led by a distinguished scientist.

Following a nationwide search, the position of Institute Director was offered to Scott Emr from the University of California at San Diego. After extensive negotiations, including redesign of the floors in the new building, Scott accepted the position in May, 2006, and arrived with his lab from San Diego in April 2007. In June, Joan and Sandy Weill gave $50M towards the New Life Sciences Initiative that was applied to the construction. As a result, the building name was changed to Weill Hall and the Institute was named the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology.