Scott Emr has been reappointed to a five-year term as director of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, announced Robert Buhrman, Cornell’s senior vice provost for...

Prof. Adrienne Roeder, plant biology, is new to Cornell. She is continuing her postdoctoral work researching the role of cell division in the development of plant tissues.  Roeder works in both the Department of Plant Biology and the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular...

For the first time, a new computational method allows researchers to identify which specific molecular mechanisms are altered by genetic mutations in proteins that lead to disease. And they can apply this method to any genetic...

TORC1 is a master regulator in cells, playing a key role in such diverse processes as gene expression and protein synthesis. While previous studies have described the role that TORC1 plays in these processes, a new Cornell study has discovered yet another process where the molecule is a central player: It maintains the composition of proteins in a cell’s plasma membrane, the organelle that defines the outer surface of the...

TORC1 is a master regulator in cells, playing a key role in such diverse processes as gene expression and protein synthesis. While previous studies have described the role that TORC1 plays in these processes, a new Cornell study has discovered yet another process where the molecule is a central player: It maintains the composition of proteins in a cell’s plasma membrane, the organelle that defines the outer surface of the cell. “The problem is you have hundreds of different proteins at the cell’s surface, and all of them must be turned over in a certain, regulated way,” said Jason MacGurn, a postdoctoral researcher in the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, who co-led the study with graduate student, Pi-Chiang Hsu. MacGurn and Hsu work in the lab of...

Although all cells in an organism have the same DNA, cells function differently based on the genes they express. While most studies of gene expression focus on activities in the cell’s nucleus, a new Cornell study finds that processes outside the nucleus — along the cell membrane — also play important roles in gene...

Cornell’s Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology is on track to becoming fully operational by 2013, says Director Scott Emr. The institute, made possible with a gift from Sanford ’55 and Joan Weill, opened its labs and offices in 2008 in Weill Hall. The state-of-the-art research building is part of Cornell’s New Life Sciences Initiative to drive revolutionary advances in the life sciences by integrating biology with the physical sciences, social sciences, chemistry, engineering and computer science. The institute aims to place Cornell at the forefront of cell biology research with scientists who seek to answer basic questions on the structure, function and dynamics of living...

Like a scout that runs ahead to spot signs of damage or danger, a protein in yeast safeguards the yeast cells’ genome during replication — a process vulnerable to errors when DNA is copied — according to new Cornell research. Researchers from Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology have discovered how a protein called Mec1 plays the role of “guardian of the genome,” explained Marcus Smolka, assistant professor of molecular biology and genetics. The findings are detailed in the July 30 edition of the journal Molecular...

New research from assistant professor in molecular biology Marcus Smolka has shown how a protein called Mec1 can help protect against factors that may harm, or simply help repair...

The American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) has elected Anthony Bretscher and fellow Cornell scientist John Helnmann as part of their new 78-person new cohort. They join 2,000 fellows representing a myriad of specialities in microbiology, spearheading innovation in their respective...

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the jounal Science, has elected Tony Bretscher as a new fellow among 531 researchers to receive...

Scott Emr, director of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and professor of molecular biology and genetics, has been elected an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), an honor bestowed upon only a few Americans each...

The Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology — a cornerstone of Cornell’s plan to restructure the life sciences — has exceeded expectations for its first year by hiring four outstanding young researchers, according to the institute’s director, Scott Emr. “And we’re planning to hire seven more faculty members over the next two to three years,” said Anthony Bretscher, Cornell professor of molecular biology and genetics and the Weill Institute’s associate director. The three assistant professors and one research scientist will arrive in Ithaca in August, soon after the Weill Institute takes up residence in Weill Hall, Cornell’s new life sciences technology building, in...

Scott Emr, director of Cornell’s Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, and Richard Durrett, Cornell professor of mathematics, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Emr, who joined the Cornell faculty in 2007, works on uncovering the molecular details of essential processes that occur in all cells. For example, Emr has helped explain how proteins get in and out of cells, processes called endocytosis and secretion that have provided other scientists with new pathways and targets for cutting-edge research on virology, HIV/AIDS, cancer, immunology, development and...

Anthony Bretscher is slated to be the new associate director of the new Cornell Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, scheduled to open in 2008, helping Scott Emr (currently at University of California – San Diego) to develop the...

Scott Emr approaches science first by asking a basic question. Then comes the hard work of finding an answer. A highly respected biologist who has been hired as the Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of ’56 endowed director of a new Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology — the cornerstone of the $650 million New Life Sciences Initiative — Emr has used this scientific method to uncover the molecular details of essential processes that occur in all cells. Emr (pronounced Emmer), currently a University of California-San Diego School of Medicine professor of cellular and molecular medicine and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will begin his Cornell appointment in February...