With a $7.5 million gift from the Friedman Family Foundation, endowed by Stephen and Vice Chair Overseer Barbara Friedman, Weill Cornell Medicine has established an innovative cross-campus center dedicated to improving human health through research in the complex relationship between nutrition, inflammation and the development of disease.
The Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation will create new programs across Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus, harnessing key resources to study the interaction between diet, the immune system and the microbiome – the genetic material generated by the viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites that live in or on the human body.
The two Cornell campuses are working together to engage other donors to match the support provided by the Friedmans and the Friedman Family Foundation with the vision of a $15 million initiative that will foster groundbreaking research and provide state-of-the-art education in nutrition, inflammation and the microbiome for medical and graduate students and clinicians.
The Friedman Center will be directed by Dr. David Artis, a world leader in immunology, inflammation and microbiome research. He is director of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the Michael Kors Professor in Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Researchers at the center will work to develop treatments and preventive strategies for illnesses including cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease – virtually every disease area represented in the Belfer Research Building, says Dr. Artis. To read more, click here.