Hot Topics

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Newsletters December 4, 2019

No. 458: Ink flows, Whoppers sizzle and cyber-defenders rise – plus, a critical organoid donation

  When you’re having fun: Hard to believe, dear readers, but time is running out on 2019, as we fly through this first workweek of the last month of the year. It’s Wednesday, Dec. 4, and to our many readers in Tonga, a peaceful Tupou I Day, honoring 19th century King Tupou Maeakafa Ngininginiofolanga (a.k.a. George Tupou). Attention, cookie monsters: Today’s your day, too – National Cookie Day, to be precise, celebrated in the States…

Biotech December 3, 2019

In TD grant, big win for CSHL, Tuveson and society

By GREGORY ZELLER // A cutting-edge Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory cancer-detection science will get cutting-edgier, thanks to a stocking stuffer from TD Bank. New Jersey-based TD announced Tuesday more than $3 million in fresh grants, comprising the second funding round of its TD Ready Challenge, an application-based national competition designed to balance social scales while innovating early disease detection and intervention. Among them: a $750,000 award for CSHL aimed at advancing organoid-based clinical tests –…

Newsletters November 1, 2019

No. 451: On clusters, blockbusters and Hustlers (plus meatless meals and clean campuses)

  That happened fast: Remember, like, last week, when it was January and we were all, “Wow, 2019!” and you were still writing “2018” on your checks? Well, it’s November. Penultimonth: November 1, to be exact, and a Friday to boot, as we wrap up this busy week of socioeconomic innovation and kick off the second-to-last month of the year. This date is the earliest on which South African Children’s Day, Turkmenistan National Health Day…

News October 31, 2019

Whole body, whole world in CSHL’s new Demerec lab

By GREGORY ZELLER // A world-class scientific institution has gotten worldlier, and classier, with a $75 million upgrade focused squarely on cancer research. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory this week cut the ribbon on its Center for Therapeutics Research, located inside a significantly renovated Demerec Laboratory Building, which is ready to rock following a two-year retuning. The transformation of the Demerec building, opened in 1953 and named for Croatian-American geneticist Milislav Demerec, into a state-of-the-art therapeutics-research…

Biotech July 30, 2019

Writing the book, literally, on bioelectronic medicine

By GREGORY ZELLER // The pioneering work of several key researchers has made Long Island a focal point in the emerging science of bioelectronic medicine – their combined knowledge and achievements could fill a book. And it has. Fresh off the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press comes “Bioelectronic Medicine: A Subject Collection From Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine,” which belies that awkward academic title with a sharp and exciting focus: groundbreaking progress in bioelectronics,…

Biotech July 25, 2019

With pilot run ending, top marks for LI Bioscience Hub

By GREGORY ZELLER // The Long Island Bioscience Hub is making the grade, according to a report card prepared by independent evaluators. Since launching in 2015, the LIBH – a National Institutes of Health effort uniting Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research – has trained hundreds of innovators, helped fund dozens of technology-development projects and assisted the formation of numerous startup companies and…

Newsletters June 7, 2019

No. 412: On Prince, Pence, Columbia, clams and Northwell Health’s new ‘ranch’ dressing

  Finishing what you started: Another busy workweek ends, dear readers, and another warm weekend dawns. It’s Friday, June 7, out there, and you’ve completed yet another hard-run marathon of socioeconomic progress. Well done. Here’s the scoop: As a reward, please enjoy National Chocolate Ice Cream Day. Here, them roar: You know who likes chocolate ice cream? Many of the 1.7 million members of Lions Club International, the world’s largest service organization, which launched in…

Awards and Events November 28, 2018

Ten LI scientists earn prestigious AAAS fellowships

By GREGORY ZELLER // Ten Long Island scientists have received a prestigious peer-selected distinction, selected as 2018 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The high honor, a members-only selection by other AAAS members, recognizes “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications,” according to Stony Brook University, which led the Long Island region with six fellows placed among this year’s 416 total honorees. Two Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory…

Newsletters July 6, 2018

No. 320: Calling ET, incentivizing the HBD, hopping the Huntington shuttle – and happy birthday, Dalai Lama!

Well, that was quick: Whether you vacationed the first or second half of the week, or merely slept in on Wednesday’s national holiday, here we are, dear readers – the end of a sweet, sweaty and abbreviated workweek. It’s July 6 out there, and if you had Epaminondas defeating Cleombrotus I in the Battle of Leuctra on his date (or thereabouts) in 371 B.C., you’re a winner. Finger-lickin’ good: It’s also National Fried Chicken Day,…

Health May 29, 2018

At Elmezzi, it’s the thought (not the size) that counts

By GREGORY ZELLER // At its 58th commence exercises on May 18, counting bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, Stony Brook University conferred 7,185 total diplomas upon happy graduates – a school record, a Long Island-based-graduating-class record and a proud achievement indeed. And then there were two, at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. That’s the size of the 2018 graduating class of the Feinstein Institute’s Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine, which on May 24…

Biotech May 23, 2018

Envisagenics’ artificial intelligence wows real investors

By GREGORY ZELLER // They’re on a major roll at Envisagenics Inc., a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory spinoff that’s piling up some hefty research grants. Now based in New York City, the biotech announced this week that it’s been awarded a $1.5 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the National Institutes of Health – the second time the NIH has backed the data-crunching startup. The new award is earmarked for the continued…

Economic Development May 10, 2018

Heavy-hitting LI BioMentor Initiative makes it official

By GREGORY ZELLER // A high-octane effort to unite regional bioentrepreneurs with qualified business mentors has formally launched – though the Long Island BioMentor Initiative is already quite busy. The LIBMI officially accepted its first program applications in a “launch event” Thursday morning at the de Seversky Mansion on the New York Institute of Technology’s Old Westbury campus. But the BioMentor Initiative is already a year into a “pilot phase,” according to founding mentor Mark…

The Debrief May 3, 2018

Debrief: One year in, NYIT Prez Foley sees LI’s promise

Decades of high-level experience in university-based research and strategic planning, including 10 months at the helm of the New York Institute of Technology, infuse everything Hank Foley says about higher education and its role in the larger socioeconomic scheme. Foley, who succeeded former provost and interim NYIT President Rahmat Shoureshi in June 2017 and was “officially installed” last month, came to New York from the University of Missouri system, where the longtime executive VP (and…

Newsletters April 20, 2018

No. 300: Anniversary edition, starring Shakespeare, Dutch Reagan and Academy Award-winner Jessica Lange (and introducing Vengo)

An imperfect 300: Welcome, friends, to your latest Innovate LI newsletter, and not just any Innovate LI newsletter, but the 300th since founder John Kominicki e-blasted the first more than three years ago. That’s a lot of historical anecdotes, celebrity birthdays, regional shout-outs, hyperlinks, funding reports and Stuff We’re Reading. And we wanted to do something truly spectacular to recognize our tercentenary edition. So, we came up with… Suggested serving: These foods/serving sizes all contain…

Newsletters April 18, 2018

No. 299: On ‘natural marijuana,’ (unrelated) reef madness, the patient experience and the myth of the innovation lab

Turning point: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and the midpoint of another productive week in Long Island socioeconomic innovation. A special hello to freshly minted newsletter subscribers David, Nina, Mark, Pam and Franco. Welcome to the show, please keep your safety belt fastened at all times. It’s April 18 out there: And happy anniversary to Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military newspaper – and one-time home of an eager young cub named Kominicki – that…