Instructor in Clinical Investigation
Nicolás Gómez-Banoy, M.D., is an endocrinologist-scientist and Instructor of Clinical Investigation focused on investigating how adipose tissue dysfunction contributes to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. He received his medical training in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of James Lo at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he uncovered the role of a complement factor in regulating the survival and identity of insulin-producing beta cells in the context of diabetes. After, Nico joined the Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Program as part of the medical research track pathway and finished his IM and endocrinology training. In Paul Cohen’s laboratory at Rockefeller, he specifically studies the genetic and pharmacologic determinants of brown fat in humans, with the goal of harnessing this tissue to develop new treatments for cardiometabolic disease. His research also examines how obesity and adiposity influence responses to cancer immunotherapy. Outside the lab, Nico enjoys playing soccer and tennis and taking his dog Mora to the park.
Areas of Interest/Expertise: Human brown fat, genetics of cardiometabolic traits and disease, adipose tissue and response to cancer therapies
Fellowships, awards, or major grants:
Nico is a recipient of an Emerging-Generation Award from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and a Senior Fellowship in Biomedical Science from the Charles H. Revson Foundation.
He is supported by multiple from multiple grants, including those from the Marlene Hess Center for Research on Women’s Health and Biomedicine, the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Center for the Study of Inflammation, Microbiome, and Metabolism, the Shapiro-Silverberg Fund for the Advancement of Translational Research, the Black Family Therapeutic Development Fund, and the Burroughs Wellcome Weill Cornell Physician Scientist Program.
Selected publications:
- Gómez-Banoy N, Guseh JS, Li G, Rubio-Navarro A, Chen T, Poirier B, Putzel G, Rosselot C, Pabón MA, Camporez JP, Bhambhani V, Hwang SJ, Yao C, Perry RJ, Mukherjee S, Larson MG, Levy D, Dow LE, Shulman GI, Dephoure N, Garcia-Ocana A, Hao M, Spiegelman BM, Ho JE, Lo JC. Adipsin preserves beta cells in diabetic mice and associates with protection from type 2 diabetes in humans. Nat Med. 2019;25(11):1739-1747. doi:10.1038/s41591-019-0610-4.
- Gómez-Banoy N, Ortiz EJ, Jiang CS, Dagher C, Sevilla C, Girshman J, Pagano AM, Plodkowski AJ, Zammarrelli WA, Mueller JJ, Aghajanian C, Weigelt B, Makker V, Cohen P, Osorio JC. Body mass index and adiposity influence responses to immune checkpoint inhibition in endometrial cancer. J Clin Invest. 2024;134(17):e180516. doi:10.1172/JCI180516.
- Rubio-Navarro A, Gómez-Banoy N, Stoll L, Dündar F, Mawla AM, Ma L, Cortada E, Zumbo P, Li A, Reiterer M, Montoya-Oviedo N, Homan EA, Imai N, Gilani A, Liu C, Naji A, Yang B, Chong ACN, Cohen DE, Chen S, Cao J, Pitt GS, Huising MO, Betel D, Lo JC. A beta cell subset with enhanced insulin secretion and glucose metabolism is reduced in type 2 diabetes. Nat Cell Biol. 2023;25(4):565-578. doi:10.1038/s41556-023-01103-1.