Career
Elemento joined Weill Cornell Medicine in 2008 and became full professor of physiology and biophysics in 2019. [6] In September 2017 he was appointed director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, succeeding founding director Mark Rubin. [1] He also serves as co-director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction alongside Christopher E. Mason. [7]
In 2020 Elemento launched a hospital-wide whole-genome-sequencing (WGS) initiative with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Illumina. Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News described it as "the largest clinical WGS effort of its kind in the United States," [8] and The New York Times Magazine featured the program in a major article about the transformative potential of genomic sequencing. [3]
Elemento has served as a public voice on the adoption and responsible development of precision oncology and medical AI. In March 2018 Wired reported on Medicare's decision to reimburse genomic cancer testing and quoted Elemento on the mainstreaming of sequencing in care, [9] and he later argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that regulation should not slow access to sequencing-based diagnostics. [10] In 2025, he published an opinion piece in STAT News advocating for randomized controlled trials in medical AI implementation, arguing that Silicon Valley companies should be held to the same rigorous standards as traditional medical interventions. [11]
In September 2022 Elemento and otolaryngologist Yaël Bensoussan became co-principal investigators of Voice as a Biomarker of Health, a National Institutes of Health Bridge2AI consortium. [4] The Verge characterized the effort as "an attempt to turn the human voice into a new vital sign." [12]
In 2024, Elemento co-chaired a workshop with Regina Barzilay convened by the National Cancer Institute, ARPA-H, and Department of Energy on "Using AI Approaches to Target Undruggable Cancer Targets," which brought together leading scientists to address one of oncology's most challenging problems. [13] The insights from this workshop led to a published Nature Biotechnology commentary on redefining druggable targets with artificial intelligence. [14]
Outside academia Elemento co-founded Volastra Therapeutics with Lewis C. Cantley and Samuel Bakhoum. Volastra is developing treatments targeting chromosomal instability in cancer, with two small molecules currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company raised $44 million in seed funding before securing an additional $60 million in Series A financing in 2023, along with a strategic partnership with Microsoft to leverage AI in addressing cancer metastasis. [15] [16] Two of his doctoral students, Kaitlyn Gayvert and Neel Madhukar, were named to Forbes "30 Under 30: Healthcare" in 2016 for work completed in his lab. [17]
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