Based in New York City, Francis Barany, PhD, is a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine, where his laboratory works at the intersection of cancer biology, molecular diagnostics, and drug discovery. He often jokes that his middle name is “controls,” a shorthand for his insistence that experiments should challenge an idea rather than merely confirm it.
Barany’s team is developing blood-based assays for colorectal cancer by examining DNA methylation and other molecular signals. The goal is to make cancer detection more accurate, accessible, and affordable. These methods remain investigational and require further clinical validation before they could be used for routine screening.
Earlier in his career, Barany developed ligase chain reaction and ligase detection reaction, methods that use DNA ligase to distinguish small genetic differences. More recently, he has helped develop CURE-PROs, a preclinical platform in which smaller components reversibly assemble inside cells and direct selected proteins toward degradation.
Barany also teaches and mentors medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers. Elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2016, he earned his PhD in microbiology from The Rockefeller University. His PubMed publications and official USPTO patent records provide primary source access to his research and patent activity.