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Al Reynolds passes away
Albert “Al” Reynolds, celebrated and respected professor of pharmacology, emeritus, passed away earlier in November. He had retired in August after 26 years at Vanderbilt University.
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Monteggia and Kavalali are awarded the Anna-Monika Prize
Lisa Monteggia (Pharmacology) and Ege Kavalali (Pharmacology) have been awarded the first prize by the Anna-Monika Foundation.
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Virologist Barney Graham honored at Deans Lecture
On October 17th, Barney Graham received the Distinguished Alumni Award, presented by Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, followed by a lecture titled “Reflections on Pandemics and the Future of Medicine.” A summary of the event and a video recording of the lecture can be found here.
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Lindsley selected as 2022 ASPET Fellow
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Zepeda wins award at National Diversity in STEM Conference
José Zepeda (Pharmacology, Brad Grueter lab) attended the 2022 SACNAS conference in Puerto Rico and won a Student Presentation Award for his poster presentation.
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Undergraduates receive ABRCMS awards
Five undergraduates affiliated with Vanderbilt received awards at the recent Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists conference:
- Kit Neikirk (University of Hawaii at Hilo, Antentor Hinton Jr. lab)
- Soziema Dauda (Belmont University, Neil Osheroff lab)
- Shanay Desai (Vanderbilt University, Michael King lab)
- Rishik Bethi (Vanderbilt University, Erin Calipari lab)
- Ralph Francois (Vanderbilt University, Antonia Kaczkurkin lab).
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Perez wins Karpay Award
Ivette Perez (Tina Iverson lab) was named the 2023 recipient of The Karpay Award in Structural Biology.
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PMI recognizes researchers with annual awards
The Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology recently recognized community members with the following awards:
- The 2022 Sydney P. Colowick Award for Outstanding Graduate Student:
- Yvonne Latour (Molecular Pathology and Immunology, lab of Jeff Rathmell)
- Andrea Shiakolas ([program name], lab of NAME Wilson)
- The 2022 Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow Award: Hualiang Pi (lab of Eric Skaar)
- The 2022 Charles Randall Prize in PMI Teaching
- Kristen Ogden (Pediatrics)
- Luc Van Kaer (PMI)
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Stephens receives NIH funding
Dominique Stephens (Antentor Hinton Jr. lab) recently received a trainee fellowship grant from the NIH.
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Neikirk wins DOORS award
Kit Neikirk (Antentor Hinton Jr. lab), received a Promega Diversification of Our Research Scientists Scholarship and Mentorship award, recognizing and empowering undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds studying life sciences.
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Grants spur efforts to create molecular ‘atlases’ of organs
Jeff Spraggins (Cell and Developmental Biology) and co-principal investigators Richard Caprioli (Biochemistry) and Renã Robinson (Chemistry) received grants totaling $13.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop molecular “atlases” of the brain, kidney, eye and other tissues.
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Wilson earns NIH nanoengineering grant
A new National Institutes of Health grant will allow John Wilson (Chemical and Biomolecular Informatics) to explore ways to use nanoparticles to stimulate immunity pathways in children, with the aim of making immunotherapy treatments for neuroblastoma more effective.
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Choi lands $100K grant
The Gastric Cancer Foundation has awarded a one-year, $100,000 research grant to Eunyoung Choi (Surgery) to support her efforts to find a way to disrupt the transformation of dysplastic stem cells into stomach cancer.
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Vanderbilt-Ancora partnership advances research for rare form of epilepsy
Dave Weaver (Pharmacology) and Eric Delpire (Anesthesiology) have partnered with Ancora Innovation LLC to develop a clinically viable compound for a rare form of epilepsy.
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Welcome, new faculty!
Our Basic Sciences departments have been busy hiring and welcome eight new faculty into their ranks since July 2022:
- Biochemistry: Melissa Farrow, research assistant professor; Martin Dufresne, research instructor
- Cell and Developmental Biology: Neil Dani, assistant professor; Evan Krystofiak, research assistant professor; Rocío Tapia Pastrana, research assistant professor
- Molecular Physiology and Biophysics: Qingyu Tang, research instructor
- Pharmacology: Prashant Donthamsetti, assistant professor; Celeste Greer, research instructor
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Faculty promotions
Congratulations to the following faculty on their recent promotions:
- Cell and Developmental Biology: Cynthia Reinhart-King, University Distinguished Professor
- Molecular Physiology and Biophysics: Jose Maldonado, research assistant professor
- Biochemistry: Phil Kingsley, research assistant professor; Joshua Bauer, research associate professor
- Medical Education and Administration: Ashley Brady, associate professor
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Johnson announced as new DGS for Cancer Biology
Rachelle Johnson (Medicine) will serve as the new director of graduate studies for the Program in Cancer Biology, succeeding Jin Chen (Cell and Developmental Biology), who served in that position for over 16 years.
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Waghmare participates in SEC Emerging Scholars Program
Indrayani Waghmare (Cell and Developmental Biology) was one of five Vanderbilt doctoral and postdoctoral scholars who recently participated in the SEC Networking and Career Fair hosted by the University of Missouri. This program is part of the SEC Emerging Scholars Program and aims to prepare participants, who are from historically underrepresented groups, for faculty positions.
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Evans joins biochemistry
Lisa Evans has joined the Department of Biochemistry as its new program assistant.
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Basic Sciences hosts inaugural Hispanic Heritage Month Conference and Workshop
Led by Felysha Jenkins and Elsie Spencer (Hinton lab), this inaugural event honored Hispanic Heritage Month (celebrated September 15 to October 15) and showcased Hispanic and Latinx speakers. The organizers also recognized local and national members of the research community with an awards ceremony.
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Hidden Disabilities videos now online
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Biochemistry DEI Blog: Discussing the mental illness Hidden Disabilities panel
Kathryn Brewer discusses the Hidden Disabilities mental illness panel, which touched on the importance of addressing stigmas around mental health and how we can work towards creating a more inclusive community where everyone can thrive.
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Keeping up with BRET
The Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training published its 2021-2022 ASPIRE Annual Report, published a new document about the BRET Office called BRET 360º, and premiered Season 6 of the Beyond the Lab podcast. Episodes drop every Tuesday.
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Vanderbilt Ph.D. students attend Federal STEM Policy and Advocacy seminar
Students at this two-day conference held in Washington, D.C., got a backstage look at how science is discussed in the face of policy, with an emphasis on communication and the importance of evidence-based policymaking.
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Fresh-from-the-oven grads!
The following graduates successfully defended their dissertations this past month:
- Biochemistry: Steven Walker, Ph.D.
- Cancer Biology Graduate Program: David Taylor, Ph.D.
- Cell and Developmental Biology: Amanda Leung, Ph.D.
- Chemical & Physical Biology: Brennica Marlow, Ph.D.; Shannon Smith, Ph.D.
- Neuroscience: Jennifer Quinde Zlibut, Ph.D.
- Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology: Cara Lang, Ph.D.; Britton Strickland, Ph.D.
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Biochemistray award nominations
Department of Biochemistry award nominations are due by December 1. Learn more about the awards and the nomination process on the department's website.
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Get help with grant submissions and resubmissions
Looking for an extra set of eyes on your upcoming grant? Edge for Scholars offers an internal review by senior faculty of any R, K, or F application, plus applications for other federal and foundation funding sources. Visit their website for more details, including deadlines.
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BII program
The National Science Foundation is looking for submissions for their Biology Integration Institutes grant program. Full proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. (submitter's local time) on February 21, 2022, or February 18, 2025.
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Have a job opening you’d like to promote? Send us a link or a description and contact info, and we’ll post it here for three issues. Renew postings anytime!
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About this issue’s banner
This image was taken by Michelle Bedenbaugh, a postdoc in the lab of Richard Simerly. It shows melanocortin-3 receptor neurons (aqua) and Fos (red) in the brain. MC3R neurons that colocalize with Fos (a class of transcription factor) in this image are activated when animals are stressed.
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Catch up on Basic Sciences news!
We regularly update our website with some of the latest VU Basic Sciences news stories.
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Faculty and facility profiles
Check out our faculty interviews and our facility highlights here.
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About the newsletter
This newsletter recognizes the achievements and latest discoveries of students, postdocs, faculty, and staff associated with Basic Sciences departments, centers, and cores or who carry out basic biomedical research at Vanderbilt.
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Help friends and family keep up with Basic Sciences!
Basic Sciences has a number of new communication avenues that you or your loved ones can use to keep up with what's going on here. If they're not already getting the Reading List, Vital, and Lab-to-Table Conversations announcements, send them to our subscription center!
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Keep up with biomedical science seminars
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If your paper has been accepted...
We're really excited to promote your papers—by sharing on social media, writing a press release or story, making a video about your research, or other promotion as capacity allows—help us by letting us know if your paper has been accepted (preferably before the embargo is up) or recently published!
Fill out this form and tell us a little about your paper and its impact.
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Send us your news
Got an announcement or an upcoming event? Did we miss out on celebrating you or your lab's successes? Let us know!
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Facility profile: Vanderbilt Center for Structural Biology
The Vanderbilt Center for Structural Biology is part of a major trans-institutional initiative to significantly upgrade the capabilities in structural biology at Vanderbilt by bringing additional faculty and state-of-the-art instrumentation to campus. The CSB was developed to promote the broad use of structural biology approaches in all life science research and to provide a focal point that bridges medicine and biology to math, chemistry, and physics.
Learn more about the CSB on YouTube!
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Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences
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Phone: (615) 322-0907 | basicsciences@vanderbilt.edu
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