Recap
The School of Medicine held its Commencement Ceremony for the Class of 2023 on Friday, May 12. Congratulations to all our graduates!
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Kondev and Muhammed named Founder’s Medalists
Veronika Kondev (Neuroscience, Sachin Patel and Brad Grueter labs) and Ayesha Muhammed (Human Genetics, Dan Roden lab) were named Founder’s Medalists for the Graduate School and the School of Medicine, respectively.
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Vanderbilt University honors emeriti faculty, deans
Vanderbilt University honored 33 retiring faculty members and four outgoing deans for their years of service by bestowing upon them emeriti title. Basic Sciences was represented by:
- Lawrence J. Marnett, Dean Emeritus of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences
- Owen Patrick McGuinness, Professor Emeritus of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
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Class Day 2023 recognizes basic science researchers
- Dean’s Award for Research: Brad Reinfeld (Cancer Biology, Kim Rathmell lab), Margaret Axelrod (Cancer Biology, Justin Balko lab), Matt Madden (Molecular Pathology and Immunology, Jeff Rathmell lab)
- Award of Distinction: Ayesha Muhammed (Human Genetics, Dan Roden lab)
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Byndloss selected as HHMI scholar
Mariana Byndloss (Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology) has been named a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. This program supports early-career scientists who have the potential to become leaders in their fields and to foster diverse and inclusive labs.
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Goldenring honored by APS
James Goldenring (Surgery) received the Horace W. Davenport Distinguished Lectureship award from the American Physiological Society’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology Section at the recent American Physiology Summit.
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Discovery Vanderbilt invests in IDBiologics
A university leadership committee has approved Discovery Vanderbilt investments into three faculty-initiated startups, including IDBiologics, founded in 2017 by James Crowe (Pediatrics).
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Kang honored by SOBP
JooEun Kang (Human Genetics, Douglas Ruderfer lab) received the Somerfeld-Ziskind Research Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry for her paper on the genetic etiology of suicide attempt.
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Harrison named Brighter Ventures Student Award recipient
Marie-Claire Harrison (Biological Sciences, Antonis Rokas lab) has been named the 2023 recipient of the Brighter Ventures Student Award from Basic Sciences.
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Fitz receives endowed award
Gillian Fitz (Cell and Developmental Biology, Matthew Tyska lab) was awarded the Smriti Bardhan, Ph.D. Scholarship from the Vanderbilt Graduate School. This award recognizes a Ph.D. student with the most promising dissertation research related to life sciences or biological sciences.
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2023 Postdoctoral Awards
The Vanderbilt Office of Postdoctoral Affairs recently hosted its 2023 Postdoctoral Awards and presented the following to researchers affiliated with Basic Sciences:
- Postdoc Mentor of the Year: Jacob Feldman (Tiffany Woynaroski and Mark Wallace labs)
- Postdoc of the Year: Siru Liu (Biomedical Informatics)
- Postdoc Service Award: Daniel Fehrenbach (Meena Madhur lab)
- Faculty Mentor of the Year: Eric Skaar (Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology)
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Adank receives NIAAA funding
Danielle Adank (Neuroscience, Danny Winder lab) recently received a trainee fellowship grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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Burmann wins various awards
Andreanna Burman (Cell and Developmental Biology, James Goldenring lab) recently received a slew of conference-related awards. At the American Physiology Summit in April, she received the John Forte Distinguished Abstract Award and the 2023 Gastrointestinal & Liver Physiology Section Trainee Poster Award. Additionally, at Digestive Diseases Week earlier this month, she received a Poster of Distinction and Basic Science Travel Award.
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Fort and Okoye win awards at VIRAL symposium
Loic Fort (Ian Macara lab) and Chiamaka Okoye (Microbe-Host Interactions, Tim Cover lab) received awards for best talk presentations at the Vanderbilt International Researchers Alliance Symposium.
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Neikirk wins first place undergraduate poster
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Cassidy wins second place poster award
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Carroll and Hawes recognized at GRS
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Researchers recognized at Diabetes Day
The Vanderbilt Diabetes Center honored trainees and faculty at Diabetes Day with the following awards:
- Daryl K. Granner Scholar in Diabetes: Fubiao Shi (Sheila Collins lab)
- Oscar B. Crofford Scholar in Diabetes: Jaclyn Tamaroff (Pediatrics)
- Vanderbilt Scholar in Diabete: Thao Le (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Julio Ayala lab), Nathan Winn (Alyssa Hasty lab)
- Poster awards: Julie Burkett (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Maureen Gannon lab), Cristiane Dos Santos (Rafael Arrojo e Drigo lab), Jason Hughes (MPB, Gregor Neuert lab), Dudley McNitt (James Thomas II and Rachel Bonami labs), Haley Mendoza-Romero (MPB, Richard Simerly lab), Arya Nakhe (MPB, David Jacobson lab)
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Stephens earns diversity award
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Christensen winner of Young Investigator Travel Award
Graduate student Brooke Christensen (Pharmacology, Erin Calipari) was named a winner of the Daniel T. O’Connor Young Investigator Travel Awards by the Catecholamine Society.
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Gonzalez and Dungan earn Vascular Discovery travel grants
Azuah Gonzalez (Molecular Pathology and Immunology, Amanda Doran lab) earned an ATVB Outreach Travel Grant for Early Career Investigators and Matthew Dungan (MPI, Doran lab) earned an ATVB Travel Grant for Early Career Investigators at the recent Vascular Discovery 2023 conference.
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Beasley to speak at conference
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Davies and Lopez receive Distinguished Alumni Award
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Giving Day goal exceeded
Thanks to you we exceeded our Giving Day goals. More than 130 donors raised more than $45,000—the highest dollar amount raised on Giving Day for Basic Sciences since the pandemic started!
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Vanderbilt Prize lecture highlights diversity, mentoring
Since 2009, 14 female graduate students at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been matched with the recipients of the Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, some of the world’s most accomplished women in research. This year, Ruth Lehmann (Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research) received the Vanderbilt Prize. She will mentor Catherine Shelton (Microbe-Host Interactions, Mariana Byndloss lab).
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Fresh-from-the-oven grads
The following graduates successfully defended their dissertations this past month:
- Biochemistry: Ivette Perez, Ph.D
- Biological Sciences: Katrina Ngo, Ph.D
- Cell and Developmental Biology: Alex Pfannenstein, Ph.D., Anthony Rossi, Ph.D
- Human Genetics: Matthew O’Neill, Ph.D
- Microbe Host Interactions: Catherine Leasure, Ph.D
- Molecular Pathology and Immunology: Nowrin Chowdhury, Ph.D.; Michael Rudloff, Ph.D
- Pharmacology: Jonah Zarrow, Ph.D.
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The various roles of fluorine
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Handcock lab goes the distance
The worlds of cancer science and thoroughbred racing are bound together at Vanderbilt in the A.B. Hancock Jr. Memorial Laboratory for Cancer Research, which Larry Marnett (Biochemistry and Pharmacology) directs.
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APMM applications due June 5
The Fall 2023 ASPIRE Path in Molecular Medicine applications will be due Monday, June 5. Please plan to attend an information session prior to submitting your application. The last session will take place TODAY at 4:00 p.m.
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Staff feature: Ryan McNew
Ryan McNew, a “true tech nerd at heart” with a background in IT and audio/video, is the associate director of research IT within the Office of Facilities, Infrastructure, and Risk Management. Although he is fairly new to Basic Sciences, he has been at Vanderbilt for over 26 years. In his position, he aims to enhance IT services, assist in streamlining IT purchases, and negotiate software contracts that benefit all areas within the school. Using the recently formed partnership between Basic Sciences and VUIT, he can assist in escalating issues and ensure the needs of our researchers are met. He also enjoys trying new ideas; if you have an idea for a new project and want a partner, reach out!
Fun fact: McNew is a certified bourbon steward (the bourbon version of a wine sommelier) and held his first tasting at his daughter’s wedding rehearsal dinner.
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Funded grants available for viewing
The Funded Grants Library features more than 390 funded grant applications written by Vanderbilt and Meharry researchers. You can reference Rs, Ks, Fs, and many more applications as you prepare your own.
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ARPA-H Agency funding
The new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health Agency is accepting pre-proposals for projects that are responsive to their funding priorities through March 2024.
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Vanderbilt University Life Science Showcase
This event, hosted by the Center for Technology Transfer & Commercialization, will highlight innovations coming out of Vanderbilt that have positively impacted life sciences sectors with successful bench-to-market journeys and the current state-of-the-art for small molecules research, vaccine research, antibody research, medical devices in pipelines and much more. It will take place on July 19 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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Grant Pacing Workshops
Edge for Scholars is hosting two half-day Grant Pacing Workshops for Fellowship (F), Career Development (K), and Independent Investigator (R) submissions. The F sessions will be held on June 13 and June 14, the K sessions on May 31 and June 13, and the R sessions on June 1 and June 22. Register for the F workshop by June 5.
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Edge for Scholars Retreat
The Edge for Scholars Retreat will be held on August 22 at the Nelson Andrews Leadership Lodge. Join fellow Vanderbilt researchers to foster connections and collaborations. Registration is now open.
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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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Eliminate single-pass cooling
Single-pass cooling systems use water to cool something once. Not only is it wasteful, but it can be a safety hazard.
How will your lab make changes?
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Correction
In the last issue, we used a photo of Niharika Loomba and misidentified it as Zahra Farahbakhsh. Our apologies to both students! Here is a photo of Farahbakhsh, who was recognized in the April issue for earning a travel award to the Kappa Therapeutic Conference.
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About this issue's banner
The Cell Imaging Shared Resource recently purchased a new Zeiss Crossbeam 550 microscope thanks to an NIH S10 grant awarded to Matt Tyska (Cell and Developmental Biology). The Crossbeam 550 is a versatile microscope that can image multiple order of magnification—from samples as large as 1 cm down to single bacteria less than 1 µm thick—and perform volumetric imaging through volumetric focused-ion-beam imaging or array tomography.
This image is the first-ever taken on the new microscope and shows a side view of a group of enterocytes in a villus of the mouse small intestine. The test sample was prepared and imaged by Evan Krystofiak for the Tyska lab using a method called SEM-Fracture.
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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. Check it out.
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Faculty and facility profilesCheck out our faculty interviews and our facility highlights here.
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About the newsletterThis 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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Keep up with biomedical science seminars
To receive weekly email notices about upcoming seminars focused on the biomedical sciences, please email Tracy O'Brien. To submit your event for the weekly email, send it to the "bioseminar" email address.
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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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