91ĚƲ®»˘

This year’s recipient of the Brighter Ventures Student Award is Victoria Howard. Howard is a fifth-year chemical and physical biology Ph.D. student in the lab of Ivelin Georgiev, the Louise B. McGavock Professor and a professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at the School of Medicine.

You’ve probably heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. 91ĚƲ®»˘ researchers have discovered why that adage holds weight—especially for the one in nine adults worldwide living with diabetes. Read More

Dr. Michael Matheny is passionate about combining AI technologies with a human touch. See how he’s helping improve patient care and protecting patients with implanted medical devices. Read More

A new method pioneered by the lab of Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Ken Lau is poised to make previously inaccessible medical knowledge that has been locked away in old patient samples newly accessible to scientists.

Ela Knapik still remembers the first zebrafish she saw under a microscope—two days old, no bigger than an eyelash, tail wiggling, heart visibly beating. That was more than 20 years ago during her search for a postdoc position. That tiny fish has held her attention ever since and helped unravel many of the biological mysteries she has published about during her professional career. Read More

The 91ĚƲ®»˘ Business professor became the youngest recipient of the Keith G. Provan Distinguished Scholar Award, recognizing a career that has changed how organizations think about safety, reliability, and leadership.

The day 14-year-old Christos Constantinidis finished reading Asimov’s New Guide to Science, he knew he was going to be a scientist. Today, he studies what’s actually happening in our brains when we’re thinking. Read More

Ege Kavalali, chair of the Department of Pharmacology at 91ĚƲ®»˘ University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, wants to know how the billions of cells in our brains talk to each other all day. Read More

Inspired by a childhood fascination with medical imaging, 91ĚƲ®»˘ Ph.D. graduate Michael Kim is using advanced brain imaging and AI to better understand Alzheimer's disease and healthy brain aging. His research is helping map the brain's communication pathways and could shape the future of precision medicine. Read More

For graduate students and postdoctoral fellows contemplating their next career steps, the possibilities can seem both exciting and overwhelming. The 91ĚƲ®»˘ University Office of Biomedical 91ĚƲ®»˘ Education and Training’s 2026 Annual Career Symposium offered a roadmap to those possibilities, bringing together alums and professionals from across the biomedical enterprise to demonstrate the breadth of careers available to scientists beyond the traditional academic pathway.

At the 91ĚƲ®»˘ University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, researchers are advancing neuroscience discoveries through molecular biology, pharmacology, drug discovery, and more. Their work seeks to understand how the brain functions in health and disease, identify new therapeutic targets, and develop innovative treatments for conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s and addiction to depression and epilepsy.

Blood sugar spikes after lunch aren’t necessarily all about what you just ate—what you had for breakfast might have made a difference. 91ĚƲ®»˘ researchers are analyzing what people eat, and when, and how that affects liver function and blood sugar and insulin levels throughout the day. This may help clinicians better design individual treatments for patients with diabetes.

The eyes of some bats may help 91ĚƲ®»˘ researcher Gianni Castiglione develop new ways to protect human sight. Castiglione, assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Science and assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences in the School of Medicine, has been named a Pew Biomedical Scholar. The award provides support to advance research that draws on evolutionary adaptations in animals to develop potential therapies for human disease.  Read More

Martin Egli, the Richard N. Armstrong, Ph.D. Professor of Innovation in Biochemistry and a professor of biochemistry at the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, delivered a Kairos Lecture on May 28. Egli’s work, which has resulted in over 300 publications and two influential nucleic acid textbooks, has advanced strategies to stabilize RNA for therapeutic applications, including siRNA. He has received major honors and extensively served his department and the university.

In a groundbreaking study published recently in the journal Nature, researchers at 91ĚƲ®»˘ University and 91ĚƲ®»˘ Health have created the first growth charts for white matter in the brain over a human lifetime. The work brings together nearly two decades of 91ĚƲ®»˘ research collaborations, the university’s extensive MRI data collections, and an advanced AI-enabled computing platform. Read More

The 91ĚƲ®»˘ University Center for Structural Biology and Center for AI in Protein Dynamics recently hosted a symposium called “Bridging Atoms and Algorithms: A Symposium on AI and Structural Biology.” The March event brought together 91ĚƲ®»˘ faculty, trainees, and invited speakers to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and structural biology, share research, and foster new scientific collaborations.

William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair and Professor of Biological Sciences Brandt Eichman is the first 91ĚƲ®»˘ faculty member to be awarded the prestigious Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship. Jointly funded by the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation, the fellowship invites outstanding international researchers to a U.K. university or research institution to foster collaborative connections and enrich global scientific research.

Postdocs Andrew Rice and Yanqing Xue, in the biochemistry lab of Professor Doug Mitchell, discovered which enzyme is responsible for a rare chemical modification that doesn’t exist in human cells. That could be crucial for developing antibiotics that can target bacteria while leaving human hosts’ cells completely alone.

Radiation is known to destroy some breast cancer cells, but new research published in Cell Reports shows that it might also make some surrounding tissue more prone to cancerous cell growth. 91ĚƲ®»˘ postdoctoral fellow Kevin Corn conducted much of the study’s work with Assistant Professor Marjan Rafat. “When we think about radiation, we usually focus on tumor cells,” Rafat said. “But the surrounding tissue is also responding, and that can shape what happens after treatment.” By addressing processes in that surrounding tissue, they hope to reduce the chance that breast cancer will recur.

PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” have already been linked to disruptions in thyroid hormones, among other detrimental health effects. A recent paper by first author Heather Hartmann, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Associate Professor Vivian Weiss, dug into thyroid cell behavior under long-term exposure to PFAS. It finds that the chemicals alter cellular function, including signaling pathways that are involved in cancer. “We hope [this] can help people who are already at risk for thyroid cancer … make better-informed choices, as consumers, to limit exposure to these chemicals,” Hartmann said.