By Leah Mann
Chuck Sanders, Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair of Cardiovascular Research and professor of biochemistry and medicine, has recently been promoted from associate dean for research to vice dean of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences.
Sanders received his Ph.D. in chemistry/biochemistry at Ohio State University under the mentorship of Ming-Daw Tsai. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University in the lab of Jim Prestegard, Sanders worked at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine for 11 years and joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2002.
With the arrival of John Kuriyan as the dean of Basic Sciences, Sanders transitioned into a new role as vice dean. Describing his role as one in which he “serves and the dean leads,” Sanders completes necessary tasks at the dean’s level that do not require Kuriyan’s involvement and fulfills high-level requests from Kuriyan himself. Sanders notes that it has been “a real pleasure to work with the new dean” and he is excited for a formative year ahead.
In addition to his new duties, Sanders maintains the same responsibilities that he had been fulfilling for five years as associate dean for research, which include monitoring IT infrastructure and working closely with Vanderbilt IT for Basic Sciences projects, managing conflict of interest processes, and directing the submission of internal grants. Sanders’ other extracurricular responsibilities include sitting on various university committees and overseeing the research cores, as well as wrapping up a term as the president of the Protein Society. Sanders enjoys writing essays and making music playlists for his friends and coworkers.
You can learn more about Sanders from our previous Meet the Deans series interview with him.