Advancements in new technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantitative imaging have provided scientists with remarkable insights into health and disease. Many of these technologies are rooted in complex physical and mathematical principles, making them challenging to learn and comprehend unless students actively work with them on a regular basis.
Richard Caprioli, Stanford Moore Chair in Biochemistry and director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center, has been teaching technology advances to students for more than 50 years. To honor and continue this legacy, the Richard Caprioli Basic Sciences Research Award for Technology Education fund has been established to allow Ph.D. students in the biomedical sciences to attend hands-on courses or other focused educational experiences in a technology that they would otherwise not encounter in their graduate studies.
“As new, highly enabling technologies such as generative AI are developed and introduced into the research and commercial arena, there is a lack of understanding by students of how and why these can be employed in their careers,” Caprioli said. “I believe in hands-on learning, not simply attending symposia lectures at national conferences. This award is intended to broaden students’ knowledge of technologies, perhaps far afield of their graduate studies, that could be of immense benefit in their careers.”
Caprioli knows firsthand how leveraging new technologies can influence a career trajectory. His expertise in the then-nascent field of imaging mass spectrometry led him to develop matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry. This novel technique avails researchers with a view of spatially resolved molecular compositions and pharmaceutical companies with a way to monitor drugs’ effects on the body. In fact, every medium to large pharmaceutical company now has an imaging mass spectrometry lab, thanks in part to Caprioli’s innovations.
“Richard Caprioli is a superlative scientist and educator whose lifelong dedication to teaching technological advancements has provided countless biomedical students with the tools and knowledge to push the boundaries of what’s possible in their research and careers,” said John Kuriyan, dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. “This fund is a fitting tribute to his unwavering commitment to student education and the transformative impact he has had on the field of mass spectrometry.”
In addition to introducing the MALDI-based imaging mass spectrometry technique, in 2015, his lab achieved the first integration of mass spectrometry and microscopy imaging and shared the first visualizations of a tissue’s molecular composition in high detail. This breakthrough has evolved how scientists diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases.
Caprioli received his B.S. in 1965 and his Ph.D. in 1969 from Columbia University, completing his graduate work with Professor David Rittenberg, who first introduced him to mass spectrometry. In 1975, he became professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of the Analytical Chemistry Center at the University of Texas Medical School, and in 1998 was recruited to Vanderbilt to lead the School of Medicine’s mass spectrometry facility.
Caprioli’s contributions transformed Vanderbilt’s mass spectrometry center into a world-class facility visited by global scholars seeking to learn more about the techniques he developed. In 2023, Bruker Daltonics joined forces with the MSRC to establish the Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence, the first center of its kind to be established by Bruker.
The technological advances made throughout Caprioli’s career are accentuated by the vast network of mentees whom he has mentored, taught, learned from over the past five decades, and who inspired the fund’s creation. “Thinking about how to mark my retirement, I very quickly realized that I would much rather implement/have/do a more meaningful gesture to recognize the value of teaching technological advancements to biomedical science students than just having a formal celebration. There is nothing more meaningful to me than this fund, which will support and honor graduate student education in this area,” Caprioli said.
To contribute to the Basic Sciences Research Award for Technology Education fund please visit vu.edu/caprioliaward.
Support for the Basic Sciences Research Award for Technology Education will fuel the momentum of Dare to Grow, a $3.2 billion comprehensive campaign that is currently underway, marking the most ambitious fundraising effort in Vanderbilt’s history. Learn more at vu.edu/daretogrow.