Juan Carvajal-García has been named a 2025 Destination Biochemistry Advanced Postdoctoral Scholar, a distinction granted by the Department of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. The award is designed to support the transition of outstanding postdoctoral scholars into independent research positions by providing funds for them to develop a research program that they can carry into their next career stage.
“Juan is an outstanding scientist and a strong contributor to the department,” David Cortez said. “He is destined to succeed as an independent investigator and is exactly the kind of postdoctoral fellow this award is meant to recognize.” Cortez is the Richard N. Armstrong, Ph.D. Professor of Innovation in Biochemistry and the chair of the department.
Carvajal-García, who has been working in the lab of Professor of Biochemistry Houra Merrikh since 2021, has sought to understand spontaneous mutagenesis and the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. “It is through mutations that bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance and cancer cells become resistant to chemotherapy,” he said. “However, the processes that promote spontaneous mutagenesis, and therefore drive evolution and disease, remain incompletely understood.”
The research program that Carvajal-García will establish will combine genetics and genomics techniques that he learned during his postdoc with molecular biology and biochemistry-based assays that he learned during his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His goal will be to understand the mechanisms behind mutagenesis-driven evolution and will seek to determine the evolution of evolvability, an extension of the work he did in his first paper in the Merrikh lab showing that error-prone DNA polymerases are critical for evolution.
“Juan is a true scientist who is in science due to his pure passion to discover the unknown,” Merrikh said.
This drive and passion are reflected in the fellowships and recognitions he has already received. Carvajal-García received two Vanderbilt recognitions in 2024 alone, including Trainee of the Year from the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation and the Michael Waterman Outstanding Achievement in Postdoctoral Studies award from the Department of Biochemistry.
External recognition has not lacked, either. In 2022, Carvajal-García was one of 25 early-stage postdoctoral fellows from across the country who received the prestigious Helen Hay Whitney Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. He was additionally selected by the pharmaceutical company Merck as one of two Merck-sponsored HHWF fellows from his cohort. This past July, Carvajal-García received a K99 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that will help fund his exploration of spontaneous mutations over the next year, also setting him up for early success as a future faculty member.
“Juan is incredibly humble, collegial, and is there to help his peers and train junior members in the lab. He will be a great mentor,” Merrikh said. “I find it difficult to imagine that there is a more deserving postdoc for this award other than Juan.”
Destination Biochemistry Postdoctoral Scholars
To help drive postdoc recruitment and celebrate postdoc success, the Department of Biochemistry launched the Destination Biochemistry Postdoctoral Scholars and the Destination Biochemistry Advanced Postdoctoral Scholars programs in 2022. The programs are designed to attract outstanding postdocs to department laboratories and to support late-stage postdocs as they transition into independent investigator positions.
For a full program description and instructions on how to apply, please visit the Department of Biochemistry website.