The Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences has recognized eight outstanding Ph.D. students with the 2026 Dean’s Award for Exceptional Achievement in Graduate Studies. The award honors graduate students who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in research, scholarship, leadership, and service during their doctoral training. Through discoveries that advance understanding of human health and disease, this year’s recipients, listed below, are helping shape the future of biomedical scholarship and discovery.
“Exceptional graduate students strengthen the future of science through both research and leadership,” said John Kuriyan, dean of the SOMBS. “These awardees—through the quality of their work, intellectual curiosity, and dedication to scientific advancement—represent the very best of graduate education in School of Medicine Basic Sciences. They have distinguished themselves as emerging leaders in biomedical research and we are proud to celebrate their achievements.”
This year’s recipients represent eight graduate programs across the SOMBS and have made significant contributions to fields ranging from metabolism and neuroscience to genetics, immunology, and infectious disease. Each awardee will receive $5,000 in stipend support per year for the next two years or until they receive their Ph.D. This year, funds were provided by the Office of the Dean of the SOMBS, the Richard McEwen German, Jr. and Marjorie Wolff German Fund, and the Zenobia and Mark Godschalk Research Fund.
The awardees and their research focus areas are:
Christopher Acree, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Mentor: Rafael Arrojo e Drigo
Acree’s research has advanced understanding of how cellular metabolism is organized in space and time. He co-first-authored a study published in Nature Communications describing a novel multimodal framework that combines stable isotope tracing, advanced mass spectrometry imaging, and machine learning to map glucose metabolism at nanometer-scale resolution within cells. His work revealed that metabolic pathways are spatially organized within specific subcellular structures and that organelle networks dynamically reorganize in response to nutrient changes. These findings provide a new, spatially resolved understanding of cellular metabolism and may have important implications for diseases such as diabetes and fatty liver disease.
Kelly O’Rourke, Biochemistry
Mentor: Doug Kojetin
O’Rourke’s research focuses on the orphan nuclear receptor Nurr1, a key regulator of dopamine-related gene expression and a promising therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Building on previous discoveries that certain ligands activate Nurr1 through an unconventional mechanism, she is investigating how this process functions in cells and expanding these efforts through high-throughput screening approaches. Her work seeks to identify new drug-like compounds capable of modulating Nurr1 activity and contributing to future therapies for aging-related neurological disorders.
Monica Brown, Cell and Developmental Biology
Mentor: Ken Lau
Brown studies the origins and functional diversity of pancreatic β-cell subtypes, which are essential for insulin production and metabolic regulation. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, she demonstrated that distinct progenitor populations give rise to β-cell subtypes with different metabolic functions and that these populations shift in response to diet and disease. Her findings extend to human biology, where similar β-cell subpopulations are altered in diabetes, providing new insight into disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic opportunities.
Hannah Seagle, Human Genetics
Mentors: Todd Edwards and Jaclyn Hellwege
Seagle’s research focuses on identifying novel genetic loci associated with blood pressure traits and translating those discoveries into therapeutic opportunities for treatment-resistant hypertension. Her genetic association studies are the largest and most ancestrally diverse conducted for these traits, increasing the number of definitively associated loci several-fold. By leveraging these findings, she identified a promising drug candidate for resistant hypertension and uncovered evidence suggesting evolutionary influences on blood pressure disparities across populations.
Audrey Thomas, Microbe-Host Interactions
Mentor: Borden Lacy
Thomas investigates vaccine strategies to prevent Clostridioides difficile infection. Her research has demonstrated that mucosal immunization can protect against disease while also promoting bacterial clearance, a crucial step in reducing transmission. She identified novel immune correlates of protection, including fecal antibody responses and tissue-resident memory T cells that drive targeted responses. Her findings highlight an effective vaccination strategy with important implications for controlling both C. difficile infection and spread.
Alec Kramer, Neuroscience
Mentor: Fiona Harrison
Kramer’s research challenges long-standing assumptions about how environmental metals affect the brain. His work identifies microglia, rather than neurons or astrocytes, as key drivers of metal-induced neurological damage. He has also proposed a bidirectional relationship between inflammation and metal biology, demonstrating that inflammatory processes can actively reshape metal transport within specific cell types. These discoveries could significantly influence understanding of how environmental metal exposures contribute to brain health and disease.
Anthony Ferranti, Pharmacology
Mentor: Colleen Niswender
Ferranti studies the pharmacology and function of metabotropic glutamate receptors in the brain. His research has shown that mGlu7 receptors exhibit distinct properties depending on whether they form homodimers or heterodimers with mGlu8 receptors. He demonstrated that these metabotropic glutamate receptor complexes play unique roles in regulating synaptic plasticity within the hippocampus, with implications for learning, memory and disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. His work establishes a foundation for targeting mGlu7/8 heterodimers as a potential therapeutic strategy for neurodevelopmental disorders.
Alyssa Jarabek, Molecular Pathology and Immunology
Mentor: Sandra Zinkel
Jarabek’s research explores the impact of infection-driven inflammation on promoting TET2-mediated clonal expansion and how innate immune memory may be impacted by TET2 loss during pathogenic insult. Using mouse models, she has uncovered mechanisms by which infection-induced inflammation promotes clonal expansion and contributes to the development of myelodysplastic syndromes. Her work provides important insight into the role of immune-driven inflammation in blood disorders and may help inform future disease-modifying therapies.
Recipients for the Dean’s Award for Exceptional Achievement in Graduate Studies are selected based on research excellence, which is evidenced by fellowship awards, publications, and presentations at conferences. The awardees demonstrate a mastery of their disciplines through a track record of high achievement in their classes and strong performances in their qualifying exams and committee meetings.
All students in Ph.D. programs connected to the School of Medicine are eligible for nomination, including students working on the Ph.D. portion of the Medical Scientist Training Program, the School of Medicine’s M.D./Ph.D. program.