Carol Colton, a distinguished professor in neurology and pathology and a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, is renowned for her groundbreaking research on the immune response’s role in the onset and progression…

Duke Associate Professor of Anesthesiology Andrea Nackley is a kind, passionate scientist, although her most notable quality is determination.  As a first generation college student, a mother of two teenagers, and a triathlon athlete, she…

“My passion for what I do saved my life.” Meet Ke Dong, a biology professor at Duke University. She’s a lover of nature, a great cook, and a Lupus survivor. About 20-25 years ago, she…

Science fiction may seem an unlikely source for research inspiration. But for Duke University Provost Alec Gallimore, it has been just that: inspiration for a career’s worth of electric propulsion research. Gallimore said it was…

Duke professor Vidyalakshmi Chandramohan is a pioneering neuro-oncologist whose work is redefining the future of glioblastoma (GBM) treatment. As a researcher in the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke, she is driven by a profound commitment…

Dr. Akankshi Munjal is a developmental biology researcher at Duke University, who studies the development and mutations of inner ear tissue in zebrafish, and how that may be caused by genome disorders.  From a young…

“The beauty of research is freedom,” says assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology Zhao Zhang, when asked what drove him to research transposons and circular DNA at Duke. Though he is now a prominent…

Meet a trailblazer in the realm of neurocritical care and emergency medicine: Dr. Katharine Rose Colton, MD. Balancing roles as a clinician, researcher, and educator, Colton serves as an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery…

“As a young girl, I always knew I wanted to be a scientist,” Dr. Tania Roy shares as she sits in her Duke Engineering office located next to state-of-the-art research equipment. The path to achieving…

In the complex world of scientific exploration, definitive answers often prove elusive, and each discovery brings with it a nuanced understanding that propels us forward. Dr. Dana Kristine Pasquale’s journey in public health serves as…

Meet Dr. Oyindamola Adefisayo – Oyinda to her friends – a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Duke. She’s exploring bacterial factors in host-pathogen interactions using mice.  During our interview, parallels in our journeys became clear. Even…

In the intricate world of biology, where the mysteries of animal behavior unfold, Dr. Jesse Granger emerges as a passionate and curious scientist with a Ph.D. in biology and a penchant for unraveling the secrets…

Eric Richardson is a professor of the practice in Biomedical Engineering and founding director of Duke Design Health. His research and teaching centers around medical device design and innovation, with a focus on underserved communities. …

Meet a star in the realm of academic medicine – Dr. Kyle Todd Mitchell! A man who wears many hats – a neurologist with a passion for clinical care, an adventurous researcher, and an Assistant…

Dr. Kimberly Hreha’s journey to studying stroke patients was not a straightforward one, but it started very early. “My mom was a special ed teacher, and so I would go into her class and volunteer.…

Over the past decades, we have adopted computers into virtually every aspect of our lives, but in doing so, we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to malicious interference or hacking. I had the opportunity to talk about…

The beauty of research is that it allows you to take control of your own path. “We are very lucky to be in the position to decide what we love to do and do it,”…

We are all born with defining physical characteristics. Whether it be piercing blue eyes or jet black hair, these traits distinguish us throughout our entire lives. However, there is something that all of our attributes…

Dr. Patrick Codd is the Director of the Duke Brain Tool Laboratory and an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Duke. Working as a neurosurgeon and helping with the research and development of various neurosurgical devices…

Research is a journey full of uncertainty in which scientists have to construct their own path, even if they’re unsure of what the end of the journey actually is. Despite this unpredictability, researchers continue their…

Dr. Giny Fouda’s research focuses on infant immune responses to infection and vaccination. Her curiosity about immunology arose during her fourth year of medical school in Cameroon, when she randomly picked up a book on…

Beneath Duke University’s Perkins library, an unassuming, yet fiercely original approach to video games research is underway. Tied less to computer science and engineering than you might expect, the students and faculty are studying games…

As an occasional volunteer at a local children’s museum, I can tell you that children take many different approaches to sharing. Some will happily lend others their favorite toys, while others will burst into tears…

This is the first of several posts written by students at the North Carolina School of Science and Math as part of an elective about science communication with Dean Amy Sheck. Claudia Gunsch, the Theodore…

From the miniscule particles underlying matter, to vast amounts of data from the far reaches of outer space, Chris Walter, a professor of physics at Duke, pursues research into the great mysteries of the universe,…

A person’s (or fly’s) sense of smell, or their olfactory system, is one of these pieces. Though olfaction may not be the first part of the nervous system to cross someone’s mind when it comes…

Dr. Cynthia Darnell’s path to becoming a postdoctoral researcher in the Amy Schmid Labat Duke University was, in her words, “not straightforward.” At the start of her post-high school career, Darnell had no clue what…

How can we understand how humans make decisions? How do we measure the root of motivation? Gregory Samanez-Larkin, an assistant professor in Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke, uses neuroeconomic and neuromarketing approaches to seek answers…

Margarethe (Meta) Kuehn studies vesicles — little bubbles that bud off bacterial membranes. All sorts of things may be tightly packed into these bubbles: viruses, antigens, and information a bacterium will need to make cells…

Michael C. Reed was trained as a pure mathematician, but from the start, he was, as he explained to me, a “closet physiologist.” He’s a professor of mathematics at Duke, but he’s always wondered how…

What began as an undergraduate project looking at how to create a “typical” map of congressional districts expanded to a national investigation for Duke mathematics chair Jonathan Mattingly. He was generous enough to speak to…

“‘Betty, education is the most important thing,” her father said. “We lost our home, our land, our cars, our farm, everything we have ever owned. But what I have in my head, no one can…

How can we even begin to understand the human brain?  Can we predict the way people will respond to stress by looking at their brains?  Is it possible, even, to predict depression based on observations…

Most people don’t see in ferns the glory and grandeur of the mighty angiosperms — the flowering plants — but to those who can, ferns may seem like the only thing you could spend your…

Dr. Leonor Corsino works to relieve the prevalent issues regarding diabetes and obesity. An endocrinologist and professor at the Duke School of Medicine, her passions lie in understanding the struggles that diabetics face through comprehensive…

We know less about the ocean floor than the surface of the moon. As one of the most unexplored areas of the world, multiple companies have begun to incentivize ingenuity towards exploring the oceans. Among…

Using mathematics to model the kidney and its biological systems is a field of study located at the intersection of two disciplines. But for Duke’s Anita Layton, PhD, the Robert R. and Katherine B. Penn…

Our intestine is a highly complex organ – a tortuous, rugged channel built of many specialized cell-types and coated with a protective, slimy matrix. Yet the intestine begins as a simple tube consisting of a…

Have you ever wondered how something as simple as fluid can impact the development of a large organism? How about the way tubes form in relation to each other? Or maybe you’ve wondered how it…

After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the brain produces an inflammatory response. This prolonged swelling is known as cerebral edema and can be fatal. Unfortunately, the only medications available just address symptoms and cannot directly…

I recently toured Dr. Steven Cummer’s lab in Duke Engineering to learn about metamaterials, synthetic materials used to manipulate sound and light waves. Cummer’s graduate student Abel Xie first showed me the Sound Propagator. It…

What do election polls, hospital records, and the Syrian conflict have in common? How can a hospital use a patient’s vital signs to calculate their risk of cardiac arrest in real time? Statistician Rebecca Steorts…

I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Anne Buckley, a professor and  neuropathologist working in Dr. Chay Kuo’s cell biology lab at Duke. I got a first-hand account of her research on…

Dr. Jenny Tung is interested in the connections between genes and behavior: How does behavior influence genetic variation and regulation and how do genetic differences influence behavior? An assistant professor in the Departments of Evolutionary…

We live in an age where new bionic limb models appear every week and tissues can be 3D-printed. Considering these exciting advances, it should come as no surprise that researchers are coming closer to engineering…

“All these complicated diseases that we don’t have a good handle on — they all have this mechanical component. Well why is that?” This is exactly the question Brent Hoffman, Duke biomedical engineering assistant professor,…

Imagine two scenarios. In the first, one of your close friends is driving down the road when, from behind, they hear the sound of wailing sirens. They pull off onto a side­street and ten minutes…

At the Duke Global Health Institute, their academic base is relatively small; only 375 students have completed global health programs at Duke since 2008. But their partnerships span much farther than the Duke campus. Malaria…

Landscape ecologist Jennifer Swenson has a very special set of skills that come from having an “unconventional academic trajectory.” Her diverse and interesting career began at UC Santa Barbara, where she chose to learn about…

I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Duke Professor Junfeng “Jim” Zhang, an avid environmental health researcher who has done amazing work on air pollution research. Because of my own interest in air pollution…

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), is tucked away behind the supermarkets and youth-infested restaurants on Ninth Street in Durham. It’s a National Science Foundation brainchild with the purpose of consolidating data collected on small…

For those who study antibiotic resistance, a future where people die from infected cuts or the measles is not some horrible alternative universe but something that could very well be a reality soon. In 1998,…

How do scientific research and social commentary relate? The answer became clear during my conversation with Rotem Ben-Shachar, a PhD candidate in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program at Duke, who is interested in understanding…

Viruses are very cool.  Ashley Sobel taught me that. Sobel is an MD/PHD student at Duke.  She currently works in the Koelle Research Group, a group that focuses on using mathematical models to understand the…

Walking up to the Trent Semans Center at Duke University to interview Dr. Daniel O. Schmitt, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and teacher of anatomy at Duke University, I couldn’t help but wonder why he would…