School of Medicine Office of Research announces award recipients at annual research celebration

The School of Medicine Office of Research held its annual research celebration on Oct. 28, including rapid-fire research presentations, awards, interactive engagements and networking.

This year’s speakers included Interim Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences Bruce Hall and researchers Megan Dennis, Brittany Dugger, Peter James, Na’amah Razon, Pranav Prathap Shetty, Stephen Henry and Aimee Moulin.

The Office of Research also announced the recipients of the inaugural Research Rock Star Awards, designed to spotlight and celebrate the brilliant minds driving innovation across our research community and various domains. Winners were also announced for the COVID Seed Grants and the Research Image Competition.

“The recipients of these awards embody the tremendous talent and spirit of innovation that define our School of Medicine,” said Kim E. Barrett, vice dean for research. “Their outstanding work not only advances discovery but also exemplifies the power of collaboration across disciplines. Together, they are shaping the future of medicine and improving lives.”

Research Rock Star Awards

Trainee Award

Kevin Chung

Chung is a postdoctoral scholar working under the supervision of radiology professor Guobao Wang and Simon Cherry, distinguished professor emeritus in the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering. He was nominated for his trailblazing work in quantitative molecular imaging, making paradigm-shifting contributions to total-body positron emission tomography.

Mentor Award

Aijun Wang

Wang is a Chancellor's Fellow and professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering. Wang is also co-director of the Surgical Bioengineering Laboratory and vice chair for Translational Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Department of Surgery.

Wang received twenty-two individual nominations from students, research staff and fellow faculty members. The nominations highlighted the impact Wang’s mentorship has had on rising scientists.

Basic Science Award

Megan Dennis

Dennis is an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. Dennis was nominated for her landmark research that has appeared in numerous highly competitive journals and her leadership in the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium that helped deliver the first complete human genome sequence.

Clinical/Translational Research Award

Craig McDonald

McDonald is chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and professor of pediatrics and physical medicine and rehabilitation. He was nominated for his work advancing the diagnostics, outcome measures and therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and related neuromuscular diseases.

Population/Community Research Award

Elisa Tong

Tong is a generalist in the Department of Internal Medicine. She was nominated for her work as director of the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center, where she leads innovative population and community research that is highly impactful in mitigating tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death and disease. 

Research Staff Award

Phu Huynh

Huynh is a nuclear medicine technologist supervisor who oversees studies utilizing the world's first total-body PET/CT scanner. Huynh was nominated for ensuring that investigations using the total-body PET/CT scanner are executed to the highest standard of technical rigor and efficiency.

COVID Seed Grant Awardees

The School of Medicine COVID Seed Grants awards funding for investigations of clinical and pathophysiological aspects of COVID. The awarded projects are collaborative and innovative, with high-impact potential.

Qizhi Gong

Gong is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy. Gong’s awarded project is “Olfactory-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in COVID-19 and Its Impact on Alzheimer's Disease Progression.”

This study explores how COVID-19 may damage the barrier between the Olfactory-Brain Barrier, allowing immune cells to enter the brain and potentially contribute to long-term brain problems like those seen in Long-COVID and Alzheimer’s disease.

Amir Zeki

Zeki is a professor of medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine. Zeki’s awarded project is “A Novel Combination Therapy for the Treatment of COVID.” This study proposes testing a combination of two promising inhaled drugs — PAV-104 and statins — to see if they work better together rather than alone or compared to existing treatments, with the goal of improving care now and preparing for future pandemics.

2025 Research Image Competition Grand Prize Winner

Richard Levenson

Levenson, a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, was the grand prize winner, chosen by attendees at the Research Celebration from the images that won the quarterly image research competitions held throughout the year.

Levenson’s image is of loose collagen fibers from a breast tissue specimen mounted on a slide and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin staining. It was made by polychromatic polscope microscopy (PPM), which uses a special method of combining two beams of white light.

Unlike older microscopes that rely on a simpler kind of light interference, this technique creates colorful images even when the sample only slightly changes the light passing through it. Traditional microscopes need much stronger changes in light to produce visible colors, but the PPM can show a full range of colors even with very small changes.

Levenson shares the credit for this image with the developer of the PPM, Michael Shribak of the Marine Biological Laboratory.

The research image competition is open year-round and a prize is awarded every quarter. Read the competition requirements and submit an image here.