The inaugural Duke Physician-Scientist Symposium and inaugural Dr. Nancy C. Andrews Physician-Scientist Lectureship, held on January 4th at the J.B. Duke Hotel, brought together physician-scientists from across Duke University School of Medicine to celebrate the accomplishments of Duke researchers and to honor Dr. Nancy Andrews for her dedicated mentorship and support of physician-scientist development at Duke.
The symposium featured talks from the 2017 Strong Start Award winners, and research talks by two Duke physician-scientists: Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurobiology, and Bioengineering; Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and Svati Shah, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology; Associate Director of Clinical Translation, Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. Additionally, attendees participated in a “Meet the Expert” session, during which physician-scientist trainees and faculty met in small groups to discuss career development, and a large group discussion, which focused on on-going efforts to build and develop the physician-scientist community within Duke.
Dr. Nancy Andrews
Dinner included a talk by Nobel Laureate Robert Lefkowitz, MD, on the importance of mentoring to physician-scientists, followed by the inaugural Andrews Lecture presented by Jay Shendure, MD, PhD, Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, who pioneered exome sequencing and cell-free DNA diagnostics for cancer and reproductive medicine.
The symposium was sponsored by the Robert J. Lefkowitz Society, the Duke Pediatric Research Scholars Program for Physician-Scientist Development, the Physician-Scientist Strong Start Awards Program, and the Duke Medical-Scientist Training Program.