Twelve faculty members in the Duke University School of Medicine have been awarded distinguished professorships. In total, Duke University awarded distinguished professors to 28 faculty members from eight Duke colleges and schools. Distinguished professorships are awarded to faculty who have demonstrated extraordinary scholarship in advancing science and improving human health.
The 2020 recipients from the School of Medicine are:
Rory David Deutsch Professor of Neuro-Oncology
David Ashley, PhD
Dr. Ashley is a professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, Medicine, and Pathology. His career in cancer research dates more than two decades. His peer-reviewed publication record is diverse and includes laboratory-based cancer research, clinical trials, as well as public health and psycho-oncology research. His primary research focus is on the immunology, epigenetics, and genetics of brain tumors. His achievements in research have led to change in practice in the care of both children and adults with brain tumors. Dr. Ashley is highly regarded for his work, as evidenced by numerous awards and invitations to plenary sessions and symposia of international standing. He has been the principal investigator of a number of important national and international studies both clinical and pre-clinical. Dr. Ashley was appointed Director of The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke in 2018.
Lincoln Financial Group Distinguished Professor of NeuroBiology
Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD
Dr. Calakos is a professor in the Departments of Neurology, Neurobiology and Cell Biology, a faculty member in the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and an associate of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society. She is nationally and internationally known for her innovative research on identifying mechanisms of synaptic plasticity within the basal ganglia circuitry of the brain. This work has led to a detailed understanding of the circuitry of the basal ganglia and to important insights into how these circuits mediate motor learning and habit formation. Moreover, Dr. Calakos has shown that these same mechanisms can lead to diseases such as dystonia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Kiser-Arena Distinguished Professor
Michael Cohen-Wolkowiez, MD, PhD
Dr. Cohen-Wolkowiez is professor in the Department of Pediatrics and member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. He is a world leader in pediatric pharmacology. His work has uncovered understandings of neonatal metabolism of drugs which has been used by FDA and European Medicine Agencies as guidance for providing standards for pharmacokinetics studies worldwide for children and infants. The NIH and FDA use his methods for drug development in other vulnerable populations, from women to the elderly. Dr. Cohen-Wolkowiez is Head of Pediatrics at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Kathleen Cooney, MD
Dr. Cooney is professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, and a member of the Duke Cancer Institute. Dr. Cooney is internationally known for her many contributions to the understanding of inherited prostate cancer susceptibility. Her most important accomplishment in this area was the successful identification of a major prostate cancer susceptibility gene using a combination of linkage and next-generation sequencing. Dr. Cooney served as the co-Principal Investigator of the University of Michigan Prostate Cancer SPORE program, as well as member of the steering committee of the NCI-funded International Consortium for Prostate Cancer Genetics. In these investigations, she has brought together collaborative teams to address foundational issues relevant to the causes and prevention of prostate cancer.
Florence McAlister Professor of Medicine
Vance Fowler, MD
Dr. Fowler is a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Molecuar Genetics and Microbiology, and a member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Fowler’s research in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia and antibacterial resistance has transformed our understanding and treatment of these conditions, and led to more than 25 years of continuous NIH funding as PI. He co-founded the International Collaboration on Endocarditis (ICE), a prospective cohort of over 3000 patients from 26 countries with endocarditis. From this, he published the critical observation that S. aureus is now the leading cause of endocarditis in the industrialized world. He has more than 275 publications and more than 21,000 citations.
Laszlo Ormandy Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Steven George, PT, PhD, FAPTA
Dr. George is a professor and director of Musculoskeletal and Surgical Sciences in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Vice Chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. His primary interest is research involving biopsychosocial models for the prevention and treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain disorders. Dr. George’s research projects have been supported by the NIH, DoD, and PCORI. His clinical studies have established him as an internationally recognized leader in the field. He and his collaborators have authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. George was designated as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow by the American Physical Therapy Association and was selected to receive the Association’s Helen Hislop Award for Outstanding Contribution to Professional Literature.
Mary Bernheim Distinguished Professor
Sue Jinks-Robertson, PhD
Dr. Jinks-Roberston is a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and co-vice chair of the department. She is also director of Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program at Duke. She is one of the foremost figures in her field and is held in the highest regard by experts from around the world. She uses the yeast Saccharyomyces cerevisiae as a model genetic system to understand the pathways and mechanisms that regulate mitotic genome stability. She has demonstrated what regulates the crossing-over between repeated genes and was instrumental in addressing the important question of how the eurkaryotic genome remains relatively stable despite very efficient homologous recombination and repeated genes located on non-homologous chromosomes. Additionally, she has identified crucial advances in our understanding of DNA mismatch repair.
Richard Sean Stack Distinguished Professor
Manesh Patel, MD
Dr. Patel is a professor in the Department of Medicine, and currently serves as chief of the Division of Cardiology. He has made seminal contributions to the field of cardiovascular medicine through observational and clinical research. He led a team that made the critical observation published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010 that more than 50 percent of patients going to the cardiac catherization laboratory in the United States did not have obstructive coronary disease. His work has led to national guidelines that now drive clinical practice. Dr. Patel has spent considerable effort investigating both anti-platelet and anti-thrombotic therapy for patients with cardiovascular disease. This is now the most common therapy for atrial fibrillation worldwide and has led to many millions of patients receiving this therapy.
Wilburt C. Davison Distinguished Professor
Sallie Permar, MD, PhD
Dr. Permar is a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Immunology, Pathology, and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and associate dean for physician-scientist development in the School of Medicine. Dr. Permar is a leader in maternal-fetal virus infections, and her ground breaking work has paved the way to improve infant immunity to viral infections. She has developed novel nonhuman primate models of perinatal virus infection for HIV, CMV, and Zika virus. In combination with translational investigations of human maternal-infant cohorts, Dr. Permar has created new paradigms in maternal and neonatal vaccinology. Some of her key discoveries include defining novel pathways of maternal antibody trafficking, identifying virus-neutralizing proteins in breast milk, and discovery of protective maternal/infant responses that are targets of current vaccine development.
Richard and Kit Barkhouser Distinguished Professor
Ponugoti Vasantha Rao, PhD
Dr. Rao is a pioneer in glaucoma and cataract research and is a professor in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology. His research program in glaucoma has focused on the trabecular meshwork in regulating aqueous humor outflow and intraocular pressure and his work in cataract research involves the mechanisms essential for the development and function of the lens. His major translational contribution is the demonstration that Rho kinase can serve as a therapeutic target for the treatment of glaucoma. This discovery has resulted in the development of three Rho kinase targeted new drugs for treating glaucoma. He has three US patents to this credit.
Lincoln Financial Group Professorship of Neurobiology
Albert La Spada, MD, PhD
Dr. La Spada is a professor of Neurology, Cell Biology and Neurobiology and an international expert on neurodegenerative disease. While a MD/PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, La Spada identified the cause of X-linked spinal & bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) as an expansion of a trinucleotide repeat in the androgen receptor gene. As the first disorder shown to be caused by an expanded repeat tract, this discovery of a novel type of genetic mutation led to the emergence of new field of study. Now, at Duke, he is seeking the molecular events that underlie neurodegeneration and neuron cell death in spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7), SBMA, Huntington’s Disease, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease. He and his team have uncovered evidence for transcription dysregulation, perturbed bioenergetics, and altered protein quality control as contributing factors to neuron dysfunction.
George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology
Scott Soderling, PhD
Dr. Soderling is professor and chair of the Department of Cell Biology. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his pioneering studies of how neurons communicate with each other through specialized ijunctions known as synapses and how this process is disrupted in brain disorders. His laboratory uses a suite of novel proteomic and genome editing approaches they have developed, along with animal behavioral approaches to understand how abnormalities of synapses are associated with disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability. Dr. Soderling has co-authored two patents on his work, founded a biotech startup in Durham and has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles.