Mary E. Klotman, BS’76, MD’80, HS’80-85, is Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at Duke University, Dean of Duke University School of Medicine, and Chief Academic Officer for Duke University Health System. She was appointed dean in 2017, after serving for seven years as chair of the Department of Medicine, and re-appointed in 2022.

Three individuals within the School of Medicine and one Duke Health team were among the recipients of the prestigious 2024-25 Duke Presidential Awards.   

Last year, Duke became the first institution in North Carolina to offer lecanemab, the first drug targeting the underlying processes of Alzheimer’s disease that has shown a clinical benefit. Duke now conducts the largest lecanemab clinic in the state, giving early-stage Alzheimer’s patients the gift of time and raising awareness about the need for more research.

Duke researchers found that, in animal models, supporting pre-term fetuses in an artificial womb until they reach late pre-term gestational age results in brain tissue gene expression that more closely resembles that of late pre-term fetuses than those born prematurely.

Duke has a long and influential institutional history of providing electroconvulsive therapy clinical services, training clinicians to thoughtfully and effectively administer ECT, and advancing the science of ECT through cutting-edge research.

Researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute successfully created an HIV vaccine candidate that guides key immune cells along an evolutionary pathway to become broadly neutralizing antibodies. Further tests in primates and humans are planned.

Diego V. Bohórquez, PhD, and Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, PhD, were among the nearly 400 recipients of Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers honors announced by The White House this week.

Hospitalized premature infants who received recommended two-month vaccinations had an increased risk of a short episode of apnea but no serious complications, according to a study led by Duke Health researchers.

From pursuing climate change research to enhancing the partnership with the Veteran's Administration, and advancing the groundbreaking FDA-approved drug for low-grade gliomas developed by the team at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, the achievements at the Duke University School of Medicine in 2024 have been remarkable. Watch this short video that highlights these and other milestones.

Akankshi Munjal, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology, is driven by her fascination with watching development happen.