The science behind next-generation obesity drugs may come down to an unexpected player: glucagon, a hormone that boosts energy expenditure for sustained weight loss.

A trailblazing hospital executive who transformed large health systems and championed innovation, Nancy Schlichting, MBA, T’76, has spent her career elevating the role of nurses in delivering better care. Now, together with her wife, Pam Theisen, Schlichting is extending that commitment through a gift to launch the Nursing Innovation Fund at Duke Health.

Duke researchers Sundarshan Rajagopal, MD, PhD, and MD-PhD student Preston Anderson have worked together to realize how G protein-coupled receptors signal through liquid-like protein clusters that could have implications for drug delivery going forward. The findings are outlined in a paper published in the journal Nature.

Medical student Daniel Yang is building community through movement as president of Medicine in Motion. Through events that bring together students across Duke’s health professions programs, he is creating space for connection, wellness, and shared purpose.

Five Duke University School of Medicine faculty members have been selected to receive 2026 Physician-Scientist Strong Start awards. The awards program, funded with a gift from the Nanaline H. Duke Fund, supports promising early career physician-scientists at Duke as they develop independent research programs. 

In this conversation, Dr. Gupta discusses the growing shift in aging science from extending lifespan to improving healthspan – how well we live as we age. He shares insights from his research on metabolic resilience, healthy aging, and the biological systems that help the body adapt over time. Dr. Gupta also highlights interdisciplinary collaborations at Duke, including work related to GLP‑1–based therapies and their potential impact beyond weight loss.

At Duke University, researchers across medicine, engineering, environmental science and public policy are studying what rising global temperatures mean for human health, ecosystems, and communities.

A career dedicated to improving health in partnership with communities has culminated in a transformational gift by Duke University School of Medicine Professor Emeritus J. Lloyd Michener, MD, to carry forward work that he and his wife, the late Gwendolyn C. Murphy, PhD, championed for years.

Carrie Brown, MD'04, HS'04-'08, MPH, credits her first clinical rotation as a Duke University medical student at John Umstead Hospital, a former psychiatric inpatient facility in Butner, North Carolina, with planting the seed for her future psychiatry career. That path eventually led her to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), where she now serves as chief psychiatrist and deputy secretary for facilities, behavioral health, and intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Duke researchers are exploring how we can not only survive longer, but thrive longer.