Kafui Dzirasa’s work on neuro-engineering technologies is nothing short of revolutionary, which hold great promise for treating psychiatric illnesses.

Robert Margolis is a pioneer in new models of team-based, coordinated health care, and has been on the front lines of health care reform for more than 40 years.

Lawrence David, PhD, studies this hidden world, the community of hundreds of different species of bacteria that make up each person's gut microbiome. We are seldom aware of their presence, but they interact with us in countless ways and play a profound role in determining our health. In a way, they help make us who we are.

Two-time lung cancer survivor Bob Norris has taken up a new hobby to show his support for Duke Cancer Institute: skydiving. In 2017, just before his 85th birthday, he completed his sixth jump to raise funds and awareness for Duke cancer research. "It's because of Duke I'm getting old," says Norris.

Small bowel cancer survivor Jim Slaughter says he gets more out of volunteering than he puts in. He encourages others to volunteer with the Duke Cancer Patient Support Program, as he does every week. "It's going to make you a better person," he says.

Though she has battled melanoma that spread to her brain, Tricia Gallagher says that cancer has changed her life, and not in a negative way. "It's not the end of the road, it's not the end of your story. It's just a chapter in it," she says.

It was another hectic day at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Duke University Hospital. Chris Fry, RN, BSN, was taking care of a 65-year-old man who had received a heart transplant the day before.

A few years ago, eight-year-old twins came into the physical therapy clinic for neurologically-disabled children in Utah where Trac Norris, now a third-year student in the Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy program, volunteered while an undergraduate student. He noticed that they could not walk by themselves, that they were unable to communicate, and that they were blind. During their treatment, the parents told the therapists that one of the boys loved music. Norris set him down on a bench and placed a piano in front of him. The boy began to play.

The 2012 London Olympic Games played out like a fairy tale for Abby Johnston McGrath, MD’18. She stood on the podium, watching her country's flag rise up as they put a silver medal for synchronized diving around her neck, and she was inspired to continue diving at the 2016 Olympics.

Two weeks before her 19th birthday, Samantha Casper, MSN’18, had a car accident. She was headed out for a night of fun with a friend, but ended up at the hospital. The doctors told her mother that Casper had suffered a traumatic brain injury and that she might not survive. Casper has survived, but she was told that due to short term memory loss, she could never go back to college. But she had other plans. “My mother instilled in me ‘Do more, be more, don't give up,’” says Casper.