Meet Physicians and Scientists

When K.V. Rajagopalan, PhD, arrived in the United States from India to begin his postdoctoral work in the Department of Biochemistry at Duke, he familiarized himself with the department’s members by reading their journal articles. Among them were a series of papers reporting startling research on oxygen radicals by a young biochemist named Irwin Fridovich, PhD’55.

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.

Why do perfectly good cancer treatments suddenly stop working? Researcher and lymphoma survivor Kris Wood is finding answers.

Researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute are teaming up with several other institutions to develop a fluorescent dye that is injected into cancerous tumors and lights up when viewed under a special camera. This allows surgeons to see if residual cancer remains after the tumor has been removed.

Did you know that one in five new cancers is caused by infection? Meira Epplein, PhD, a co-leader for Duke Cancer Institute’s Cancer Control and Population Sciences Research Program, is working to get the word out about testing and treatment for a common stomach bacterium called h pylori.

Samuel L. Katz, MD, described himself as merely a “young, enthusiastic, and naïve pediatrician” who “came along at the right time, in the right laboratory, with the right colleagues.” This is a remarkably humble reframing of the accomplishments of the pioneering virologist, pediatrician, and chairman emeritus and Wilburt C. Davison Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine.

The push to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has been a promising and disappointing endeavor over the past two decades, yielding a greater understanding of the disease yet still failing to generate successful new drugs.

“One day, patients will have access to regenerative medicine treatments that will circumvent the complications of organ donation,” says Sharlini Sankaran, PhD, executive director of Duke’s Regeneration Next Initiative. “We will be able to use our bodies’ own innate repair mechanisms to eliminate the wait time, cost, and limited supply of organ transplantation. Instead of transplanting organs, we will know how to repair our own.”