News

Molecular Genetics and Microbiology graduate student Aaron Koh

Study highlights a potential new way to boost the immune system against Cryptococcus, a World Health Organization “critical priority” fungus whose reach is expanding as climate change and global travel accelerate its spread.

Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD, was honored on November 6, 2025, at the Duke Medical Alumni Association awards celebration as the recipient of a 2025 Distinguished Faculty Award.

Researchers apply for federal research grants, which are awarded only after rigorous scientific and peer review. These funds support research activities and enable the training of future medical professionals and scientists. Federal research grants form a partnership between the government and American universities that drives current discoveries and future health care innovations.

MGM secondary faculty member Neil Surana, MD, PhD, who is developing a new approach to treating obesity using a specialized sugar molecule, will be among the School of Medicine researchers highlighting their innovations at the seventh annual Invented at Duke event, to be held November 11.

MGM graduate student Justice Lu won first place in the Abstrax Prize for Applications in Analytical Chemistry in the 2025 Large Language Model Hackathon for Materials Science and Chemistry. His project, “SmeLLMap: Turning smell from a mystery into a map,” used advanced computer tools to build a system that can guess how receptors in our noses respond to different smells based on their structure.

This fall, the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology welcomes 10 new PhD students whose wide-ranging backgrounds and research interests reflect the breadth and depth of the field.

Glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSD Ia) is a rare genetic condition where the liver can't properly release sugar into the blood, which can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels, especially in infants. Traditional gene therapy hasn’t worked well for treating this disease early in life. This study shows that genome editing could be a promising and safer long-term treatment for infants with GSD Ia.

Advanced genetic sequencing reveals the cells behind many persistent tuberculosis infections and provides a map of where they live, pointing the way toward new treatments.

Duke researchers may have found a path to treat a family of rare neurodegenerative disease called neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA).  People with NBIA have extra iron accum