James Goldenring, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Epithelial Biology Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), has received a Research Mentor Award from the American Gastroenterology Association Institute Council for “outstanding research mentorship.”
Goldenring is the Paul W. Sanger Professor of Experimental Surgery and professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and vice chair of Surgical Research in the Section of Surgical Sciences.
He was one of 10 Research Mentor Award recipients honored in San Diego last month during Digestive Disease Week 2016, an annual meeting and scientific conference sponsored by AGA and three other specialty societies.
“I am incredibly honored to receive this award,” Goldenring said. “I truly believe that we have no greater obligation than to mentor not only our students and postdocs, but also our scientific colleagues and even those who will be our competitors.”
A graduate of Harvard University, Goldenring earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. After residency training in general surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in surgical research as an American College of Surgeons Research Fellow. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2002.
He has been a leader in the investigation of intestinal membrane trafficking, metaplasia and gastric cancer. His recent studies have suggested that targeting Ras activation may be an effective approach for reversing metaplasia in the stomach.
Goldenring was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012, and currently is associate editor of the journal Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
