January 23, 2025

Elite society honors two VUMC physician-scientists

The Young Physician-Scientist Award recognizes “notable achievements” by researchers who are within five years of their first faculty appointment.

Two faculty researchers in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have received Young Physician-Scientist Awards from the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies.

Juan Pablo Arroyo Ornelas, MD, PhD

Juan Pablo Arroyo Ornelas, MD, PhD, and David Patrick, MD, PhD, are among 50 physician-scientists nationwide who received the award this year. The Young Physician-Scientist Award recognizes “notable achievements” by researchers who are within five years of their first faculty appointment.

Arroyo, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2020. His research focuses on a mechanisms-of-disease approach to understand water homeostasis and how water regulates metabolism, and how this understanding may improve the treatment of kidney disease, obesity and diabetes.

David Patrick, MD, PhD

Patrick, who also joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2020, is assistant professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Cardiovascular Medicine. He studies novel mechanisms of immune activation, including the role of neutrophils, in vascular inflammation and dysfunction, hypertension and systemic autoimmune conditions.

“It is a privilege to see two of our exceptional young faculty members receive the prestigious Young Physician-Scientist Award,” said Jane Freedman, MD, the Gladys Parkinson Stahlman Professor of Cardiovascular Research, and chair of the Department of Medicine. “This recognition not only highlights their outstanding contributions to biomedical research but also reflects the importance of nurturing the next generation of scientific leaders.”

Arroyo earned his medical degree from the Universidad La Salle Medical School in Mexico City in 2009, his PhD in Medical Science from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in 2012 and completed an internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship training at VUMC.

He has received a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2020), and an ASCI Emerging Generation Award (2022), and in 2024 he was selected as the VUMC Discovery Scholar in Health and Medicine for his work on the intersection of water and lipid metabolism.

Patrick earned his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2013. Subsequently he completed an internal medicine residency and fellowships in Cardiovascular Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at VUMC.

Research by Patrick’s group on the expanded roles of inflammation and autoimmunity in cardiovascular diseases has revealed potential new treatments for cardiovascular diseases and contributed to ongoing clinical trials in patients with systemic autoimmune disease.

His awards include the Harry Goldblatt Award for New Investigators from the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension, and a Young Investigator Award from the American Association of Immunologists.

Since 2014, 25 Vanderbilt faculty members have received Young Physician-Scientist Awards from the ASCI.