Three of the many people who empower the highly impactful and internationally recognized research enterprise at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine were honored April 4 during the 21st annual Research Staff Awards ceremony at the Kimpton Aertson Hotel in Nashville.
Presenting the awards were Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for Research, and John Kuriyan, PhD, Dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences.
In her opening remarks, Pietenpol, holder of the Brock Family Directorship in Career Development, noted that while research in the School of Medicine has “grown tremendously” in the past decade, “none of it happens without our exceptional research staff.”
“Research often begins with inquiring minds asking deep questions,” she said. “But making discoveries requires a team effort.”
The 2024 recipients and their awards are:
• Faith Brendle, RN, CPN, CCRP, clinical research manager in the Department of Pediatrics, Ian M. Burr Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes — recipient of the Vivien T. Thomas Award for Excellence in Clinical Research.
• Prashant “Prash” Singh, MS, senior research associate in the laboratory of Tina Iverson, PhD, Department of Pharmacology — recipient of the Edward E. Price Jr. Award for Excellence in Basic Science Research.
• Sandra Yoder, MLS, SCYM, senior research specialist and assistant director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program (VVRP) Laboratory — recipient of the Award for Excellence in Research Contributing to Multi-Investigator Teams.
Brendle, a certified pediatric nurse and certified clinical research professional, began her career at VUMC in 2007 as a clinical nurse specialist. Within seven years she was promoted to manager of research projects.
“There are currently 57 active clinical trials in our division, and Faith is in charge of every single one of them,” said William Russell, MD, the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Ian M. Burr Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes.
Those studies range from the division’s participation in the National Institutes of Health-funded Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet consortium, to “autoimmunity, metabolic bone disease, metabolic dysregulation, rare forms of obesity and more,” Russell said.
“Faith is absolutely the backbone of our clinical research program,” added Jill Simmons, MD, professor of Pediatrics, in her nomination letter.
“There is no doubt that Faith has made substantial differences in the lives of thousands of children who are either at increased risk of developing life-altering endocrine disorders, or who have genetic or other rare disorders and who seek improved outcomes,” wrote Simmons, who holds the Directorship in Pediatric Metabolic Bone Diseases.
Singh, who earned his Master of Science degree in biotechnology from Middle Tennessee State University, joined the Iverson lab as a research assistant in 2009.
He very quickly began to lead his own projects and introduced the lab to emerging technologies, notably cryo-electron microscopy. In 2024, Singh and his colleagues showed — through the use of CryoEM — how bacteria navigate toward sites conducive to infection by rotating their flagella.
Their paper created a sensation, not only among scientists. “He’s been featured on a YouTube channel with millions of followers, showing how he deconvoluted the structure of a bacterial flagellar motor,” said Iverson, who holds the Louise B. McGavock Chair and is professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry.
“Prash rates as the best staff scientist I have known,” Iverson wrote in her nomination letter. “Others in his sphere of influence are following his lead and allowing their curiosity to guide them into ‘blue-sky’ research at the edge of what is known.”
Yoder, a medical laboratory scientist and certified specialist in cytometry, was hired in 1997 by Kathryn Edwards, MD, now professor emerita of Pediatrics, as a research specialist in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Laboratory at VUMC.
In 2015 she was promoted to senior research specialist in the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program. “We could not do the work that we do in the VVRP without Sandy’s expertise and excellence,” program director C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, wrote in his nomination letter.
Yoder’s contributions were “pivotal” to the VVRP’s evaluation of the smallpox vaccine response, to post-9/11 bioterrorism threats, and to vaccine studies conducted during the 2009 and 2013 influenza A pandemics and COVID-19, noted Creech, the Edie Carell JohnsonProfessor of Pediatrics.
The breadth of her expertise in assessing immune responses to vaccines against a wide range of pathogens, from pertussis to the respiratory syncytial virus, is “unparalleled,” Edwards wrote in her nomination letter. “She is an indispensable leader for all vaccine efforts at Vanderbilt.”
Brendle’s award is named for the late Vivien T. Thomas, the pioneering surgical technician who began his career at Vanderbilt in the 1930s. Singh’s award is named for the late Edward E. Price Jr., an internationally known research assistant in the Department of Biochemistry and the Cardiovascular Physiology Core.
