Billy Hudson

The 2024 Aspirnaut Undergraduate Summer Research Interns. Front row, from left, Dolma Choenzom, Kimberly Hoang, Martina Gergis, and Marquala Whitman. Second row, from left, Eun Jun Wang, Anna Ruth Madera, Adrian Castañeda, and Shawn Jamison. Third row, from left, Freddiemae Thompson, Jalen L. Smith, Colton Miller, and John Bister. Fourth row, from left, Ryan Anderson, Emma Meihofer, and Kyle Vallone. (photo by Susan Urmy)
August 8, 2024

Aspirnaut research interns reach for the stars

The next day, the students, interns in the 16th summer research session of the Aspirnaut STEM pipeline program for diversity, were bound for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

By Bill Snyder
The 2023 Aspirnaut summer research interns, flanked by the program’s co-founders, Julie Hudson, MD, left, and Billy Hudson, PhD, back row, right. (photo by Susan Urmy)
October 12, 2023

Student researchers at VUMC earn accolades for their report

A research paper co-authored by 23 high school and undergraduate students participating in Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Aspirnaut summer research program has been selected as one of the “Editor’s Picks” by the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

By Bill Snyder
Aspirnaut student Nayla Ramos Vega, 15, wants to be a neurosurgeon.
July 19, 2023

Summer program gives high schoolers taste of discovery

Since the Aspirnaut high school summer research internship program was launched in 2009, 334 students from 34 states have participated. To date, nearly 90 of them have gone to earn MD degrees, PhDs, or both.

By Bill Snyder
Aspirnaut Sahra Hassan, right, a senior at Burlington High School in Burlington, Vermont, worked on mitochondrial DNA maintenance with postdoctoral scientist Iva Chitrakar, PhD.
March 2, 2023

VUMC’s Aspirnaut program to install science lab at Wynne High School in Arkansas

A chemical biology research lab fit for an academic medical center is being installed at Wynne High School (WHS) in Wynne, Arkansas, as part of a pilot project of Aspirnaut STEM pipeline at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Craig Boerner
August 3, 2022

VUMC’s Aspirnaut program celebrates 15th anniversary, and NBC News returned to highlight its students

A link to the video story and an inside look at the taping and some of this year’s participants

By Bill Snyder
Eighteen high school students and 16 college undergraduates participated in the Aspirnaut program this summer. Program co-founders Billy Hudson, PhD, and Julie Hudson, MD, MA, are at far left and right. Fourth from right, back row, is Aspirnaut alumna Lauren Taylor, from Grapevine, Arkansas, who participated in the inaugural Aspirnaut program 15 years ago — a broadband internet-equipped school bus the Hudsons dubbed their “mobile one-room schoolhouse,” which enabled students to log into science and math lessons during their long bus rides to and from school.
August 3, 2022

Science career “pipeline” garners national attention

Vanderbilt’s Aspirnaut STEM pipeline for diversity and wellness recently celebrated its 15th anniversary with a daylong scientific symposium, followed by a feature on the program broadcast Aug. 2 on NBC Nightly News.

By Bill Snyder
August 29, 2019

Aspirnaut education program reaches decade mark

Ten years on, a unique summer research program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center designed primarily for rural high school students with limited resources is achieving its goal of increasing the diversity of the nation’s scientists and engineers.
By Bill Snyder
December 6, 2018

Team spots clue to rare lung and kidney diseases

Pulmonary-renal syndrome (PRS) refers to a group of rare but potentially fatal conditions that nearly always are caused by a misguided attack by the body’s immune system on the lungs and kidneys. Coughing up blood and blood in the urine are telltale signs.
By Bill Snyder
December 14, 2017

Matrix biology society honors Hudson’s contributions

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) biochemist Billy Hudson, PhD, has been awarded the 2018 Distinguished Investigator Prize by the International Society for Matrix Biology for his contributions to the field of matrix biology.
By Bill Snyder
July 20, 2017

Aspirnaut program helps launch students into science

Now in its ninth year, a unique summer research program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) designed primarily for rural students with limited resources is proving that talent has no zip code.
By Bill Snyder
April 27, 2017

Hudson to receive Protein Society’s Brändén Award

Vanderbilt University biochemist Billy Hudson, Ph.D., has been awarded the 2017 Carl Brändén Award by The Protein Society for exceptional contributions to science, education and service.
By Bill Snyder
April 20, 2017

Ancient sea creature unlocks a mystery of how tissue developed

The dawn of the Animal Kingdom began with a collagen scaffold that enabled the organization of cells into tissues.
By Bill Snyder
November 21, 2016

Building the basement membrane

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered steps in the regulation of a key enzyme that builds the basement membrane, a structure that undergirds nearly all animal tissues.
By Bill Snyder
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