Discovery Lecture Series

August 20, 2025

Vanderbilt Prize winner Huda Akil to discuss how science can aid mental health on Sept. 11

Akil is an internationally known neuroscientist at the University of Michigan and Michigan Neuroscience Institute whose research has helped reveal the fundamental nature of anxiety, depression, pain and addiction.

By Bill Snyder
(iStock image)
March 14, 2025

Blood formation and disorders expert Stuart Orkin to present Discovery Lecture March 27

Orkin’s research led to a gene therapy for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia; it is the first Food and Drug Administration-approved CRISPR-based gene therapy.

By Leigh MacMillan
From left, 2024 Vanderbilt Prize winner Sarah Tishkoff and Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar Kimberlyn Ellis. (photo by Susan Urmy)
March 10, 2025

Evolution, genomics and disease: a very special Discovery Lecture

Sarah Tishkoff described her groundbreaking research during a talk titled “African Evolutionary Genomics: Reconstructing Human Evolution and the Genetic Basis of Complex Adaptive Traits.”

By Bill Snyder
Sarah Tishkoff, PhD
February 13, 2025

Vanderbilt Prize winner to discuss ‘evolutionary genomics’ on March 6

Tishkoff’s groundbreaking research at the University of Pennsylvania has broad implications for understanding and treating human disease.

By Bill Snyder
From left are Alvin Powers, MD, Daniel Drucker, MD, and Steven Eskind, MD, associate professor of Surgery, son of Annette and Irwin Eskind. (photo by Donn Jones)
December 18, 2024

Leading GLP-1 expert shares insights on groundbreaking drugs for glucose control, weight loss

Drucker and his team study the molecular biology and physiology of the GLP-1 and GLP-2 molecules that regulate glucose metabolism, insulin secretion and energy balance.

By Jill Clendening
November 12, 2024

GLP-1 medicines are focus of Discovery Lecture on Nov. 21

Daniel Drucker, MD, a pioneering scientist whose research contributed to the development of the blockbuster GLP-1 medicines used to treat diabetes and obesity, was listed by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024.

By Leigh MacMillan
November 12, 2024

Patient voices critical to success of artificial intelligence in health care

Sponsored by the Department of Biomedical Informatics, the symposium showcased the work of the department’s center for AI Discovery and Vigilance to Accelerate Innovation and Clinical Excellence.
By Bill Snyder
October 28, 2024

Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz set for next Discovery Lecture

Horvitz, an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a pioneer in the applications of machine learning, AI and decision science.
By Bill Snyder
September 30, 2024

Ramakrishnan’s Discovery Lecture

Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, PhD, center, author of Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality, delivered the Sept. 26 Discovery Lecture.
By Bill Snyder
September 23, 2024

Nobel laureate James Rothman to present on synaptic neurotransmission

Rothman, the Sterling Professor of Cell Biology at Yale University, shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.” 
By Leigh MacMillan
September 12, 2024

Nobel laureate to speak at VUMC on the ribosome and ‘why we die’

The subject of his Discovery Lecture, which will begin at 4 p.m. Sept. 26 in 208 Light Hall, is the role of ribosomes in initiating the translation of DNA into RNA, a precursor step to transcribing the genetic code into proteins that do the work of the cell.
By Bill Snyder
March 26, 2024

Vanderbilt Prize winner’s lecture focused on the joy of discovery

During her Discovery Lecture on March 21, Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft, recipient of the 2023 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, spoke on the joy science has given her.
By Bill Snyder
March 4, 2024

Dame Frances Ashcroft to deliver March 21 Vanderbilt Prize Lecture

Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft, recipient of the 2023 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, will deliver her Vanderbilt Prize Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in 208 Light Hall.
By Bill Snyder
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