Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This summer we bid farewell to the 32 students who joined us on the Health Sciences and Technology Campus for our undergraduate research fellowships and programs for high-schoolers. Just a few weeks later, we welcomed new and returning master’s and doctoral students, medical students, and undergraduate scholars for the fall semester.
Our role as an academic center for health research, education and training is an important part of our mission to carry out innovative biomedical and health sciences research, and it is one that has been marked in particular by the incredible growth and numerous successes of the graduate program that began here at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute nine years ago.
- There were 84 students enrolled in all stages of the Translational Biology, Medicine and Health (TBMH) graduate program during the 2022-23 academic year. The program is housed in Roanoke, but is an umbrella for students who carry out their dissertation research with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and other VT faculty in Roanoke, Blacksburg and Washington, D.C.
- The TBMH doctoral completion rate is 86.6 percent, compared with a national average that ranges from 41.6 percent to 56.2 percent, according to National Institutes of Health data.
- For the 2022-23 academic year, TBMH students demonstrated impressive scholarship, with 44 total publications. Of those, TBMH students are first authors on over half, signifying the researcher who had a lead role on the study.
- Graduates from TBMH have gone on to postdoctoral positions at some of the nation’s leading biomedical research institutions including the National Institutes of Health and Mayo Clinic; Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and Yale universities; and the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco.
- Other graduates have taken positions in industry or government at such places as Novartis, Astra Zeneca, the Centers for Disease Control, Icagen, and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
- Four medical students have chosen to concurrently earn doctoral degrees as M.D.+Ph.D. students in the TBMH program, three in FBRI labs in Roanoke and one in Blacksburg. They are following Oscar Alcoreza, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine’s first dual M.D.+Ph.D. student, who graduated in May after completing his Ph.D. at the FBRI and his medical training at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and began his residency at the nation’s leading anesthesiology program at Massachusetts General Hospital, the oldest and largest teaching hospital of Harvard University.
While the numbers are impressive, they do not tell the full story. Fralin Biomedical Research Institute is building a strong infrastructure and culture to support graduate students in their academic careers. In the past year, students have earned NIH individual Ruth L. Kirschstein predoctoral awards; American Heart Association fellowships; a National Science Foundation fellowship; and research fellowships from the National Institute on Aging of NIH. One student is also serving as a policy ambassador for the Society of Neuroscience.
Generous donors also support their scholarship: Ray Gaskins, a group of Virginia Tech Zeta Beta Tau alumni, and others have contributed to fellowships that help current and future graduate students at the FBRI to make a difference through their health research.
We look forward to more great work from the 24 members of the incoming TBMH class.
Yours truly in the spirit of Ut Prosim,
Michael J. Friedlander, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
Vice President for Health Sciences and Technology, Virginia Tech
Senior Dean for Research, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
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Researchers find institutions with strong engineering operations are more efficient in producing patents
Virginia Tech inventor, medical student create translational ratio to analyze patenting efficiency. Read Story
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Fundamental understanding of a molecule's normal function could inform treatments for a variety of brain disorders
Investigators in John Chappell's lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute made a discovery that could inform new therapies. Read Story
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Virginia Tech joins with universities, bioscience companies to address health care needs
Catalyst grants will support biomedical research in the commonwealth. Read Story
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Warren delivers invited talk at prestigious American Heart Association conference
Junco Warren, a cardiovascular scientist at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, discussed her research into a key protein and its role in heart health. Read Story
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Pregnant? Virginia Tech researchers recruiting for nation's largest early childhood brain development study
The ambitious national study seeks to better understand what influences brain development from birth through age 10. Read Story
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'My younger self could never have dreamed of this'
A translational biology, medicine, and health graduate student was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship to study the health impact of ultra-processed foods. Read Story
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Lecture series will feature experts in addiction research, cardiovascular science, metabolic disease, and more
The institute launches the 12th season of the Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series on Sept. 8. Read Story
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Media coverage of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute centered on investigation of autism spectrum disorder, research connecting patents with National Institutes of Health funding, metabolism and obesity research, and collaborations between Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.
- Anthony-Samuel LaMantia was interviewed at length about his research into the connection between DiGeorge syndrome and autism for two episodes (#350 and #351) of a podcast by the Developmental Disabilities Institute.
- Research by Rob Gourdie showing institutions with strong engineering programs more efficiently produce patents was featured in Bioengineer, Newswise, Scienmag, and Mirage News Australia.
- Alexandra DiFeliceantonio and postdoctoral associate Mary Elizabeth Baugh were quoted in Vitafoods Insights about the role of the gut-brain axis in weight fluctuations.
- Northern Virginia Magazine quoted Michael Friedlander on the power of collaboration between Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia via the iTHRIV program.
View the full list of media mentions.
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Here's how you can support the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in advancing human health through science:
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