Dean’s Eminent Investigators

The School of Medicine faculty includes a select group of high-impact basic scientists who achieved the rank of full professor with tenure years ago and continue to contribute at truly exemplary levels. These scholars embody the continuing fulfillment of our highest academic aspirations and are at the core of our drive from “excellence” to “eminence.” The “Dean’s Eminent Investigator” honorary titles were created to honor faculty based in the School of Medicine. These honorary titles are limited to up to 2% of SOM faculty and are available for conferral upon eminent senior basic scientists who have been full professors with tenure at Emory for at least five years and continue to contribute internationally at extraordinary levels. The criteria for selection include a high level of sustained extramural support expected to continue into the future, as well as a stellar record of high-impact publications and international recognition as a thought leader in their field. Basic scientists who hold endowed appointments are not eligible to receive or retain these titles. 

These titles will be granted for an initial 5-year term, subject to review and renewal every five years based upon continued exemplary performance at an international level. 

Each department chair may nominate one faculty member per year. Letters of nomination should be limited to three pages and accompanied by the candidate’s updated CV in the School of Medicine format. The next nomination period will open in December 2021.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Human Genetics

With a background in biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics, Dr. Corces has been a pioneer in epigenetics, genomics and computational biology. His current research centers on the transgenerational transmission of obesity resulting from exposure to chemicals in the environment, with an emphasis on the role of the three-dimensional organization of the chromatin fiber in this process. Human Genetics Chair Peng Jin noted that his discoveries “have provided fundamental insights into chromatin architecture and led to major advancesin our understanding of how chromatin can be packaged, regulated and inherited.”

What inspires you to do this work?

“I'm just a nerdy scientist who wakes up every morning thinking about how the nucleus of a cell works. I think about it in the shower instead of singing operas, and I go to bed thinking about it. I neverremember my dreams in the morning, so I don't know if I dream about the nucleus or not. I've always been like this, obsessive about understanding how things work. When I was little, Christmas was the best time of the year for me, not because I got presentsbut because I got to take apart all the ones from my brothers and sisters to try to figure out how they worked. Putting them together again so that they would still work was a different issue. The most exciting part of my work is being in the lab and finding out new results when they first come out, which is why I don't use my office and I use a desk in the lab instead.”

Do you have any advice for graduating scientists?

“Sometimes you don't know if you want to be a scientist or not until you are in the lab and feel the excitement of discovering something new. Students were not able to be in the lab for over one year now, so many may have missed the opportunity of experiencing this. Once they graduate, it may be difficult to have an opportunity to experience research in a lab. My advice would be not to give up and to try to find opportunities after graduation.”

 

Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology

Dr. Traynelis has made numerous seminal discoveries about the fundamental properties of glutamate receptors. Recently, he has developed multiple first-in-class series of subtype-selective NMDA receptorligands that possess therapeutic potential for the treatment of ischemic brain injury, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy and other disorders. Dr. Traynelis’s work to understand the functional consequences of genetic variation in glutamate receptor genes in healthy individuals and neurological patients have provided new insights into receptor function and genetic risk. These efforts led to the founding of a new Center at Emory that bridges the gap between genetic information on receptor variants and their functional and pharmacological consequences, laying the groundwork for precision medicine and the evaluation of novel treatment paradigms.

What inspires you to do this work?

“My goal in choosing a career path in graduate school was to use basic scientific discovery to drive development of new treatments for individuals suffering from neurological disease. Furthermore, through my training and early career I became convinced that fundamental, detailed mechanistic studies of important disease-related processes could yield insight into new approaches to the treatment of disease. This idea inspires me today to work hard to perform basic research into detailed mechanisms of biological processes and creatively think about how this might create new opportunities for treatment.”

Do you have any advice for graduating scientists?

“The future has never been brighter for applying insight from scientific discoveries to improve the well-being of your neighbors, worldwide. Retain your enthusiasm now for tackling hard problems throughout your life and continue the habit you have acquired here at Emory of always learning new things.”

What do you see as the most exciting opportunity that emerged as a result of the COVID pandemic?

“COVID has changed much about life, work and healthcare, and with every great challenge comes new opportunities. The intense work in the private sector and in industry has created new ways to treat all diseases faster than ever thought possible, and this success validated decades of fundamental scientific progress that laid the groundwork for development of the new vaccines. In addition, as we learn more about the biology of the COVID-19 virus, we will undoubtedly find ways to use this knowledge to create and improve future genetic treatment strategies.”