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Duke University School of Medicine celebrated excellence in graduate student education and discovery science at its 2026 Office of Biomedical Graduate Education (OBGE) Graduate Student Awards ceremony, an event that was expanded this year to recognize trainees at multiple stages of their research careers.

A new study led by Lee Zou, PhD, with key contributions from postdoctoral associate Yunhao Song, PhD, suggests the answer may lie in cGAS, a protein best known for activating immune “alarm signals” inside cells. Researchers found that cGAS levels strongly influence how well ATR inhibitors work in tumors with ATM mutations. Without cGAS, ATM-deficient cancer cells were far less sensitive to these experimental drugs — pointing to a potential new way to identify patients most likely to benefit.

Congratulations to the following faculty members for receiving these sponsored research awards:

Driven by his eye-opening past, Zhao Zhang refuses to play it safe as he changes what we know about the biology of cancer.

Chloe Barrington-Ham, PhD,, a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Alicia Darnell, PhD, has been awarded a three-year Hope Funds for Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, which provides an annual stipend and travel award to postdocs pursuing "highly innovative projects that challenge the traditional paradigms of understanding the causes, mechanisms, progression, disease markers or risk factors of the most difficult-to-treat cancers."

Congratulations to the following faculty members for receiving these sponsored research awards:

Two faculty from th

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