Excellence in Research Awards

Dr. Seema Lakdawala launched a bold, translational research program focused on respiratory virus transmission. As founding Co-Director of the Emory Center for Transmission of Airborne Pathogens, she co-leads a multi-investigator team spanning clinical research, microbiology, aerosol physics, and immunology to build an infrastructure for safe, innovative human challenge studies.

Working together with a team, Dr. Lakdawala achieved the first successful aerosolized influenza inoculations in humans since the 1960s. The team’s calibrated aerosol delivery system allows them to mimic natural exposure with unparalleled precision, making it possible to study early immune events, infectious dose thresholds, and individual-level variation in susceptibility and transmission potential.

Their innovative approach has led to the development of the Modular Influenza Sampling Tunnel (MIST), a platform to collect exhaled virus-laden aerosols from infected individuals. MIST provides a unique ability to measure infectious particles emitted during breathing, speaking, and coughing—enabling them to link airborne virus shedding with symptoms, immunity, and environmental conditions. Through this platform, Dr. Lakdawala and her team have built a research ecosystem that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in human respiratory virus studies.

Dr. Jennifer Spangle is a nationally and internationally recognized thought leader whose research has significantly advanced understanding of epigenetic regulation in cancer. Her lab investigates how chromatin integrates upstream signaling pathways like PI3K to drive oncogenesis, characterizes novel oncohistones and histone variants, and develops chemical biology tools to map the methylproteome in human disease.

She has published 23 peer-reviewed research articles (11 as first/last author), five reviews, and one book chapter. Her work has been presented in 16 invited talks at leading institutions such as UCSF, Ohio State, and ETH Zurich, where she was also a keynote speaker. She has delivered over 40 presentations at national and international conferences.

Her collaborative research spans disciplines including signaling, epigenetics, computational biology, and chemical biology, resulting in high-impact publications in Nature Neuroscience, JACS, and Communications Biology. She actively fosters diversity in science through “Team Oncohistone,” a training initiative for underrepresented undergraduate students, and has mentored over 40 trainees across career stages.