medicine

Karlisle Kirkland sits in front of a mirror covered in post-its with messages of self-compassion on them

Teaching Teens to Love Themselves

Karen Bluth has a mission to teach youth how to be compassionate with themselves. As a psychiatry professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, she researches how effective self-compassion practices are at improving the depression and anxiety of transgender teenagers.
Luca Mainiphoto by Andrew Russell

Luca Maini

Luca Maini is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He studies how drug manufacturers compete and how the government regulates prices to get needed drugs into the hands of as many patients as possible.
photo by Megan May

Dain Ruiz

Dain Ruiz is a rising sophomore majoring in biology and a Chancellor’s Science Scholar within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He studies expansion disorders caused by repetitions in DNA — like Huntington’s Disease, Friedreich’s Ataxia, and Myotonic Dystrophy — to develop therapeutics to treat them.
Rachel Woodul

A Public Health Prognosis

Graduate student Rachel Woodul spent two years researching what might happen to hospital capacity when the next pandemic strikes. When it arrived, she compared what her model — and others’ — got wrong to improve how we react to public health crises in the future.
Angela Smithphoto courtesy of UNC Health

Angela Smith

Angela Smith is an associate professor in the Department of Urology within the UNC School of Medicine and a recipient of the 2020 Hettleman Award for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement. She studies how to improve the lives of patients with bladder cancer by amplifying patient voices in research and clinical care.
Jen Jen Yehphoto by Megan May

The Synergistic Scientist

Doctor and surgeon. Researcher and teacher. Entrepreneur and mentor. Jen Jen Yeh takes on multiple roles at UNC — and she wouldn’t have it any other way. From treating a variety of cancers to developing a company for an innovative drug-delivering device, she succeeds across fields and strives to share this synergy with her colleagues and students.
a woman holds a bag of plasma

In Our Blood

In the last six months, researchers have engaged in countless studies to test therapies for treating COVID-19. Some have shown promise, but still nothing is a surefire solution. What if we are the answer? UNC experts from multiple fields are leading projects to understand how plasma and antibodies from people who contracted the virus might be used to prevent and slow the spread of the disease.
Baba Massphoto courtesy of the UNC Nutrition Research Institute

Baba Mass

Baba Mass is a research technician in the Voruganti Lab within the UNC Nutrition Research Institute. He studies how genes and diet impact serum uric acid levels — a chemical created when the body breaks down substances called purines. Unhealthy amounts of uric acid can cause kidney and heart problems.
Jonathan Schisler and Todd Cohen

The Head and the Heart

Todd Cohen and Jonathan Schisler — a neuroscientist and a heart researcher — began working together in 2016 after meeting for coffee in Marsico Hall. By combining their expertise in protein studies, they strive to develop a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Virginie Papadopoulouphoto by Megan May

Bubble Breakthroughs

Virginie Papadopoulou specializes in using ultrasound technology to study the body in extreme environments, ranging from the physiology of scuba divers to the blood flow in cancerous tumors. Her weapon of choice? Tiny bubbles.