Biophysics Society Recognizes the Research of Vanderbilt University’s Nancy Carrasco

Nancy Carrasco, Joe C. Davis Chair in Biomedical Science and chair of the department of molecular physiology and biophysics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, has been selected to receive the 2024 Award for the Biophysics of Health and Disease from the Biophysics Society. Dr. Carrasco will be honored at the society’s 68th annual meeting, being held in Philadelphia, from February 10-14, 2024. The award honors significant contributions to understanding the fundamental cause or pathogenesis of disease, or to enabling the treatment or prevention.

Dr. Carrasco is being recognized for her work using biophysical approaches to define and characterize the sodium/iodide transporter that is essential for synthesizing thyroid hormone and then translating these findings into important medical applications.

“The ultimate goal of biomedical research, no matter how fundamental, is to eventually have an impact on human health,” said Taekjip Ha, president of the Biophysics Society. “Nancy relentlessly pursued the transporter responsible for iodide uptake into the thyroid, which she successfully cloned. She has since taken that research further so that it can be used for the detection and possibly treatment of diseases such as breast cancer.”

Dr. Carrasco joined the Vanderbilt University faculty in 2019 after teaching at Yale Medical School from 2011 to 2019. She holds a master’s degree in chemistry and a medical doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.