The University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine is pleased to announce the 2025 cohort of the Stead Family Scholars Program, which celebrates and supports outstanding, early-career faculty.
Funded by generous donors and Iowa natives Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, this program supports promising researchers to pursue bold ideas that have the potential to transform science and medicine.
Scholars receive $125,000 per year for three years to explore new ideas that promise consequential discoveries, plus leadership and communication training to advance their professional development. The program has already begun to pay dividends, allowing scholars in previous cohorts to expand their programs, pivot into new methods, and publish their findings.
Save the date
Join us for a special symposium at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, in the Kelch Conference Room (1289 CBRB), to learn more about the research of the 2025 Stead Family Scholars.
This year's Stead Family Scholars are:
James Byrne, MD, PhD
James Byrne’s lab focuses on translational engineering to solve complex biomedical problems through innovative, high-risk research approaches. Funding from the Stead Family Scholars program will support his team's investigation of novel radioprotective strategies aimed at reducing treatment-related toxicities and improving quality of life for cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.
Stephanie Gantz, PhD
Stephanie Gantz’s research pursues a fundamental understanding of how and when the ubiquitous and enigmatic delta-1 glutamate receptors signal in the brain, with the goal of uncovering therapeutic potential of targeting these receptors to treat human diseases. With this funding, Gantz plans to examine the relationship between brain pH and delta-1 glutamate receptor function as it pertains to cognitive function and neuropsychiatric symptoms.
Jeremiah Johnson, PhD
Jeremiah Johnson’s lab studies how the bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni infects the gastrointestinal tract, induces inflammation, and causes tissue damage. Support through the Stead Family Scholar program will allow his team to examine whether inflammation during pediatric infection is different and whether this has unique effects on the pediatric gastrointestinal tract.
Hua “Linda” Sun, MD, PhD
Hua “Linda” Sun’s lab studies a heavy-duty transport system inside kidney cells, powered by the motor protein cytoplasmic dynein. Her team was the first to discover that in diabetes, this transport network goes off course — misdelivering critical cargo, damaging cells, and ultimately causing the loss of the kidney’s filtering units. With the support of this fund, Sun’s lab is uncovering how this breakdown rewires cellular metabolism and scrambles gene activity. The group is also performing drug screening to identify compounds that can restore dynein-mediated trafficking, offering potential new treatments. Sun's ultimate goal is to develop innovative therapies that can restore — or even protect — kidney health from the earliest stages of diabetic stress, especially in children and adolescents.
The program also continues to celebrate 2022–2024 cohorts:
2024 Cohort of Stead Family Scholars
Georgina Aldridge, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology
Deniz Atasoy, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and pharmacology
Rebecca Dodd, PhD, associate professor of internal medicine – hematology, oncology, and blood and marrow transplantation
2023 Cohort of Stead Family Scholars
Lyndsay Harshman, MD, MS, associate professor of pediatrics – nephrology, dialysis, and transplantation
Alejandro Pezzulo Colmenares, MD, associate professor of internal medicine – pulmonary, critical care, and occupational medicine
Amy Ryan, PhD, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology
2022 Cohort of Stead Family Scholars
Jennifer Bermick, MD, associate professor of pediatrics – neonatology
Munir Tanas, MD, associate professor of pathology
Mary Weber, PhD, MS, associate professor of microbiology and immunology
Ling Yang, PhD, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology