Jenny Tran wins the Dr. Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology

Posted by daviskd2 on Tuesday, November 12, 2024 in News.

Congratulations to Jenny Tran, of the Breann Brown lab, on being named the 2025 recipient of the Dr. Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology. “It’s such an honor to be selected as the recipient of the Karpay Award,” Tran said.

Although she completed a summer research internship with Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor David G. Lynn at Emory University, Jenny originally wanted to pursue architecture at the University of Georgia. The tug of the basic sciences soon pulled Jenny into the lab of Professor James Prestegard. There she worked on method development for predicting NMR chemical shifts of sparsely labeled proteins. Her newfound love of research helped her to earn a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a minor in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

As a fifth-year graduate student in the Biochemistry Graduate Program, Jenny focuses on dissecting the allostery involved in heme biosynthesis initiation using an integrated structural biology approach in the lab of Professor Breann Brown. Her work has led to collaborations with other Vanderbilt labs, including the labs of Jens Meiler, John Yang and Jason MacGurn.

“Jenny is that student. She’s tenacious and unsatisfied until a problem is solved,” Professor Brown said. “Yet she has this uncanny ability to put everyone around her at ease.”

Jenny’s interests outside the lab include creative writing, crafting and music. “I love playing the piano and attending Broadway shows!” exclaimed Tran. Her love of music and entertaining led her to serve on the organizing committee for the 2022 BRET Winter Showcase.

Jenny presents Communication Runs in Our Blood: From Proteins to People on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 as part of the MBTP/CSB Seminar Series. The seminar begins at 12:20pm in 1220 MRB3 with the award presentation and reception to follow.

“I am very grateful to receive an award that is dedicated to an incredibly well-rounded and motivated scientist,” Tran said.

The Dr. Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology was established in 2010 to honor the memory of Dr. Anne Karpay, who died after a four-year battle with breast cancer. It is funded entirely by donations to an endowment managed through the Development Office of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Donate to the fund online.