Research
As core tenets of Duke Surgery, research and innovation continue to be fundamental focuses of our faculty and trainees.
Team members pursued funding and dedicated themselves to seeking and providing new information about global health issues. Ongoing research efforts are gaining momentum in understanding complex viruses.
The Department of Surgery leaped to number one in the Blue Ridge rankings for 2021, reflecting federal support of the department’s efforts to seek solutions to the world’s most complex medical and scientific problems.
In the lab of Surgical Sciences Division Chief Georgia Tomaras, PhD, the study of old viral foes such as HIV and tuberculosis continues alongside research of newer ones, like SARS-CoV-2.
Learn how seasoned researchers collaborate with those launching their research careers as the team pieces together past and present science in the continued fight against pathogenic disease.
Cancer Projects
HIV/AIDS Projects
Immunology Projects
The breadth of Duke Surgery’s funding portfolio continued to expand, supporting faculty and trainees in educational and training opportunities as well as basic and translational research projects across many disciplines. Funding for research spanned across the department’s disciplines and various areas of interest, from immunology and living donor transplantation to reconstructive breast surgery and equitable patient care.
In addition to over eight newly funded SARS-CoV-2 projects, faculty and trainees were awarded funds to pursue over 25 new cancer projects, more than 10 new HIV/AIDS projects, and over 15 immunology projects in FY ’22.
#1 in NIH Funding
For 2021, Duke Surgery ranked #1 in NIH funding among Surgery Departments according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research’s annual data for U.S. medical schools. This is an increase from Duke Surgery’s #3 ranking in 2020, and several faculty members were ranked highly on the list of individual principal investigators.
The department managed a combined prorated amount of over $102 million in FY ’22 in funding for research, clinical trials, fellowships, and institutional training.
Newly-awarded funds for the fiscal year totaled over $76.1 million, up from $51.5 million in FY ’21, as seen in the graph to the right.
About 50% of the research funding portfolio in FY ’22 came via the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies. Duke research is also largely funded by outside foundations and industry sponsors that believe in the work that Duke faculty and trainees conduct.
*Data on research funding for FY ’22 includes awards for the Department of Emergency Medicine, which was a division of the Department of Surgery in FY ’22.
Publications in High Impact Factor Journals
Researchers within the Department of Surgery continue to push boundaries and pursue answers to important questions.
Publications from Duke researchers in FY ’22 spanned various areas of focus across some of the nation’s most-cited medical journals. From continuing research on the global impacts of COVID-19 to assessing how to harness machine learning in predicting breast cancer risk, Duke Surgery surgeon–scientists remain groundbreakers in their fields.
Give to the Division of Surgical Sciences
Private philanthropy is essential to the discovery of new techniques, technology, and treatments to improve the health of all through innovative and cutting-edge research.
A gift to the Division of Surgical Sciences will help the division to achieve its mission of bringing research discoveries from the lab to clinical practice through the pursuit of the latest advances in translational research, and to fulfill a commitment of training world-class research scientists and academic surgeons.
