Gastroenterology fellow Zachary S. Lorsch, and Katherine Zhao, a hematology-oncology fellow in the Duke Department of Medicine (DOM) are recipients of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) 2025 Early-Career Awards.
Drs. Lorsch and Zhou both received the ASCI Emerging-Generation Awards, which recognizes post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are meaningfully engaged in immersive research. Twenty-six Emerging-Generation Awardees (see all awardees) were selected from a group of 98 nominees.
Zachary S. Lorsch, MD, PhD
Zachary Lorsch, MD, PhD, is an early-career physician-scientist dedicated to exploring gut-brain communication in health and disease whose post-doctoral research on the longevity of gut-brain interactions is innovative and holds significant implications for obesity and disorders of gut-brain interaction such as irritable bowel syndrome.
"The career programming associated with this award is phenomenal, and will allow me to connect with other early-career physician-scientists throughout the country and gain mentorship from leading investigators,” he said. “The Department of Medicine as well as the Division of Gastroenterology has shown a large commitment to enhancing the career trajectory of physician-scientist trainees and I very much appreciate their support. This award will complement the world-class mentorship that I already receive here at Duke and allow me to better fuse my research and clinical practice to help improve the lives of patients worldwide.”
Dr. Lorsch is an exceptional young physician-scientist who demonstrates immense potential for success as a clinician-investigator with a unique combination of expertise in neuroscience and gastroenterology that makes him particularly qualified to make significant advances in the field of gut-brain interactions, said award nominator, Dr. Rodger Liddle, professor in the Division of Gastroenterology.
“He continually seeks ways to integrate his clinical practice with research. For example, he sought out training in double balloon enteroscopy—a skill that is uncommon even among clinical gastroenterologists—so that he could non-invasively obtain rare small bowel tissue for his research,” Dr. Liddle said. “In this way, Dr. Lorsch is shaping his career to exemplify what a physician-scientist should be.”
Dr. Lorsch grew up on Long Island, where his passion for neuroscience research began. In high school, he commuted to Columbia University to conduct functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments on human decision-making. As an undergraduate at Cornell University, he continued his fMRI research as a Hunter R. Rawlings III Presidential Research Scholar.
After graduating with distinction and honors in research, he enrolled in the MD/PhD program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he completed his PhD characterizing gene networks of stress resilience. His work included the first demonstration of CRISPR technology in vivo in brain and the finding that CRISPR-mediated manipulation of a single gene interaction could alter behavior. He also published in prestigious journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Nature Medicine, and Neuron, and received an F30 grant from National Institute for Mental Health.
After completing his PhD, Dr. Lorsch became increasingly intrigued by the brain's role in other organ systems. He observed how conditions such as the disorders of gut-brain interaction were linked to abnormal neuronal signaling and significantly impacted quality of life. Driven to clarify the mechanisms behind these disorders, Dr. Lorsch joined Duke University, embarking on the American Board of Internal Medicine Research Pathway in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.
As a research-track gastroenterology fellow, Dr. Lorsch is currently merging his neuroscience expertise with clinical knowledge in gastroenterology, investigating gut-brain interactions with Dr. Diego Bohórquez, founder of Duke’s Gastronauts and an associate professor in the Division of Gastroenterology. His long-term goal is to establish a basic science research lab focused on how sensory cells in the gastrointestinal tract communicate with the brain to enhance understanding and treatment of gut-brain disorders while providing care as a gastroenterologist.
Katherine I. Zhou, MD, PhD
Dr. Katherine Zhou is a third-year hematology/oncology fellow with the career goal of becoming a medical oncologist and physician–scientist at an academic medical center with an independent laboratory studying the functions and mechanisms of RNAs in cancer.
“I am grateful and honored to receive an ASCI Emerging-Generation Award,” she said. “I am fortunate to have excellent research mentors and to be at an institution that is committed to supporting the training of physician-scientists. The ASCI E-Gen award will further provide me with access to valuable educational resources and mentorship, as well as opportunities to meet like-minded peers and physician-scientist leaders in the ASCI community. This award will help further my long-term goals as a physician-scientist: to care for patients with cancer, and to study the role of RNAs in cancer and translate these findings into meaningful advances in patient care.”
Originally from Chicago, Dr. Zhou graduated summa cum laude from Yale College with a bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and completed her MD/PhD in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Chicago. For her PhD, she studied the post-transcriptional modification N6-methyladenosine.
During her graduate training, Dr. Zhou published seven first-author or co-first-author peer-reviewed publications, including original research papers in Nucleic Acids Research and Molecular Cell. In addition, she presented her work as an oral presentation at the annual RNA Society meeting, and she was awarded an NIH F30 fellowship from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
She was recruited to the Internal Medicine Physician–Scientist Training Program at Duke in 2020. Since her second year of hematology and oncology fellowship, Dr. Zhou has been studying the role of a small nucleolar RNA in breast cancer lymphatic metastasis the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill lab of oncologist, Dr. Chad Pecot and the Duke lab of Dr. Christopher Holley, associate professor in the Division of Cardiology, with support from a T32 training grant.
“In just over one year, she has demonstrated significant productivity in the lab,” Dr. Pecot said. “She also co-wrote a review paper on 2-O-methylation in RNA with Dr. Holley and me, and she received both an American Society of Clinical Oncology Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award and a Duke Cancer Institute Cancer Research Young Investigator Pilot Award.”
Since starting her fellowship, Dr. Zhou has received several notable awards, including an ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award and a Duke Cancer Institute Cancer Research Young Investigator Pilot Award. Dr. Zhou’s long-term career goal is to become a physician–scientist studying the functions and mechanisms of cellular RNAs in the development and progression of cancer.