Three physician-scientists at WashU Medicine have been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies. The ASCI focuses on the special role of physician-scientists in research, clinical care and medical education, as well as their leadership in academic medicine and industry.
WashU Medicine’s 2026 electees are Suzanne E. Schindler, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology; Christopher D. Smyser, MD, the A. Ernest & Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology and chief of the Division of Pediatric & Developmental Neurology; and Sidharth (Sid) V. Puram, MD, PhD, the Lindburg Professor and head of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
Founded in 1908, the ASCI recognizes early- to mid-career physician scientists who have made significant contributions to translational or clinical research. Election is a recognition of outstanding scholarly achievement and impactful, sustained work that advances the understanding, diagnosis or treatment of human disease.
Schindler, a clinical neurologist and neuroscientist committed to improving the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, focuses on the earliest biological changes associated with the disorder. She has been instrumental in developing and validating blood tests that detect Alzheimer’s-related brain changes, helping pave the way for simpler, more accessible screening tools. Her research aims to identify at-risk individuals years before symptoms appear and improve the design of clinical trials to speed the development of preventive therapies and treatments.
A specialist in neonatal neurology and an international leader in developmental neuroscience, Smyser applies cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques to study early brain development in premature and high-risk full-term infants to provide a greater understanding of neurodevelopmental disabilities. Smyser investigates how early adverse events — such as prematurity, brain injury, environmental exposures and psychosocial stress — affect long-term outcomes with the goal of improving diagnosis, monitoring and interventions for vulnerable newborns.
Puram has advanced scientists’ understanding of tumor growth, treatment resistance and metastasis in head and neck cancers — discoveries that have opened new options for treating these challenging tumors. His research explores the complex ecosystem of diverse cells within a tumor and how they communicate with one another, using single cell and spatial analyses to understand tumors in exquisite detail. His work has helped define the cellular and molecular diversity within head and neck cancers, informed several innovative clinical trials and identified potential therapeutic targets to improve patient outcomes.
Schindler, Smyser and Puram’s election to ASCI highlights WashU Medicine’s strength in supporting physician-scientists who bridge laboratory research and clinical care. They were formally inducted April 17-19 at the annual joint meeting of the ASCI, the Association of American Physicians and the American Physician Scientists Association in Chicago.
