The Rogers/Huang Medal for Research Collaboration.
Credit: Texas A&M University Division of Research
Eleven researchers from Texas A&M University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were named recipients of the second annual Rogers/Huang Medal for Research Collaboration, the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study announced today.
Awarded annually, the Rogers/Huang Medal recognizes the best collaborative research paper authored by a team that includes a current or former Hagler Fellow or Distinguished Lecturer and a Texas A&M student among the co-authors. This year’s winning submission was “Non-Mendelian inheritance of DNA methylation patterns in mice.”
As described in the paper, the authors used advanced DNA sequencing technologies to simultaneously measure genetic variants and epigenetic modifications on individual DNA molecules, revealing that about 7% of epigenetic marks are inherited differently than predicted by classical Mendelian genetics. The study also identified unexpected inheritance patterns, including paramutation and emergent epigenetic traits, laying the foundation for integrating genetic and environmental contributions to disease risk and, potentially, reversing disease risk through epigenetic mechanisms.
“The Hagler Institute is pleased to present the second Rogers/Huang Medal in partnership with John Rogers and Yonggang Huang,” said John Junkins, founding director of the Hagler Institute. “The 24 exceptional works submitted for this year’s contest once again demonstrate the power of collaboration and mentorship. I congratulate the winning authors and the remarkably strong field of collaboration teams that submitted papers this year for the Rogers/Huang Medal competition.”
About the authors
The multidisciplinary research team was co-led by former Hagler Fellow Andrew P. Feinberg, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Epigenetics at Johns Hopkins and professor of bioengineering at Tel Aviv University who focused on the epigenetic analysis. The team included:
Adam Davidovich was a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins who led the computational analysis of the data in the paper. He is now a computational biologist at Precede Biosciences.
Danila Cuomo was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics at Texas A&M who generated many of the mouse crosses and tissue collections. She is a toxicologist at Inotiv.
Hang Su was a Ph.D. student at UNC-Chapel Hill and assisted with some of the genome visualizations. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Broad Institute.
Sandeep Kambhampati was an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins who assisted with coding and is now a graduate student at Harvard.
Qingqing Gong is a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins who assisted with coding.
Alexandra Naron was a Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics and Genomics at Texas A&M and was also a Hagler Institute student fellowship recipient working with Feinberg. She performed the mouse data generation and sample collections. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in Texas A&M’s Department of Nutrition.
Rakel Tryggvadottir is a laboratory manager at Johns Hopkins. She generated all the sequencing libraries.
Leonard McMillan is a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and assisted with some of the genome visualizations.
Kasper D. Hansen is a professor at Johns Hopkins and co-led the study focusing on the statistical analysis.
David W. Threadgill, a department head and Distinguished Professor in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Nutrition, co-led the study focusing on the mouse work.
The recipients will receive a $10,000 monetary award allocated equally among all the authors. Each author will also receive a physical medal and an invitation to the 2027 Hagler Institute Gala, where they will be recognized.
About the Rogers/Huang Medal
Submissions are judged by Rogers/Huang Medal namesakes John Rogers and Yonggang Huang. Former Hagler Fellows and current Hagler Distinguished Lecturers, the pair’s collaboration has produced, as of July 2026, seven book chapters and 418 journal articles, including nine articles in Nature and 15 in Science. Rogers is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Huang is a member of the National Academies of Science and Engineering.
The Rogers/Huang Medal is designed to encourage and recognize excellence in research collaboration. To qualify for submission, a current or former Hagler Fellow or Hagler Distinguished Lecturer, as well as a current or former Texas A&M student, must be among the co-authors. The student must have collaborated on the research paper or its underlying research while at Texas A&M.
About the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study
The Hagler Institute for Advanced Study was approved in 2010 by The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents to attract top scholars from around the world. Fellows and lecturers are selected based on faculty nominations and their alignment with the university’s strategic research strengths. The institute facilitates research collaboration, providing unique opportunities for mentorship and advancing the university’s global presence. Learn more at https://hias.tamu.edu/.