Celeste M. Karch is the inaugural Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Professor in the department of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine. She is a national leader in the study of the genetic and cellular basis of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Her research integrates human stem cell models and genomics to decode the biological underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Karch earned her bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. She completed postdoctoral research at the Washington University School of Medicine before joining the faculty in 2013.
Janet S. Lee is the inaugural Selma and Herman Seldin Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine. A faculty member since 2023, Dr. Lee is director of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine and a professor of pathology and immunology. Her research focuses on how the body responds to lung damage and how those responses can be guided to improve recovery.
Dr. Lee received her bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and her medical degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, followed by a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at the University of Washington.
Yan Yu is the inaugural Art Krieg Professor at the Washington University College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Yu joined the university’s department of chemistry and department of biomedical engineering in 2025 after teaching at Indiana University. She is a pioneer in nanoparticle-based imaging tools to probe immune cell function in infection. Her lab is currently engineering nanomaterials for cancer immunotherapy and antimicrobial applications.
Dr. Yu holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China, and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley.