Nagarajan Kannan, Ph.D., receives W. Edward Highsmith Research Award

Nagarajan Kannan, Ph.D. (LABM & PATH ’16), Division of Experimental Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, received the 2020 W. Edward Highsmith Research Award. His winning poster submission was “Host-microbe Symbiosis Established at Birth Protects Host from Mammary Tumor and Metastasis in Mice: A New Paradigm.”

Dr. Kannan is an assistant professor of laboratory medicine and pathology in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

About the award

A career educator and lab researcher, Dr. Highsmith taught genetics and pathology at Mayo Clinic. He was a co-director of the Genomics Laboratory and program director for the Clinical Molecular Genetics Fellowship. Dr. Highsmith’s career in molecular genetics included the publication of hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, and abstracts. He held leadership roles in the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and the Association for Molecular Pathology. He was a beloved mentor to multiple generations of undergraduate and graduate students, residents and fellows.